he Purepecha, known to outsiders as Tarascans, are descendants of a large and powerful nation-state
unconquered by their Aztec neighbors. They speak an isolate language unrelated to other native tongues
of Mexico. The Mexican State of Michoacan was drawn around the central part of the Purepecha homeland.
Most of the people live in towns and villages located in the cold, rainy highlands between six and eight
thousand feet in elevation. It is from this region that the collection was assembled. For most of the four
hundred years since the conquest, the remoteness of the Tarascan plateau encouraged self-sufficiency and a
unique aesthetic sense drawn from both Tarascan and Spanish roots. Beginning in the second half of the 20th
century, rapid changes are taking place within this formerly isolated population, as highways, electric
power, public education and mass media have come to Michoacan. Another source of change comes from the many
young Tarascans who go to the United States as migratory workers. They bring back ideas from there as well
as from other parts of Mexico. The Barthelemy Collection illustrates this mixture of traditions: old and
new, Tarascan and Spanish, ceremonial and secular, made for use or made for sale to tourists.
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