We visited the Church of Santo Domingo de Guzman in Oaxaca today. It is one of the most lavishly decorated Baroque churches in all of Mexico. Its adjacent convent houses the Museum of the Cultures of Oaxaca and contains the Treasures of Tomb 7 from Monte Alban, a Mixtec burial site discovered in 1932. It includes finely crafted gold and silver but what really blew me away were alabaster bowls so fine, so delicate, that they’re translucent. This is the greatest treasure that has ever been found in Mesoamerica and it’s kinda cool that these remarkable pre-Colombian objects are displayed in a convent built by the Spaniards, conquerors who did everything they could to erase that very same culture.
