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Show 209 and economic importance of the popular arts, have enacted laws for their protection and support, or they have created institutions toward this end. But, considering the magnitude of this undertaking, there are few organizations that maintain permanent programs and have the necessary funds and competent technicians. The author later examines the natural changes suffered by autochthonous art since shortly before the Conquest to the present time for being a cultural phenomenon, art changes simultaneously with the culture of which it is the expression. He offers the example of the pre-Hispanic conquests of the Aztecs in Mexico, who, upon dominating so many people simultaneously, influenced them culturally and viceversa. Also, with the Spanish Conquest, American art necessarily suffered an important change, due as much to the adoption of new techniques as to the introduction of new ideas and the restriction of others. During the Colonial period the Indian continued being an artisan by tradition and the Indian popular art linked its destinies to that of Spanish craftsmanship in America. In spite of the fact that the new colonial order protected the Spanish artists and artisans above all, there were nevertheless great Indian talents in religious architecture, painting, sculpture and in those arts denominated "minor." In our time it is no longer the Conquest nor the Colony which frequently suffocate autochthonous art, but the very rhythm of life in the Americas, because "at times a false nationalism carries us toward the irrational folly of destroying the good and the positive which remains of our native cultures, in the belief that only in this way will our culture be integrated." Wrong nationalism which destroys positive values is as harmful as any other offense against a culture. This has happened in many countries which passed from popular arts to industrialization. Also, world progress moves toward universalism with all its lamentable consequences with regard to popular arts. The author analyzes in detail ceramics, textiles, and the various crafts in all America, mentioning the most important production in each place and noting the pre-Columbian survivals and the westernization they have suffered. In conclusion, he proposes coordinated action in "an Inter-American program" to preserve, protect and encourage popular arts and crafts in America so that the governments will confront a matter as important as this in an integrated manner. 1960 Gonzalez, Natalicio, "Calderon de la Barca y el Mundo Indigena," America Ind igena, XX, No. 1 (January, 1960), pp. 25-33. English summary: The celebrated Spanish dramatist, Calderon de la Barca, formed his own personal concept of the Indian world and of the Conquest. His interpretation was incorporated in the play: "La Aurora en Copacabana ("Dawn in Copacabana"), an essentially Calderonian work |