José Manuel Albares, Spanish Foreign Minister, assured this Friday that the history shared between Spain and Mexico, “like all human history, has chiaroscuros. There has been pain and injustice towards the indigenous peoples. There was injustice, it is fair to recognize it and regret it. That is part of our shared history, we cannot deny it or forget it.” These were his words at the opening of the great exhibition Half the world. Women in indigenous Mexico at the Cervantes Institute, one of the four venues in which this exhibition of more than 400 pieces of art donated by the Government of Claudia Sheinbaum is displayed starting today and can be seen until March.
“This exhibition is a milestone in our relationships and our brotherhood,” Albares continued, “the deep meaning of what we inaugurated goes far beyond these pieces.” The Minister of Foreign Affairs also wanted to recognize the women that Sheinbaum has been honoring throughout 2025, having named it the Year of the Indigenous Women in his country: “Today we recover the voices of so many women who wanted to be silenced. A fair recognition of what they were, what they are.”
Spain has thus taken a fundamental step in its rapprochement with Mexico after relations between the two countries – with a shared history of centuries – were frozen when former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador demanded by letter in 2019 that King Felipe VI apologize for the excesses of the conquest. Although it was not an explicit request for an apology, the act has become the most significant step that the Spanish government has taken after not responding to the letter from the previous Mexican president.
Sheinbaum, who had not made a direct request for forgiveness from Spain until this Monday, recalled this week that the letter his predecessor sent to the Spanish monarch was “very diplomatic.” “We never agreed with the way they responded,” the president stressed. This Friday, the eve of the Day of the Dead, a very important date for Mexico, that answer has arrived. The sources consulted value this event, of cultural appearance, but organized to the millimeter for almost a year from the highest diplomatic levels of the two countries, almost as an exercise in “apapachar”, the Mexican word that means “caress the soul”, the title of the song with which the opening of the exhibition closed.
Luis García Montero, director of the Cervantes Institute, was in charge of opening the event at the institution’s headquarters, which houses the chapter on the textile representation of indigenous culture, and he also marked the script that structured the entire event. “The involvement of the two governments is proof of the efforts of two countries committed to culture and what they do for mutual recognition. Diplomacy is done through words, memory and shared expression,” said the writer, who is also a writer.
The rest of the six interventions by institutional representatives of the two countries have finished fastening the story that the two countries wanted to share and co-sign. Ideas have been hammered out with which an act of recognition of the indigenous communities, Mexican culture and the legacy of a people that no one hesitated to describe, with different formulas, that was subjugated in the conquest, has been woven. “This is not just an exhibition,” “it is a vindication for Mexican women,” “it is a space of respect and the future.” “Colonial domination” has been admitted. Constant praise has been given to the joint work of the two countries, specifically to the president of Mexico, and to the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Culture of Spain. People have even shouted: “Long live Mexico and long live Spain!”
Diego Prieto, one of the spokespersons for the Ministry of Culture of Mexico, recalled that this exhibition is a double demand: “That of the indigenous peoples who were subjected to colonial domination, but were able to resist; and that of women, which shows very important advances, although we must move forward to counteract the centuries-old domination of men over women.”
The expert has once again read the letter that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum already asked him to read on October 8, when the first exhibition was inaugurated at the Casa de México in Madrid. “The conquest was a brutal process of violence, imposition and dispossession. An attempt was made to destroy not only territories, but entire cultures, ancient knowledge, languages, ways of life. Indigenous women especially suffered this attack: they were silenced, displaced, violated. However, they resisted. (…) Honoring this legacy implies recognizing the abuses of the past and present,” the president wrote.
Last Monday, Sheinbaum, at a press conference, reaffirmed the importance of this exhibition: “We continue to promote the great civilizations, which came before the Spanish, who formed our country. And we continue to promote them there so that the Spanish know of the cultural greatness of Mexico.” In that same press conference, Sheinbaum insisted that he maintains relations with Spain.
2019, year of the breakup
In 2019, López Obrador sent a letter to Felipe VI in which he suggested holding a joint ceremony in which the monarchy assumed responsibility for the atrocities committed in the conquest of Mexico and the years of viceroyalty. The Mexican Government interpreted the silence as a contempt for the Spanish monarchy and the issue has remained stuck in relations until now, when the two countries have found in art an alternative mechanism for rapprochement.
In addition to this great exhibition, the approach has also resulted in the granting of the Princess of Asturias awards to the photographer Graciela Iturbide and the National Museum of Anthropology. In her speech during the delivery ceremony last Friday, Princess Leonor expressed her desire to see the museum and highlighted the importance of the institution, “which cares for, exhibits, conserves and disseminates the pre-Hispanic legacy and the indigenous culture of Mexico.”
Minister Albares recalled that next year Mexico will be the guest country at Fitur, the great Spanish tourism fair. For the first time, sources from the Mexican embassy confirm, the 62 states of the country will have representation in Madrid. The Museum of America will host more cultural initiatives, the Ministry of Culture has announced. In addition to other joint initiatives that, for the moment, neither country wants to reveal.