El Codice de Ayotzinapa

MOA: University of British Columbia

3289/20

Very wide brown paper protest banner; horizontal orientation. Text and illustrations are divided into fifteen panels. The first panel has the title (farthest left), then the panels alternate between text and illustration until the end. Artist names and INAH inscription at farthest right end, lower corner.

  • History Of Use

    Contemporary pictorial manuscript called the "Codice de Ayotzinapa" recounting the Iguala mass killings, in which 43 students from the Escuela Normal Rural Isidro Burgos in Ayotzinapa were forced to disappear on September 26, 2014. The narrative is told using a representational style that mimics manuscripts made by people of what is now Central and Southern Mexico, before and during colonial conquest. These manuscripts were often petitions to the colonial administration following abuses, or used to lobby for land and property rights. The artists use pre-Columbian images and symbolism to tell the story of the Ayotzinapa atrocities in the context of neo-colonialism in contemporary Latin America.

  • Narrative

    The codex was written and illustrated by Juan Manuel Sandoval Palacios, Diego Sandoval Avila and Martha Monzón, Elsa Hernández, and Ángeles Colunga.


  • Type of Item banner
  • Culture Mexican
  • Measurements height 61.0 cm, width 864.0 cm (overall)

  • Creator Diego Sandoval, Juan Manuel Sandoval
  • Field Collector Laura Osorio
  • Previous Owner Laura Osorio
  • Received from Laura Osorio, Museum of Anthropology Exhibitions Budget, Michael O'Brian Family Foundation

  • Made in Mexico City
  • Collected in Iguala

  • Creation Date during 2014
  • Collection Date between 2017 and 2018
  • Ownership Date before April 11, 2018
  • Acquisition Date on April 11, 2018

  • Item Classes works on paper
  • Condition fair
  • Accession Number 3289/0020