The Secret Salon: Mexico’s Forbidden Collection of Pre-Hispanic Pieces in the National Museum

In the early 1920s, Mexican archaeologist Ramón Mena established what was known as the Secret Salon in Mexico’s National Museum. Mena (1874-1957) served as professor of archaeology in the museum. The exhibit he created was off-limits to much of the public because it consisted of a collection of pre-Hispanic statues of phalluses. Mena gathered examples of these statues from all over Mexico to highlight the pre-Hispanic interest in fertility. This paper examines the creation and workings of the Secret Salon. It situates Mexico’s exhibit within the broader context of similar exhibitions throughout the globe and explores ideas about sexuality, gender, and venereal disease in Mexico’s world of archaeology in the nation’s early revolutionary period.