The present massive edition is the outcome of the exhibition "Great Masters of Iberoamerican Folk Art: The Fomento Cultural Banamex Collection" comprising more than 1,800 sets of art works by 450 artisans carefully selected and gathered between the years 2007 to 2011, from 22 Ibero-American countries including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Spain, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Me xico, Nicaragua, Panama , Paraguay, Peru , Portugal, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela. The display showcases folk art of the highest aesthetic and technical caliber by the foremost artisans of the region to promote international awareness and appreciation of these exceptional works.Folk art encompasses highly diverse expressions of culture. It is immersed in the economic, social, anthropological, and cultural conditions that gave rise to it and that enable us to understand it. This exhibition showcases the pieces as cultural products that reflect the traditions, feelings, thoughts, and actions of specific groups, and as objects of intrinsic beauty. Veritable works of art, they express a technical dimension, a meticulous process of creation, imbued with cultural content; at the same time they are a reflection of the expressive and artistic sensibility of a people.The territories of Iberoamerica include the former viceroyalties of the Spanish Crown and the Portuguese domains. These lands share cultural features, such as the predominance of the Roman Catholic faith, language, and other traditions.