Mariano Villalba is a historian specializing in esotericism in colonial and modern Latin America, with a focus on the intersections of race, politics, and spirituality. He earned his undergraduate degree in History from the University of Buenos Aires and a master’s degree in Sociology of Culture from the National University of San Martin, Argentina. He then completed a joint PhD in Religious Studies at the University of Lausanne and the École Pratique des Hautes Études, supported by a Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship. His dissertation examined the figure of Arnold Krumm-Heller (1876–1949), a German occultist and spy active during the 1910 Mexican Revolution, and analyzed the role of modern esoteric currents in shaping narratives of Mexican national identity.

Currently, Villalba is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Spirituality and the Arts at the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, in collaboration with the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice, the Warburg Institute in London, and the University of Amsterdam’s Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents. His research project, Occult Movements and Mexican Mural Art, explores the influence of Theosophy and other esoteric currents on Mexican muralism, with a particular emphasis on the contributions of Mexican female artists such as María Izquierdo, Cordelia Urueta and Sofía Bassi.

His forthcoming monograph, Occult Mexico: The Imagination of Mexican Antiquity, from the Colonial Era to Arnold Krumm-Heller and the Revolution, will be published by Oxford University Press. His current postdoctoral research will be featured in a volume he is co-editing on Esotericism and Visual Arts in Latin America, which aims to reassess the role of esotericism in modern art across the region. In addition to authoring the texts and curating this exhibition, Villalba has collaborated on various archival and curatorial projects exploring the relationship between art and spirituality. He has taught and lectured internationally on topics related to esotericism, visual culture, and the intellectual history of Latin America, and his work bridges disciplines such as art history, religious studies, and cultural history.