Abstract
In the symbolic landscape created by the Zapotecs in the Postclassic period in the southern part of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Ba’cuana was a sanctuary of great importance, where their rock paintings were significant. In this paper I study expressions that were painted after the arrival of the Spaniards. Combining studies of style, iconography and the analysis of pigments, a division in two main stages during the Colonial period is established, from diverse characteristics that account for the site´s evolution during three centuries. Ba’cuana remained a highly venerated sanctuary, center of a new sacred landscape, in which the agency of the Zapotec population was revealed. They developed their own visual discourses. These were a reflection of the creation of a new culture, result of the re appropriation of Christian artistic and religious elements, from orthodoxy and demoniac practice.