The Florentine Codex at Getty Center (11/4)

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, LAist.com; Crystal Quintero, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Older Aztecs were told to describe and draw their culture for a friar aiming to convert them.

To celebrate the launch of the Digital Florentine Codex, join LAist for an outdoor concert debuting an original score by musician Lu Coy (they/them).

• VIDEO: What is the Florentine Codex? | History, language, illustrations (study.com)
• Florentine Codex | Getty Projects
• General History of the Things of New Spain by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún: The Florentine Codex. - Volume 1 | Library of Congress (loc.gov)
• This version of the Códice Florentine is based on the version of the codex held in Florence as well as on the summary of the original codex, Primeros memoriales, held in the Bibliotheca de Palacio, Madrid, Spain. The four volumes reveal a Catholic friar's attempt to understand Native American culture, plants, medicine, and language by encouraging older men to draw in the traditional style of the Mexicas (pronounced \meh-chi-kas\, the Mesoamerican tribe from which Mexico derives its name). There are many images that accompany the text. The images of Malinche portray her with her hair tied up on her head unlike her images in El Lienzo de Tlaxcala. Florentine Codex | AHA (historians.org)
• Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023, 4:00-5:30 PM
• The Getty Center
• 1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood
• TICKETS ($0) needed

The Florentine Codex is a Spanish conquest text

Known for their mastery of woodwinds, electronics, and agile vocals, Coy mines inspiration from ancient texts, stories, and musical traditions, guiding audiences through splendid architectures of ancestral memory.

Musical group Xochi Cuicatl (it/what) and Chris Garcia (he/him) will open the performance.

Introducing the performances is LAist higher education correspondent Adolfo Guzman-Lopez (he/him) and Getty Research Institute researcher Kim Richter (she/her).

They will discuss the historical resonances of the Florentine Codex in Southern California, the ancestral homeland of the Kizh/Gabrieleño/Tongva, Chumash (Malibu), and Tataviam (SFV) people, as well as the Codex’s impact on numerous Indigenous groups throughout the Americas.

• Site & Sounds: The Florentine Codex at the Getty Center | LAist

ABOUT

• Lu Coy (they/them) is a Los Angeles-based LGBTQ mixed-media artist and multi-instrumentalist of Mexican and Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. Coy frequently collaborates with other musicians and holds degrees in music performance and composition from the Boston Conservatory of Music and California Institute of the Arts. They have taught for institutions such as the Hammer Museum, California Institute of the Arts, and Plaza de la Raza.
• Chris Garcia and Xochi Cuicatl are musicians specializing in Indigenous breath, string, and percussion instruments of Mesoamerica and Mexico, including pre- and post-invasion poetry and songs in Nahuatl, Purepecha, Spanish (the language of the colonial invaders), and English.
• Host Adolfo Guzman-Lopez is an award-winning correspondent on Southern California Public Radio (scpr.org), LAist 89.3 FM, and host of The Forgotten Revolutionary podcast. He has reported on education, politics, arts, and higher education.
• Kim Richter is senior research specialist at the Getty Research Institute and leads the Florentine Codex Initiative.

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