Familial Connection Transcending Time: A review of "Ecos de Linaje" at the Mexican Cultural Institute

Just north of Southtown, right next to the Tower of the Americas, the Mexican Cultural Institute gleams in the San Antonio sunlight.  Nestled in a prime location, frequently underappreciated due to nearby construction, the building’s silver panels and museum banner are retrofuturistic and unmistakable. Inside, the space feels like a barn-turned- gallery, with high arched ceilings and gallery lighting. Open to the public, all are welcome to stroll through the three gallery spaces and enjoy the works on display. 

Rosa Maria Jimenez de La Cuesta, Engranaje de Células. Installation view at Mexican Cultural Institute. Image courtesy of Laurel Westphal.

Currently on view, Ecos De Linaje [Echos of Lineage]  features work by Mexican artist Rosa Maria Jimenez and her daughters, Natalia and Valeria Ruiz Galindo. The joining of these three women is meant to evoke a sense of generational connection, inviting the viewer to investigate their own lineage, preserving a sense of love and gratitude for its evolution. 

Immediately upon entering, I am confronted by a wall of larger-than-life hexagonal forms glimmering to create Engranaje de Células [Gears of Cells], a mixed media installation work by Rosa Maria Jimenez. Reminiscent of cellular structures, the silver material on each hexagon behind the embroidered floral forms joins the present and the past. The metallic material is an embodiment of modern advancements and the fabric elements cling to memories of tradition. As I move through the space to view the work, the lights subtly reflect off the installation, glowing and alive. The visual effect combined with poetic writings by the artist emphasize  the fusion of biology and memory.  Engranaje de Células is a reflection on the vastness of ancestry and personal narratives. 

Valeria Ruiz Galindo, Nos Parieron Flores. Installation view at Mexican Cultural Institute. Image courtesy of Laurel Westphal.

Throughout the exhibition, a variety of mediums - printmaking, photography, and painting -  are tied together through use of visual references to  nature, metallic elements, and symbols of femininity.  They reappear in each work and are reinterpreted to fit each artist’s unique perspective. 

Valeria Ruiz Galindo contributes multiple print works, including Nos Parieron Flores [They Gave Birth to Us Flowers], a multi-edition linocut in descending color. Galindo uses the uterus as a symbol of womanhood, filled with and surrounded by flowers that represent the gift of birth. Technically well approached and cleanly done, the work is an embodiment of an early approach to feminism which uplifts women’s empowerment and liberation. 

Natalia Ruiz Galindo, Trazando Raíces. Installation view at Mexican Cultural Institute. Image courtesy of Laurel Westphal 

The far section of the gallery contains several works by Natalia Ruiz Galindo, Trazando Raíces [Tracing Roots], similarly titled indicating it as a series. Eye-catching and ethereal, the cyanotypes on the back wall pull me in to investigate it. The edges are gently tattered, a loving nod to the fraying of memory over time. In one print, a woman stands motionless, facing the viewer with a contented stillness, surrounded by the ghostly motion of women (presumably her family) dancing around her in a circle. The nature of the cyanotype’s blue tone creates the sense of an X-Ray, of some kind of looking inside at our own composition and the stories that led to our existence. Conceptually on par with the idea of the show, Natalia Ruiz Galindo taps into photographic history with the use of soft focus and blur, a nod  to artists like Julia Margaret Cameron who used these techniques as a form of experimentation with the medium. 

It feels magical to see artists exploring their own relationship with the past; stories rooted in what we carry forward, and what we leave behind. This exhibition is about inheritance: how a mother and her two daughters can spring from the same origin yet branch in different directions. One daughter is drawn to nature and powerful symbols of femininity; the other explores memory, tracing and honoring ancestors by passing down fragments of personal history. Their mother passes down an inherited sense of connectedness and understanding, with one hand rooted in the past and another extending towards the future. Each path probes personal roots at a different level. Together they show how our shared past can expand into many worlds, shaped by the choices we make about what to preserve and transform.

Ecos De Linaje is on view at the Mexican Cultural Institute until August 2, 2025.