The first module of this exhibit is based on Mariano Villalba’s doctoral research. That study demonstrated how Mexican muralists incorporated Theosophical, Masonic, and Rosicrucian elements into their artistic and intellectual projects. The content of Module 1 is drawn primarily from Occult Mexico: The Imagination of Mexican Antiquity, from the Colonial Era to the Revolution, forthcoming with Oxford University Press. The doctoral work was grounded in archival materials in Mexico, including correspondence, photographs, and press coverage, together with close visual analysis of mural cycles and paintings.

The second module is based on Villalba’s postdoctoral project, Occult Movements and Mexican Mural Art, conducted at the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School (2024–2025). This phase of the project shifts attention to women artists influenced by esoteric ideas whose work has received limited scholarly analysis. It draws upon the archives of María Izquierdo and Cordelia Urueta in Mexico, including letters, photographs, and newspaper clippings, together with close analysis of their paintings and mural projects. During the postdoctoral period, the project expanded to include material related to Mexican muralism in the United States, including the study of José Clemente Orozco’s murals at Pomona College and related audiovisual documentation.

The project has also benefited from research collaborations and institutional affiliations with the Centre for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam, the Warburg Institute, and the Fondazione Giorgio Cini.

Key publications

Forthcoming (2026) Occult Mexico. The Imagination of Mexican Antiquity, from the Colonial Era to the Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Forthcoming (2026) (Ed. with Dr. Mauricio Oviedo) Esotericism and Visual Arts in Latin America: Experiences, Practices, and Representations.

2021 (co-authored with Juan Pablo Bubello and Marcos José Diniz Silva) “Spiritism in Latin America at the Turn of the 19th Century: The Cases of Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.” In Martínez Esquivel, R. & Baisotti, P. (eds.), Modernity of Religiosities and Beliefs: A New Path in Latin America, XIXth-XXIth Centuries. Lexington: Lexington Books, pp. 233-272. ISBN-13: 978-1793654885.

2021 “The Occult Among the Aborigines of South America? Some Remarks on Race, Coloniality, and the West in the Study of Esotericism.” In Asprem, E. & Strube, J. (eds.), New Approaches to the Study of Esotericism. Leiden and Boston: Brill, pp. 88-108. DOI: 10.1163/9789004446458_006