Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Quiché through Illustration

Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Quiché through Illustration is an exhibit that features a series of illustrations by artist Jaime Arredondo, with the artist’s hope to restore the former glory of the Popol Vuh and its authors to its deserved place in human history. In turn, this will lead to a greater interest and defense of it, and the art and culture of Native and Indigenous peoples.

Shortly following the arrival of the Spanish in Guatemala, multiple Indigenous literary codices, including the Popol Vuh, were ordered to be burned in 1524. The stories in the Popol Vuh were later retold in 1721 to Father Francisco Ximenez, a sympathetic Dominican priest who translated the text word-for-word from the native Quiché language to Spanish.

Jaime Arredondo’s mother was a direct descendant of the original land granted to Spanish families in Texas dating back to the 1600’s, and his father was Otomi, a large Native American nation originating from Central Mexico. In 2007, Arredondo assigned readings on Popol Vuh to his students in his “Of Fire and Blood: Art and Mythology of Mexico” course at NYU and The New School. In 2010, he supplemented his reading assignments with 26 illustrations he created to elucidate and clarify the story. The initial 26 illustrations traced the story from the beginning to the middle of the epic tale. In 2019, he completed 39 more illustrations based on the remaining half of the story.