An Installation View of the China Poblano Exhibit

The Story of China Poblana

May 21, 2022 – July 23, 2023

Norman F. Sprague, Jr. Gallery

About the Exhibition

The Story of China Poblana explores how clothing is part of imagining communities and celebrating traditions, exploring the imaginative power of the Mexican and Mexican American dress style known as china poblana.  

The name-- China (“female servant”) and Poblana (“of Puebla”) -- reflects the outfit’s origins in a combination of legends, Mexico’s Indigenous and colonial history of enslavement, revolutionary politics, and nation-building. Today, china poblana dress lives on in dance and musical celebrations of Mexican culture and in dresses created by Indigenous women past and present. The exhibition features historical examples and contemporary iterations of china poblana to reveal how a garment became a symbol of female Mexican identity on both sides of the border.  

Land Acknowledgment

The Autry Museum of the American West acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (the Los Angeles basin and So. Channel Islands). We recognize that the Autry Museum and its campuses are located on the traditional lands of Gabrielino/Tongva peoples and we pay our respects to the Honuukvetam (Ancestors), ‘Ahiihirom (Elders) and ‘Eyoohiinkem (our relatives/relations) past, present and emerging.

The Autry Museum in Griffith Park

4700 Western Heritage Way

Los Angeles, CA 90027-1462
Located northeast of downtown, across from the Los Angeles Zoo.
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Free parking for Autry visitors.


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