Merida City of Museums

MEMORIES OF A PALACE

A chronicle of the site of the Museum of Anthropology and History

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THE HISTORY OF “GREEN GOLD” Yucatecan sisal, the pride of our land

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FERNANDO GARCÍA PONCE

A contemporary classic

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DIRECTORY Marco Hoyos Medrano Director of Administration Beatriz Peniche López Director of Museums and Special Events EDITORIAL COORDINATION Joaquín Tamayo GRAPHIC DESIGN Diana del Río Fuentes Silvana Cruz Zapata Verónica Ortega Santamaría COMMUNICATION Friné Gorocica Dittrich Francisco Pastor Sáenz Gómez DISTRIBUTION Elba García Villarreal Yucatan Atheneum Contemporary Art Museum Luz Elena Arroyo Irigoyen Folk Art Museum Giovanna Jaspersen García Palacio Cantón Regional Museum of Yucatan Mario Esquivel Ríos Museum of Yucatan Music COLLABORATORS Agustin Monsreal Eduardo Rivera Coss Celia Pedrero Jorge Esma Bazán Silvia Terán Contreras Javier Amado Corona Baeza Isaac Magaña Gcantón Joaquín Filio

“’Juan Gamboa Guzman’ Yucatan State Art Gallery”

LETTER FROM TH E EDIT O R

GENERAL DIRECTOR Mtro. Jorge Esma Bazán

Merida, City of Museums (MCM) is proud to publish its second issue, also its first in 2015. This issue includes stories about the announcement of the significant investment in remodeling the museum network and the second anniversary of Merida’s Grand Museum of the Mayan World, as well as stories highlighting some of the attractions found within these cultural and historical areas.

As it was stated in MCM’s presentation in November last year, our commitment is—and will remain—for the magazine to bring society closer to our museums by sharing useful, interesting and increasingly relevant information. Our goal is for our museums to be visited and remembered as places of deep human significance: living, current facilities, created by visitors’ imaginations and desire to go back in time: we do not write about issues, but about people who have experienced these issues. The wealth of our memory.

With this in mind, in this edition we present a diverse sample of what visitors—local, national or international—can find in our city’s museums. In an evocative chronicle, for example, we reconstruct the romantic life of one of Mexican cinema’s most iconic couples, Irma Dorantes and Pedro Infante, through the exhibition of “The House of Irma and Pedro” at Merida’s Grand Museum of the Mayan World. A reference within the International Mayan Culture Festival, featuring over 35 exhibitions at the Museum of Yucatan Music, the Folk Art Museum, the Contemporary Art Museum, the Canton Palace (Yucatan’s History and Anthropology Museum), and the Grand Museum of the Mayan World.

In our story on the museum network, we include an illuminating profile of artist Fernando Garcia Ponce and his creative habits in abstract expressionism, to accompany the permanent exhibition of his work at the Contemporary Art Museum of Yucatán (MACAY). Looking back on the history of Yucatan, a story about the Canton Palace, home to the regional Museum of Anthropology and History, tells us about the circumstances and conditions in which this building—nowadays a reference point for locals’ identity—was erected.

In analysis, we offer an essay on sisal and its different historical contexts within our state’s progress.

The Folk Art Museum is the stage and the excuse for a story that aims to venture into the attractions of our national culture, while the opinion section features a look at the presence of museums in everyday life. These texts, along with others that are equally deep and revealing, constitute the contents of this issue.

A walk, a tour, a field trip and a journey down our historical, intellectual and aesthetic cultural heritage; all of those are what the second edition of Merida, City of Museums, aims to be.

