Introduction

Between the years 1546 and 1549, a remarkable palace was built on the frontiers of the Yucatan Peninsula. The comparison of Yucatan’s conquest to a Herculean feat is in fact recognized on the Casa de Montejo’s facade. The facade’s visual program expanded the Herculean imagery by referencing the hero’s other labors, including additional facets from the legend of the Garden of Hesperides and Hercules’ capture of the Ceryneian Hind. The building’s iconography also influenced peoples in Yucatan who likewise sought to maintain and advance their social standing in the incipient colony. The building retains what is arguably the most sculpturally complex residential façade constructed in Hispanic America during the sixteenth century. The facade not only references the physical and spiritual conquests of Yucatan and its peoples but presents a commentary on the social constructs concerning nobility and authority in the sixteenth-century Hispanic world. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.