Gourd Bowl Commemorating Independence from Spain

This large gourd bowl celebrates Mexican independence from Spain, which was achieved in 1821. Its carved decoration features victorious America, personified by an Indigenous man who stands on top of the Spanish imperial symbol of a lion with two globes, the uppermost one inscribed "Amer[ica]," and the one beneath it, "esp[aña]." The winged figure of victory, also characterized as a native American, blows a trumpet and displays a banner that reads: VI ET JUSTITIA. INDEP. LIBERAQUE AMER. (By strength and justice America is independent and free). He holds a cornucopia in on hand and spills coins that symbolize not just wealth, but natural abundance. In his other hand he holds the reins of a horse (often a symbol of New Spain) with a broken scepter beneath its hooves. The eleven eight-pointed stars in the background point to a widely held patriotic genre of astrology in which the bigger, brighter, and more numerous stars of America’s skies were thought to reveal God’s providential design. Under their beneficial influence, the land was a temperate and bountiful paradise. More than half of the gourd is carved with representations of native flora, including a date palm, bananas, and calabash and cacao trees, as well as other unidentified plants.