Unlikely Journal for Creative Arts

José María Velasco’s Pastoral Landscapes and the Politics of Seeing: Technologies of Colonial Violence in Indigenous Geographies

In this essay I address the complexities of the political geography of race in Mexico through an analysis of the research processes and methodologies behind my video installation, Portrait of a Nation. Mexican landscape painter José María Velasco (1840-1912) is often celebrated for making geography a symbol of national identity. Velasco’s pastoral landscapes depict subjugation and colonial violence as normalized instruments of dispossession. His pastoral landscapes have served as a mechanism for colonial subjugation, perpetuating Eurocentric artistic values, meanwhile concealing Indigenous genocide and colonial violence. By examining how colonial violence was enacted through nationalistic cultural and artistic projects, this essay uses Velasco’s artwork to gain a deeper understanding of the function and legacies of Mexican colonialism.

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