. The museum was established as part of the acknowledgement in the latter 20th century that Mexico consists of various ethnicities and cultures. The term “culturas populares” (popular cultures) refers to indigenous peoples as well as those of different regions, and different socioeconomic levels. Its primary function is to document, promote and foment creative activities in the various subcultures of Mexico in both rural and urban areas through exhibitions and other activities. These activities include collections of art and other objects, photography, film, sound and documentation. The elements of these popular cultures are to be promoted as part of Mexico's national heritage. The main goal of the museum is not to form a large permanent collection but rather to stimulate the formation of museums and other institutions related to various topics. The museum is a part of the
Dirección General de Culturas Populares which is a subsidiary of the
Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes . The museum receives about 1.1 million visitors each year, who come to see its frequent temporary exhibitions and other events. The museum site is on Avenida Hidalgo, in the historic center of the Mexico City borough of
Coyoacán. It has five main exhibition areas: The chapel, the Quinta Margarita, the Moctezuma Annex, the patio areas and the Guillermo Bonfil Batalla Hall. The chapel is the main exhibition area, a building that dates to the mid 19th century. It has two floors with exhibition space, the Educal bookstore, restoration and storage facilities. On the second level there are areas for conferences and other events. The Quinta Margarita is a square covered patio space which can hold 300 people, used for conferences, workshops, shows and concerts. The Moctezuma Annex is a small building which houses the museum's educational services and host educational events. There are a number of patio areas called Jacarandas, Central and Moctezuma which are used for auditions, dances, book presentations, conferences and exhibitions. The Guillermo Bonfil Batalla Hall was built in 1981 for large scale exhibitions. The Centro de Información y Documentación Alberto Beltrán (Alberto Beltrán Information and Documentation Center) has over 152,000 titles divided into six permanent collections related to Mexico's various cultures: documents, sound library, periodical library, video library and books and is open to the public. Other important installations on the site are the Cuezcomate, the
Árbol de la Vida and the
Tejedores de Sueños mural. The
Cuezcomate is a
Nahuatl word that means “guard bread or grain.” It is a replica of a
Mesoamerican construction made of clay and palm fronds used to store corn. The structure here is modeled on those of the state of
Morelos. It was created for the museum's first major exhibition in 1982 and remains in the patio areas. The
Arbol de la Vida, or Tree of Life, is a fired clay sculpture mostly associated with
Metepec,
State of Mexico. This five meter tall tree was created by José Alfonso Soteno Fernández in 1992 to commemorate the 500 anniversary of
Columbus's discovery of the Americas. It contains allusions to indigenous culture when Columbus arrived, Spanish culture and that of
African slaves brought over which have combined to create the various manifestations of Mexican culture. The
Tejedores de Sueños mural is a
graffiti mural. The iconography is eclectic with images of
nopal cactus, masked persons, robotic insects and crosses in a style which combines Mexican folk art and that of comic books. The museum offers workshops and other classes for museum professionals interested in promoted Mexico's popular cultures. It also offers guided tours which are generally associated with workshops. Most of its major events are temporary exhibits related to some aspect of Mexico's cultures. In 1997 it had an exhibition called La Ruta de la Esclavo tracing the history of African slavery in Mexico during the colonial period. For
Day of the Dead 2011, the museum held an event called Tzompantli Gráfico where twenty artists including Fupete from Italy and Lucas Varela from Argentina, created modern skull images to arrange similar to that of a Mesoamerican
tzompantli or skull-rack. For the same holiday, it held Ofrendas con la boca y el pie: lienzos llenos de tradición with Day of the Dead altars from an artists’ group called Asociación de Pintores con la Boca y con el Pie founded in 1963 who paint with their mouths or feet because of a disability. In 2012 the museum held a temporary exhibition called
“Favores insólitos. Exvoto contemporáneo", which features
votive paintings that have nontraditional themes such as prostitution,
table dance,
sexual diversity, infidelity, figures from popular culture, problems with family members and witchcraft. That same year it held an exhibition called “Tápame con tu rebozo” demonstrating and selling
rebozos from various parts of central and southern Mexico, dating from 1860 to 2012. It also exhibited 3,500 pieces of jewelry and other adornment in an exhibition called Las perlas de la Virgen y tus labios de coral. El adorno popular, which included
Purépecha silver,
Huichol beads, and silverwork and jewelry from
Puebla,
Chiapas,
Yucatán and
Veracruz . In 2012 it had an exhibition of fine art such as painting and photography done by indigenous people, with the aim of combating the notion that such is only done by those of European heritage. It also included more traditional artwork, evaluating its artistic properties. The museum has also had major exhibitions related to the working class, fishermen, the
maguey plant, Mexican coffee and Mexican folk dance. ==History==