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SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF MERIDA’S GRAND MUSEUM OF THE MAYAN WORLD

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CHICXULUB: THE END OF THE DINOSAURS

CONTENTS

ARTISANAL CRAFTS

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PRESENTATION OF THE CATALOGUE

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A NEW CHALLENGE FOR THE AGES

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IRMA AND PEDRO’S HOUSE BUSINESSWOMEN HONOR SILVIA TERÁN THE IHMY, A FUNDAMENTAL PART OF FILEY’S HISTORY PRESENTATION:

MERIDA, CITY OF MUSEUMS

MUSEUM OF YUCATAN MUSIC A REMODELING PROJECT A PACT WITH THE PAST KOREAN THROUGH AND THROUGH THE MEANING OF MUSEUMS

PRESENTATION OF

Eduardo Rivera Coss

The contents of this document reflect, in part, the beautiful and attractive museography of the GMMWM, with pre-Hispanic and contemporary expressions of our culture.

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he catalog of the Grand Museum of the Mayan World of Merida (GMMWM) is a collection that confirms the aesthetic, cultural and historical values collected and displayed here. This volume highlights the pieces that make up the museum’s pre-Hispanic and contemporary collection, which is internationally recognized as one of the most modern in Latin America.

The event to present the catalog, which was held in GMMWM’s Mayamax Hall, included representatives of different sectors of the state government. Jorge Esma Bazán, general director of the Institute of History and Museums of Yucatán (IHMY), thanked the joint support from the investor “Grupo Hermes” and the company Yaxché, who, along with support and agreements from the government, helped to carry out this project.

The event was held with the participation from Roger Metri Duarte, who attended on behalf of Yucatan governor Rolando Zapata Bello, the director of the Yucatan School of Arts Beatriz Rodriguez Guillermo, representatives of ministries from the three branches of government, as well as academics, intellectuals and artists, including the presence of Irma Dorantes and writer Agustín Monsreal. (Later in this issue you can find the text read by Monsreal during this event).

After speeches from those involved in the consolidation

of the museum project, Jorge Esma thanked those who made it a reality, and added that the catalog is a document for studying, preserving and learning more about the history of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Creating a catalog from a place like The Grand Museum of the Mayan World Merida has been a labor of patience, research, intelligence, knowledge and creative talent, both in the editorial coordination, writing and editing, as well as the iconographic research, design based on the museum’s image, illustrations and photographic content that included, in this particular case, the collaboration of experts in the areas of Mayan culture, that constitute the 216 pages of this book.

With the wealth of content offered by the museum, it was necessary to make an essential catalog with the description and photos of the museum’s most representative objects. That is why, under the coordination of IHMY’s general director, an intense, thorough work was carried out with the goal of capturing every detail of GMMWM on paper.

This document also showcases the complexity of Mayan society and its relationship with other American cultures, as well as their social and economic organization, in a monumental space designed to preserve, exhibit and promote the values, history and secrets of the great Mayan culture.

The presentation was led by IHMY General Director Jorge Esma Bazan (center), accompanied by Secretary of Culture and the Arts Roger Metri Duarte; also present were Director of the “Palacio Canton” Yucatan Regional Museum of Anthropology Giovana Jaspersen Garcia; Director of the Yaxché Culture Promoting Organization Maria del Carmen Camacho Jasso; Director of the School of Arts of Yucatan (ESAY) Beatriz Rodriguez Guillermo; writer Agustín Monsreal; and representative of 4A Arquitectos Enrique Duarte Aznar.

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A NEW CHALLENGE FOR THE AGES Agustín Monsreal

S

Standing on the shoulders of giants, we present-day Yucatecos are lucky to see what our ancestors saw, and, thanks to them, to see even further.

We are their natural heirs, and we must never forget that with this privilege come the obligation and responsibility to always sail, with our heads held high, the river of excellence from which we come.

I want to believe that a site as amazing as Merida’s Grand Museum of the Mayan World is the result not only of a way to conceive and belong to the world, but also to understand it in all of its varied magnitude, and the will to leave an absolute record of it.

The sum of sensitivity and intelligence, of will and talent, this project, undoubtedly conceived and carried out with genius, is the prodigiously multiplying mirror of one of the most generous, definitive civilizations that human history has ever known. A mirror that begins but never ends, because where it ends it begins again: a mirror that infinitely reflects itself in the full range of its own realities.

