Inauguration of The Acapulco-Manila Galleon: We are the Pacific, A World Born of the Tropics exhibition

President Tharman Shanmugaratnam

First Lady Ms Jane Ittogi

Your Excellency Ms Claudia Curiel de Icaza, Secretary of Culture of the Government of Mexico

Mr Leonardo Lomelí Vanegas, Rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico,

Excellencies

Ladies and Gentlemen

1. Buenos dias!

2. It is a privilege to be here at the inauguration of the opening of The Acapulco-Manila Galleon: We Are the Pacific, A World Born of the Tropics exhibition at the College of San Ildefonso, the birthplace of Mexican muralism.

3. I would like to thank Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the College of San Ildefonso, the Ambassador of Mexico to Singapore Agustín García-López Loaeza and Singapore’s Asian Civilisations Museum and National Gallery Singapore, for all their efforts to bring this wonderful exhibition together. Shall we give them a big round of applause, please.

4. As we reflect on the creative and cultural bridge between our countries, I would like to begin by drawing on the inspiration of the great Diego Rivera, whose mural we are currently in front of. Rivera was a pioneer of the modern mural movement in Mexico. His work drew deeply on Mexico’s indigenous roots, its revolutionary history, its social aspirations, and transformed public walls into storytelling canvases for the people.

5. Similarly, exhibitions such as The Acapulco-Manila Galleon serve not only to tell a story. They remind us just how interconnected our histories and destinies are. These cultural exchanges do more than just entertain. They build bridges across geography and generations. They foster empathy, deepen mutual respect, and they build the social foundation upon which diplomatic, economic, and our people to people ties can thrive.

6. This exhibition is also testament to the growing cultural cooperation between Singapore and Mexico, following the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on Cultural Cooperation between our two countries in 2019. Singaporeans have had opportunities to learn about Mexico’s rich heritage through exhibitions such as Tropical: Stories from Southeast Asia and Latin America held from November 2023 to March 2024 at the National Gallery Singapore; and Miguel Covarrubias: A Mexican Artist’s Fascination with the Pacific that was held from May to August this year at the National Library Building in Singapore. Notably, Tropical: Stories from Southeast Asia and Latin America was the first large-scale museum exhibition to take a comparative approach across Southeast Asia and Latin America, animated by our struggles against colonialism.

7. Nearly 80 works from Singapore’s National Collection are on loan here today. Let me mention a few of them. The first is a painting of the three founders of the Spanish colony in the Philippines.¹ Their actions were instrumental in opening new global trade routes and creating maritime connections between Asia and the Americas that still endure today. While Mexico and Singapore established official diplomatic relations only 50 years ago, our shared story actually reaches much further back. When Sir Stamford Raffles – who was the founder of Singapore as a trading post in 1819 – when he established it, he paid the local Sultan not in British pounds, but he paid him in Spanish dollars – Mexico-minted silver coins, one of the world’s first globalised currencies, or as the Ambassador tells me, it’s like the Visa of the 18^th century. These coins circulated widely across Asia, connecting us long before our modern diplomatic ties began. As centres of commerce in our respective regions, Singapore and Mexico have always shared an instinct and a certain like-mindedness to be outward-looking and to be innovative.

8. The second is a contemporary model of an 18^th-century Manila galleon. For over 250 years, the Acapulco-Manila galleons sailed across the Pacific, carrying Mexican silver westward and Asian goods to the Americas. The galleons were not merely vessels of commerce; they were vessels of cultural exchange. And as our regions became trading partners, our hybrid artworks with both Asian and Spanish influence were created.

9. Our countries’ cooperation on this exhibition reflects the very spirit of the galleon trade itself – when we share our treasures and our stories, we all become richer. Today, encouraging open trade through the establishment of free trade agreements are a pathway to shared prosperity. Trade agreements open doors for our businesses, promote stability, and they foster innovation and cooperation between nations. And I am confident that the Pacific Alliance – Singapore Free Trade Agreement will further build on these centuries-old connections and open new horizons for commerce and collaboration between our regions and between our people.

10. In closing, allow me to return to Diego Rivera one more time – not just as an artist of Mexico, but as a metaphor for what is possible when art transcends walls, when culture becomes dialogue, when histories converge and future pathways emerge.

11. Singapore and Mexico may be separated by an ocean – or as some of my Mexican friends say brought closer by an ocean – but you can tell from the earlier story of Raffles and Singapore’s founding as a trading post, that our stories are all intertwined. Our peoples share curiosity. Our artists dream. Our youth aspire. And when we bring our stories closer together – Singapore’s story of multiracial and multireligious harmony, innovation and small-state agility; Mexico’s story of diversity, multiracialism, cultural renewal and artistic audacity – we create something new: a shared narrative of friendship, creativity, and endless possibilities for the days ahead.

12. Thank you and I wish you a great day. Mucho gracias.
    

¹ Andrés de Urdaneta (ahn-DRESS deh ur-dah-NEH-tah), Miguel López de Legazpi (mee-GEL LOH-pess deh leh-GAHS-pee), and Ferdinand Magellan (FER-di-nand muh-JEL-uhn)