Subject to Justice

Utilizing case studies from Caribbean and Latin American history, Cruz redefines artistic and cultural practices within the legal labyrinth of restitution

In discussions over repatriation and restitution of cultural objects, artistic practices often clash with the legal and political frameworks of sovereignty. To untangle these theoretical issues, Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz draws on examples from Latin American and Caribbean history dating back to the 16th century, grounding these reflections in anticolonial struggles and claims for justice. In revisiting such case studies as the so-called Aztec Feather Headdress of Moctezuma and the international dispute over the Spanish galleon San Jose shipwrecked off the coast of Colombia; or Indigenous political leader and philosopher Ailton Krenak's intervention at the 1987 Brazilian Constitutional Assembly, Cruz confronts not only history's effects on conceptions of art and cultural heritage, but also its juridical and political effects on what he calls cultural sovereignty. Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz is a philosopher based in the Plurinational State of Bolivia.