Biography

Helen Burgos-Ellis, a native of El Salvador, trained as an art historian. Her research interests include pre-Columbian and colonial art, Nahuatl, Maya epigraphy, Amerindians (pre-Columbian to modern), maize domestication, history of science, interaction between art and science, and early modern Europe.

Her upcoming book Aztec Science: The Origin of Maize, Pollination & Plant Sexuality Recorded in Art introduces a radical approach to the study of pre-Columbian art. It brings science to Mesoamerican studies because this approach elucidates messages in pre-Columbian art that have puzzled generations of scholars. With evidence from ethnohistory, iconography, etymology, and science, this book argues that the Nahua: recorded the maize plant’s life cycle, knew that maize has male and female flowers and reproduces sexually, recognized wind’s role in pollination, and revered a grass because they knew it was maize’s progenitor. To develop the ideas in this book, she conducted archival, museum, and field research in indigenous communities in Mexico thanks to a Fulbright-Hays/IIE Fellowship 2011–12 generously funded by the Mellon Foundation.

Burgos-Ellis is active in community service. She served (2015–20) in the Executive Committee as Secretary Treasurer for the Association for Latin American Art (ALAA), https://associationlatinamericanart.org/about-us/. Burgos-Ellis currently collaborates with the Social Justice and Community Partnerships at Marlborough School for Girls, https://www.marlborough.org/student-life/service-learning-social-justice and the Wayuu Taya Foundation, which helps to improve the lives of indigenous peoples in Latin America, http://www.wayuutaya.org. Via UCLA ONE https://uclaone.com/, Burgos-Ellis also mentors undergraduate and graduate students.