Home altars of Mexico

by Ramón A. Gutiérrez

For over a decade, Dana Salvo has traveled throughout the central highlands and southern states of Mexico with artist Dawn Southworth and their young children, Jahna and Simone. They have visited the Purepechan Indians in Michoacan, the Chamulan and Zinacantan tribes in Chiapas, the Maya of the Yucatan peninsula, and several other isolated groups in the countryside. Welcomed into the homes of these rural peoples as few outsiders have been before, Salvo was permitted the rare privilege of photographing the home environments of these families. Central to each interior was the altarcito, or home altar. These dazzling large-format color photographs depict the altars in all their glory and meticulous detail. The essays provide the cultural and historic background to the practice of constructing domestic altars, linking the ancient traditions with modern customs.