Shelly Errington in “Nationalizing The Pre-Columbian Past in Mexico and He United States,” from her book The Death of Authentic Primitive Art: And Tales of Other Progress, looks at the use of ancient culture and the creation of a national identity in Mexico.

According to Errington, Mexico’s nationalist story divides Mexico into two eras—indigenous prehistory and mestizo history. Errington points out the post-Conquest identity promoted by these institutions is distinctly mestizo. Rather than putting an emphasis on Spanish or indigenous histories it focuses on the people and culture that combines the two. According to Errington, this a product of Spanish laws which created an identity of resistance for those of mixed ancestry that becomes more important following independence, and resistance to the dictatorship of Porfirio Dias.

This approach seriously limits the number of cultures considered to be “Mexican” by privileging the minority of the ancient, colonial, and modern populations who live in the Valley of Mexico. The Valley of Mexico is the core, and all culture diffuses out from it. The cultures located in the prehistory periphery are Mexican, but not Mexican in the same way the Aztecs are. Those that exist in the modern periphery are also “Othered” because of their geographic location but also occasionally because of their lack of Spanish heritage. As Errington notes periphery cultures are given space in Mexican museums although they are separated from “true” Mexican pre-history through their placement in smaller galleries, or in the “ethnographic” sections of the museums.

She also suggest that the cultures given prominence in national museums, such as the Aztec, were conquered relatively quickly while those left to the margins of museum display (the Maya and western Mexico) fought the Colonial and then Mexican government. Thus, those included in the National identity were subsumed by the Viceregal system and later national system or they are so old (Teotihuacan) they don't threaten those in power.