In order to happily approach and dive into this wonder of our age, in order to create a new account of this plurality and this grandeur, we now have a book, a beautiful, substantial object, not only in content, but also in form; a work of art that ennobles the decidedly human historical, cultural, social and educational subject matter that is both its departure and arrival point: the catalog of Merida’s Grand Museum of the Mayan World.

An extraordinarily rich and precise record, this catalog immerses us in the deep knowledge of the people of the Mayab: who they were, how they lived, how they dressed, how they worked, how they fed themselves, what instruments their ingenuity bore, how they used

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them—in short, how they left a record of the paths they walked and built on Earth, of their ways of thinking, behaving, believing and creating; a record of their contact and relationship with nature and the cosmos, of naming their own destiny, of proving their own, deserved contact with the gods.

Therefore, the concise, unchangeable pages of the catalog are testament to the convergences that reveal the identity of a people who seek and find themselves in the chores of everyday life that can’t be put off, in the certainty of their roots and in the unconditional awareness and will to grow steadily and unwaveringly.

By touching, through its design, images and texts, the deepest fibers of aesthetic emotion, this catalog, so unique, so illustrating helps us delve into the lineages of history in a living way, with all our senses. It helps us touch history’s heartbeat, to incorporate our past into our primordial energy as we identify with its traditions, its customs, its many ways of fitting into the world, because it describes in detail its social, economic, political, religious and commercial complexities. It describes the seasons of life back then, it sets the stage for countless details of everyday life, it illustrates scientific knowledge, math, arithmetic, astronomy, architecture. It immerses us in its rituals, its symbols, its worldview, its everlasting arts.

A complete work that explores, exposes, condenses and illustrates universal truths as well as it does concrete foundations and immediate activities of an unquestionably endearing, inexhaustible, undying cultural galaxy. An accurate inventory, this catalog becomes an excellent guide to open the doors to Merida’s Grand Museum of the Mayan World, wisely combining past, present and future—the three splendid eternities that give sense and value to life. A museum that is, from its conception, a historical model, an educational milestone, a cultural treasure to be

discovered every day, throughout the years, not only by today’s generations, but also by those who have yet to walk the perpetual paths of the Mayab in the future. A museum that blends memory and imagination; a full summary of human creativity.

Consequently, this catalog’s essential purpose is to fully display not only the features, but also the rationale behind the Grand Museum of the Mayan World of Merida; its cultural and historical relevance transcends and goes far beyond its immediate space to join an impeccable universal order. A witness to its society and its time, this catalog irrefutably confirms that Merida’s Grand Museum of the Mayan World is a vital, enduring example, Yucatan’s pride, the world’s privilege, humanity’s heritage.

* This text was read at the presentation of the Grand Museum of the Mayan World of Merida’s Catalog.

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Staff

Chicxulub: the end of the dinosaurs

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erida’s Grand Museum of the Mayan World (El Gran Museo del Mundo Maya) presents an exhibit in its temporary exhibit hall that will take you on a journey back 65 million years in time. Your visit begins with a video projected in an immersion room resembling the shape of a meteorite, where images and a narrative describe what could have been the dinosaurs’ last day on the planet, before a celestial body 10 kilometers in diameter fell in the area now constituting the town of Chicxulub, extinguishing all life.

According to scientific research, starting from that moment a radical change in the world began to take shape, which eventually gave way to the emergence of humanity after several million years.

This concept is explained brilliantly as follows:

”The world expands with the first rays of the morning, another day begins, one more, a day like any other, about 65 million years ago, in which everything happens the same way as the previous day... and yet, there is something peculiar, something different in the long chain of sunrises that have been happening until today; this day is different because of one simple thing: it is the last... How to say goodbye to a world’s last hours?

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Since ancient times, seeing unexpected celestial objects in the heavens has given us questions, amazement and fear, questions about life, our destiny and our limits. In some cultures, shooting stars represent lost souls or fallen angels and grant wishes; for others, a comet’s luminous tail foretells the end of the world, plague, war.

