Maruch Santiz Gómez (Cruztón, Chiapas, Mexico, 1975) is a renowned indigenous photographer, writer, puppeteer and textile designer who has dedicated the last three decades to researching, collecting and disseminating the tangible and intangible legacies of the Tzotzil culture

Maruch Santiz Gómez (Cruztón, Chiapas, Mexico, 1975) is a renowned indigenous photographer, writer, puppeteer and textile designer who has dedicated the last three decades to researching, collecting and disseminating the tangible and intangible legacies of the Tzotzil culture – a branch of Mayan descent that inhabits in the Los Altos region of Chiapas – in the south of Mexico, bordering Guatemala. Santiz Gómez came into contact with photography by chance in 1992 in the city of San Cristóbal – through the Chiapas Photographic Project – immediately finding in this medium both a great affinity for aesthetic expression, as well as a means to document her culture. Santiz Gómez’ photographic series are the result of a research process through which the artist establishes dialogues with community elders, farmers, artisans, etc. Since the exhibition of her series “Beliefs of Our Forebears” in 1998, Maruch Santiz Gómez’ work began to receive growing critical and public recognition in Mexico, soon spreading internationally, with the integration of her work into collective exhibitions such as the Shanghai Biennial and the Berlin Festival, and acquisitions for renowned collections such as the Reina Sofía Art Center in Spain and the Cartier Foundation in France. Santiz Gómez’ photographic series can be interpreted as thematic repositories that combine enormous aesthetic sensitivity with great social, anthropological and botanical awareness. While this artist has dedicated herself to capturing images and concepts about the beliefs of her culture, she has also addressed gastronomy, traditional herbal medicine, textiles and more recently, the ravages caused by the earthquake of September 19, 2017 that significantly affected the southeast of Mexico.