Triumfa España en las Americas (The Triumph of Spain in the Americas)
Not on view
In this Spanish printed cotton, "America" is a Native American female supported on a litter by two young men in a stylized tropical environment. In the sixteenth century, Europeans began personifying the Americas as an exotic native woman. The phrase Triumfa España en las Americas suggests that the designer was attempting to reassure viewers of Spain’s dominance in its American colonies. At the time it was produced, about the end of the eighteenth century, such encouragement would have been justified. For most of the century, Spanish governance in the Americas was destabilized by intense civil conflicts and violent uprisings by people from all spheres of colonial society.
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