Among all these lights our sky has seen, on this day, around 65 million years ago, a huge mass 10 kilometers wide crosses space at breakneck speed and won’t be another simple twinkle in the sky’s dark backdrop.

Since its birth, its orbit has sewn together a complex fabric of paths, some of which perhaps crossed each other more than once, but our planet is a very small target, very difficult to hit: difficult, but not impossible.

Today, about 65 million years ago, at the point of intersection with this great asteroid’s trajectory is Earth; once it catches it in its gravitational field, there will be no way to divert its course. In less time than it takes to utter this phrase, Earth will suffer cataclysmic damage.

The Chicxulub meteor’s impact, 10,000 times more powerful than the explosion of the world’s current arsenal, spreads from a crater 200 kilometers wide, reducing what, just yesterday, was an area full of life, to a wasteland of devastation.The air riddled with

debris, tidal waves sweeping the coastlines, forests burned to ashes.

Finally after the catastrophe, calm seems to return; but it is now, and only now, that the horsemen of the Apocalypse slowly but decisively pounce on the planet.

The first rider, darkness; the second, bitter cold; the third, hellish temperatures; the fourth and final rider, poisoned rain and sea.

Three quarters of all living beings that populated planet Earth were wiped out by the effects of these extreme changes in a ridiculously short amount of time. From that radiant and diverse world, only reconstructions in museums and movies remain. And yet, life returns to take root in unlikely situations and places, and in that violently transformed world life persisted, and over a long period of time proliferated again.

In northern Yucatan, the same epicenter that the catastrophe had reduced to nothing, jungle wove a dense maze that saw new species appear; the sea was filled with new inhabitants; humans arrived and created settlements, evolved roads, languages, cities; and cultures flourished, like the Mayan civilization.

Without the violent catastrophe that razed this remote world, we would not be here.”

To close with a point of reflection on what the meteorite’s impact meant, the proposed museum presents its visitors the view of one of the world’s smartest persons:

”There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” -Albert Einstein

* Introductory text of the initial video: “ARMAGEDDON. The fall of the Chicxulub meteorite,” which is shown in the temporary exhibit hall of the Grand Museum of the Mayan World in Merida

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Irma and pedro’s house Since April 15, 1957, Yucatecan actress Irma Dorantes kept a long silence over her marriage to singer Pedro Infante. But in 2007, fifty years after the Mexican idol’s death, she—also a singer— finally revisited her memories and decided to publish “Así fue nuestro amor (That was our love).”

Product of the momentum of that memoir, Mérida’s Grand Museum of the Mayan World offered the exhibition “Mi amorcito corazón: La casa de Irma y Pedro” (Amorcito corazón, my beloved sweetheart, is the name of one of the late actor’s most famous songs), a retrospective that isn’t exactly about art, but about life as an art form.

Staff

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** This exhibition was open from October 17, 2014 to February 16, 2015.

Things usually acquire a memory of their own. As years go by, they even end up speaking on behalf of their owners. They defend them or give them away, whatever the case may be. They become clues to an era, signs pointing to a return to a living recollection. They are a tangible form of nostalgia and lure you into going back to yourself. Just to name one example, there’s an old dining room set with its luxury tableware.

In a glass display case you’ll see her wedding dress, and the clothes he wore when he played indigenous Mexican Tizoc, about to bow before the image of the Virgin. A few steps away, a recreation of their bedroom: a carefully rumpled bed under a huge headboard; day robes, a Polaroid camera on a large, heavy cabinet containing a television, a console and a radio. Over there, the scripts to two now classic films, their wedding rings, their wedding toast glasses, photographs and oil paintings. But above all this collection of personal effects, there are— there still are—a man and a woman...

“This is us. We are our things. These are objects with a deep emotional, sentimental value of what my life has been,” Irma Dorantes says.

The art room on the first floor of Merida’s Grand Museum of the Mayan World is housing this exhibition, “Mi amorcito corazón: La casa de Irma y Pedro,” originated by the release of the book “That was our love,” published by Planeta.

