Art As A Legal Strategy: The Case Of Tzintzuntzan And The Conflict Of The Three Cities In 16th-Century Michoacán

Abstract

Tzintzuntzan was involved in political conflicts claiming rights and privileges under the title of City of Michoacán, which it fought against Pátzcuaro and Guayangareo during the second half of the 16th century. The city's elite, leveraging its tradition of political and religious control in the formation of the ancient Tarascan state, created a coat of arms with a visual narrative that served as legal evidence before the Spanish authorities.

This work seeks to reflect on the functionality of art in contexts outside of those typically used for the contemplation of visual aesthetic products, using the creation of the Tzintzuntzan coat of arms as a case study. The analysis of the coat of arms is based on the semiosphere postulate proposed by Lotman and the structuralist thought of Giddens, with a position that interweaves form and function.

This historic event demonstrates how the visual products of a rational and sensitive process served as a space for cultural transformation and exchange between two diverse structures, which also functioned within a legal context, achieving the success desired by those who created it.