IN STEREO

One of the representative elements of the [Mint] is perhaps this face that marks an identity of the house. That is the mask of the Mint, which of course has its own meaning. In [there], where the mask is, was the shield of Spain as the main symbol of the time. Later, this mask was placed, which is not colonial – it was, rather, during the time of the republic. According to tradition, it was placed on the shield of Spain in 1852 by a French sculptor as a mockery towards the Spanish period. The mask covers the shield, like saying ‘enough’ to the colonial period. That opened a free and republican era for the new state – it was a way to mark the end of an era and start a new one. So there are two feelings that are found and expressed in the face of the mask.

It is a mask that identifies a time in the past, but that reflects a present, [and] a future as well. I really do not know if the sculptor would have thought of it in those terms, but it is like a feeling instead, a symbolic element, which is like a mirror that at some point sees a past, expresses that past in this symbology, and shows in the present that the Potosínos – although we have a sorrow, a pain, a sadness, a burdened situation… To say that we have suffered. Someone has done that to us [and] it is a long list of things. And [that] we should not live like that. Living a future with the wealth that they have bequeathed us, we should be happy instead. That mask expresses the sadness of the past, but with a projection of a future that should be happier, more joyful. – Seila