Fifty Years of Silence In 2007, Irma Dorantes published an autobiography about her love affair with the most important Latin American idol. Written in collaboration with journalist Rosa Maria Villarreal, the work served as means for the actress to break a silence that had lasted fifty years. It was then that she decided to put together this exhibition, which is the continuation of her memoirs. In fact, the book served as guide to mount the installation, with the spaces as chapters.

“The collection originated from the publication of ‘That was our love.’ I had kept these items for a long time, always in complete privacy and for everyday use.

But one day I got sick, and I became aware of the importance of my things with regards to my marriage. That’s why I wanted people from my beloved Yucatan to see them. Without thinking too much, I called Jorge Esma—whom I thank deeply—so he’d allow me to share some of our love with museum visitors. I wanted people to be able to feel the love I have for these objects,” the actress said in conversation with MCM. In the epilogue to her book, she recalls the pain: “It took many, many years, for me to dare to hear his songs, watch his movies, to finally mourn his death. Despite all that time, the pain was there, intact, saved, accumulated, covered. Going back with it, going back to it... was as terrible as the day he died.”

Irma and Pedro were married in Merida on March 10, 1953, when she was twenty years old. At the time, he bought the Casa de los Itzáes (House of the Itzá People), the name he gave his residence on Mérida’s avenue of the same name. Shortly after, their only daughter was born: Irma Infante. However, on April 15, 1957, the singer died in a plane crash. The cargo plane he was co-piloting, a vestige of World War II, fell almost in the center of Merida.

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1957; that is, during Pedro Infante’s professional career as an artist.

During the tour, visitors will see the costume he wore to play Tizoc—an unforgettable character inspired by Primitivo, a Yucatecan Maya who worked in Casa de los Itzáes— and also with scripts for classic films like “Pepe El Toro” or “Ansiedad,” which sit in their respective displays.

On the family side, their wedding rings stand out with their unique engravings: Little Mouse (Irma) and Little Dog (Pedro).

Irma Dorantes

Rabbit stew

“’Mouse, I’m going to Mexico City tomorrow. Please make me a rabbit stew and bring it to the airport. I love you and my gurrumina (his daughter). Kisses to both of you.’ Those were the last words I heard from him,” Irma Dorantes says in one of the most moving passages of ‘That was our love.’”

“From then on, you no longer spoke of your relationship with Pedro Infante.”

“I stayed silent. The truth is it took a long time for me to talk about our life. I did it on the 50th anniversary of his death.

Many people told me and asked about our marriage... All those memories were stored for half a century. One day I began to remember as if it were yesterday and, believe me, it was very emotional. At last I told our life. I knew I had to share it with the public; I would not take anything to the grave. Actually, this is the manifestation of memory and love.

“What kind of response has the exhibit gotten?”

“A lot of people, a lot of friends who have heard or who have gone to the museum have called me. Almost all of them have asked what motivated me, since they knew beforehand that these things are very precious to me.

“Mi amorcito corazón: La casa de Irma y Pedro” is simultaneously a journey through the couple’s intimacy and a walk through the history of Mexican film and 20th-century show business. In the room, the warmth of the former home is mixed with the splendor of film studios between 1936 and

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“But that’s not all. Plenty of things were missing, like the hammock that Pedro gave me when we got married; also a part of the china we used in the dining room of our house in Cuajimalpa; his spurs were missing, as well as other items of immense sentimental value. Someday, if the curators request it, I’ll be able to expand this exhibition, where I’ve exposed an essential part of my life,” the actress and singer concludes.

Businesswomen honor the career of ihmy researcher

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Silvia Terán Contreras Staff

e Yucatan Chapter of the Mexican Association of Businesswomen (AMMJE in Spanish) recognized the career of anthropologist Silvia Contreras Teran, coordinator of research and curatorship of Merida’s Grand Museum of the Mayan World, naming her an “Outstanding Woman of Culture” for her four decades of uninterrupted support promoting the work of the embroiderers of Yucatán. The event was held in the Beirut Room of the Lebanese Sports Center with the participation of this group’s various businessmen and women, chaired by Lucero Cabrales Garcia, and other authorities.

