Diego Moreno

Guardians of Memory explores the tradition of the Panzudos Mercedarios, mystical creatures that every 22nd of September flood the streets of La Merced district in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas (Mexico), announcing the festivities of Our Lady of Mercy and accompanying the Virgin Mary along with a procession of Aztecs, Moors and Christians. The Panzudos Mercenarios are monsters that populate Chiapas’ ancestral imaginary and represent expiation of sins: bigger and more horrendous costumes means more sins to expiate. With his images, the photographer Diego Moreno examines the day-to-day in this shocking tradition, as well as the links between monstrosity, religion and sin, sickness and death. A work that shows how pre-Hispanic rites, apocalyptic visions of religion and the Christian traditions that arrived from Spain all interweave in Mexican collective unconscious, giving raise to a rich native folklore, in which sacred and pagan go hand in hand.