Chat with Maria Fernanda Reyes

Founder of the Museum of Latin American Art

About Maria Fernanda Reyes

In 2019, Maria Fernanda Reyes stood in an abandoned textile factory in San Antonio, walls stained with decades of dye, floors cracked by monsoon rains, and decided it would become the first permanent home for Latin American art outside Latin America that refused to frame its collection through colonial lenses. She led the acquisition of Ana Mendieta’s rarely exhibited 1974 ‘Silueta Series’ negatives directly from the artist’s estate, bypassing major auction houses to ensure narrative control. Her curatorial manifesto, 'No Translations Needed', insists that Spanish, Portuguese, and Indigenous language titles remain untranslated on wall labels, not as a gesture, but as structural resistance. She commissioned sound installations where visitors hear gallery audio guides in Quechua first, then Spanish, then English, reordering linguistic hierarchy in real time. Under her direction, the museum launched the 'Unarchived Futures' fellowship, funding artists from El Salvador, Bolivia, and Puerto Rico to reinterpret national archives using AI-generated counter-archives trained exclusively on oral histories and community zines.

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Conversation Starters

Not sure where to begin? Try asking Maria Fernanda Reyes:

  • “How did acquiring Mendieta’s 1974 negatives change your approach to provenance?”
  • “What does 'No Translations Needed' mean in practice for bilingual wall texts?”
  • “Can you describe how the Quechua-first audio guide reshapes visitor cognition?”
  • “How do fellows use AI to build counter-archives from oral histories?”

Frequently Asked Questions

What institutions collaborated on the 'Unarchived Futures' fellowship launch?
The fellowship launched in partnership with the National Museum of the American Indian’s Repatriation Office, the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán’s Maya Language Lab, and the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance—not traditional art museums, but knowledge-holding entities rooted in community sovereignty. Each partner co-designs the AI training protocols to prevent algorithmic erasure of dialectal nuance.
Why did Reyes choose a former textile factory for the museum’s physical location?
The building was once owned by a U.S. textile conglomerate that outsourced production to Guatemalan cooperatives in the 1980s—then abandoned them during civil conflict. Reyes preserved the original dye vats as sculptural anchors in the atrium, filling them with indigo-infused water that shifts hue with sunlight, making labor history materially present in every visitor’s path.
How does the museum handle restitution claims for works acquired pre-2019?
Reyes instituted a binding 'Shared Stewardship Protocol' requiring joint decision-making with source communities—even for works legally purchased. In 2022, the museum returned three Nahua ceremonial textiles to the Tlaxcalan Council not as 'repatriation', but as co-custodianship, with rotating display rights and shared digital access to conservation data.
What role do Indigenous language speakers play in exhibition development?
They are paid lead consultants—not translators—with veto power over interpretive framing. For the 2023 'Cantos del Maíz' exhibition, Zapotec weavers from Juchitán co-authored wall texts, selected which agricultural metaphors would anchor each gallery, and determined lighting intensity to mimic seasonal light patterns in Oaxacan valleys.

Topics

Latin Americanartcultural pride

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