For two and a half centuries, from 1565 to 1815, the Acapulco–Manila navigation route created a network of exchanges that transformed life on both shores of the Pacific. More than a commercial link, it wove economic, social, political, and spiritual relationships that left a mark on markets, languages, daily practices, and artistic expressions. Mexico became a point of articulation between continents, and from this constant transit emerged a shared memory that still lives on in both territories.
Driven by this legacy of encounters, The Acapulco–Manila Galleon. We Are the Pacific. The World that Emerged from the Tropics invites us to view that period as a deeply human story. Conceived originally by Clement Onn for the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM), the exhibition is enriched in this edition through the curatorial work of Iván Valdéz-Bubnov (UNAM), Roberto Junco (INAH), Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, Teo Hui Min, Cheng Jia Yun, and Seline Illana Teo (National Gallery Singapore), in collaboration with the Colegio de San Ildefonso.
From this plural perspective, Mexico emerges as a true axis mundi, a territory where routes, imperial decisions, and daily experiences intertwined to shape an interconnected world. In the ports, languages, flavors, and religious practices converged; in the cities, neighborhoods, trades, and identities flourished. The Pacific, far from being a frontier, appears as a space of encounter and continuous movement.
This same spirit of exchange continues today—five centuries after the first voyage and half a century after the establishment of diplomatic relations between Mexico and Singapore in 1975—still building bridges between regions and cultures. Within this context, the exhibition also commemorates 50 years of bilateral, academic, and cultural cooperation, a contemporary narrative that extends the ancient network of transoceanic connections. By forging new alliances that strengthen research, artistic creation, and the circulation of knowledge, it reminds us that the Pacific remains a living territory of collaboration and understanding.
Featuring more than 300 objects—including ceramics, maps, textiles, navigation instruments, and artworks—the exhibition reveals how daily life, devotion, diplomacy, and commerce became intertwined over centuries of transpacific navigation, forging a profound legacy between Mexico and the Philippines. Ivory and mother-of-pearl chests, Ming porcelain, Japanese lacquerware, New Spanish textiles, and Talavera from Puebla stand alongside a monumental galleon folding screen, a chest with Asian inlays, and navigation instruments from the 16th to the 19th centuries that guided the route between Acapulco and Manila. Each piece bears the mark of wonder and testifies to a journey that transformed life, art, and memory on both sides of the Pacific, reminding us that the sea not only separates—it unites.
To enhance understanding, The Acapulco–Manila Galleon. We Are the Pacific. The World that Emerged from the Tropics is organized chronologically across 1,271 m², divided into seven thematic sections. The exhibition begins with We Are the Pacific, which restores the deepest roots of this historical phenomenon. Long before the galleons connected the coasts of Acapulco and Manila, peoples were already inhabiting and navigating these territories. Archaeological remains, illustrations, and artifacts reveal the civilizations that shaped these worlds and their ways of conceiving nature through water and land. This first section helps us understand how these cultures transformed their environment and how, after the Spanish conquest, their horizons became intertwined with the arrival of commerce.
The next section, The Construction of the Mexican Pacific, shows how the maritime route transported not only goods, but also people, knowledge, and traditions. In the shipyards of New Spain, the great vessels that crossed the ocean were built, propelled by diverse crews that connected continents and languages. This section illustrates how cultural and biological mestizaje transformed landscapes, cuisine, and artistic expressions, shaping a shared legacy between Mexico and the Philippines.
The First Global Trade Route presents Mexico as a maritime nation, a bridge between two oceans and the link that made the first global economy possible. Its port fortifications, seafaring traditions, cosmopolitan culture, and diverse population stand as testimony to this vocation. The galleons linking Acapulco and Manila carried Mexican silver to the Philippines, where merchants from China, India, Malacca, Sumatra, Japan, Siam, Cambodia, and Java received it in exchange for silk, spices, precious furniture, carved ivory, artworks, and everyday manufactured goods.
In Mission Hasekura, the exhibition recounts the journey of the samurai Hasekura Tsunenaga, who between 1613 and 1620 led the Keichō Embassy, sent by the daimyo Date Masamune from Sendai to New Spain. His mission sought to open prosperous routes between Japan and Acapulco and to share knowledge of silver extraction. Aboard the San Juan Bautista, the mission arrived in Acapulco and traveled through Cuernavaca, Mexico City, and Puebla before continuing to Europe. Although its diplomatic goals were not fulfilled, the voyage left a mark as the first attempt to connect Japan and New Spain—a symbolic precursor of the transpacific dialogue that would later unite both worlds.
With The End of the Galleons, the exhibition narrates the dissolution of an era. By the late 18th century, new voyages of the Spanish Royal Navy and the Mexican War of Independence weakened the maritime route. In 1815, the MagallanesGalleon returned to Manila without its silver cargo, marking the symbolic end of the exchange between Acapulco and the Philippines. After Independence, Mexico lost its maritime link with Asia, which would only be restored decades later with the signing of the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation with Japan in 1888.
The section Tropical explores artistic creation between Latin America and Southeast Asia through modern art of the 20th century. Inspired by the exhibition Tropical: Stories from Southeast Asia and Latin America at National Gallery Singapore, it shows how various artists transformed their colonial heritage into a language of freedom. From Diego Rivera and Miguel Covarrubias to Southeast Asian creators such as Victorio Edades and S. Sudjojono, the tropical emerges as a creative and resistant attitude, where aesthetics becomes a point of encounter and solidarity.
Finally, The Pacific Today offers a contemporary look at the relationships between Mexico and Asia. Through artworks, videos, and testimonies, this section examines how the historical memories of the Manila Galleon continue to resonate in contemporary artistic creation. Transpacific identities and migratory movements reveal that the ocean remains a living bridge.
The project is the result of extensive international and inter-institutional collaboration that brings together valuable collections, expertise, and curatorial efforts. It arises from the joint work of the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) in Singapore, the Philippines–Mexico Studies Program of the Institute of Historical Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), and the Colegio de San Ildefonso, with the collaboration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Mexico in Singapore.
Institutions and museums from Singapore such as National Gallery Singapore, the National Museum of Singapore, and the Singapore Art Museum also take part, as well as the Ayala Museum and the Intramuros Administration Collection from the Philippines. From Mexico, the José Luis Bello y González Museum, the Casa del Alfeñique Museum, and the International Museum of the Baroque in Puebla; the Franz Mayer Museum, the Bank of Mexico Museum, the Institute of Aesthetic Research at UNAM, Casa Luis Barragán, and the National Archives also participate.
From the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), the National Museum of Anthropology, the National History Museum, the National Museum of World Cultures, the National Museum of the Interventions, the Maya Museum of Cancún, the National Library of Anthropology and History, and the Underwater Archaeology Subdirectorate participate. From the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (INBAL), the National Museum of Art and the National Museum of Printmaking collaborate.
The exhibition is further enriched with works from private collections, whose generosity makes it possible to present pieces that, in many cases, are being shown to the public for the first time.
The Acapulco–Manila Galleon. We Are the Pacific, on view from December 3, 2025, to May 31, 2026, invites visitors to rediscover the history shared by Mexico and the Philippines through art, faith, and memory. More than an exhibition, it is a journey reminding us that the seas unite. In every object, every brushstroke, and every story, the voice of the Pacific resonates—a shared horizon where the past continues to sail toward us.