The head of AMMJE said this recognition reflects the effort made by women in the state of Yucatan and highlighted the careers of both Teran Contreras for her extensive work in the field of culture, and those of other entrepreneurs and women committed to strengthening social cohesion in the

state.

When referring to the anthropologist’s work, they showed a video highlighting her political ideology on small farmers and agrarian issues that were part of her research, along with other topics such as Yucatecan crafts, rural women, traditional agriculture, ethnobotany, stories, traditions, religion and rituals of the Mayan culture, among others.

Anthropologist Silvia Terán is originally from Mexico City and came to Yucatan in 1978, when she began her research on the Mayans, publishing to date over 30 books as well as contributions to magazines and cultural journals in Mexico and abroad. For her extensive knowledge of the techniques used by Yucatecan embroiderers, in 2012 she was commissioned to consult on the set up of the embroidery exhibition, which is on permanent display in the Grand Museum of the Mayan World of Merida.

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or Rafael Morcillo Lopez, the Grand Museum of the Mayan World of Merida’s participation has been instrumental in the history of the International Book Fair of Yucatan (FILEY in Spanish), especially because “Jorge Esma Bazan was, from the beginning, in love with the project, and that made him one of its main drivers and promoters.”

“Let us not forget that since he was director of Patronato Cultur, Jorge Esma Bazan has strongly supported FILEY’s development; in fact, he was the first to offer us the premises of the Siglo XXI Convention Center, the main venue for the fair.

This support has continued, of course, thanks to the continued interest of the state government, always with the aim of disseminating culture for Yucatecans,” said the general director of the fair, held March 7-15.

In an interview with MCM, Rafael Morcillo Lopez said the fair’s exhibition spaces extend to Merida’s Grand Museum of the Mayan World, particularly its Mayamax Hall, which has been like “another heart for FILEY.”

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Staff “We have done important things there: we had the grand opening of the 2013 fair in that venue; plays, conferences and even the actress Ofelia Medina appeared there last year. All this because of the Yucatan Institute of Museums and History. Last year the same institute contributed 50 percent to the Jose Emilio Pacheco Excellence Award, as well as support in advertising the fair.

In short, we have formed an alliance for culture, and when the International Festival of Mayan Culture (FICMAYA) is held, FILEY is also involved with book presentations and a book fair,” he said.

YEAR OF CONSOLIDATION Cultural promoter, publisher and disseminator of writers and their works, Morcillo Lopez said that 2015 will be the year of the fair’s consolidation. They are expecting attendance from people from neighboring states, in addition to locals who commonly visit the FILEY pavilions.

“More and more people are

coming from other areas. This year we expect more visitors from Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Chiapas, among others. In 2014, there was a 25 percent increase in attendance compared to 2013, and so 2015 should reinforce that line. We always hope we will have more attendance compared to the fair’s previous year. With that we know we’re doing all right,” he said.

Regarding participants, Rafael Morcillo said FILEY will grow in quantity and in quality, with the inclusion of fourteen independent publishers, which come supported by the Secretary of Culture of Mexico City.

He said that these publishers are doing impressive projects, publishing new authors of great literary achievements, and “in this way they are risking all their assets to bet on young, little known writers.”

FILEY 2015 will host Mexico City and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM in Spanish), while the schedule of events will have as a headliner the

tribute to writer Vicente Leñero, now deceased, and a symposium on the journalistic legacy of Julio Scherer, who also died a few weeks ago.

TRIBUTE TO SARA POOT In that regard, he recalled that the José Emilio Pacheco Literary Excellence Award will be presented to the novelist Fernando del Paso, author of important works of Latin American literature, including “Palinuro de Mexico,” “Jose Trigo” and “Noticias del Imperio.”

It will also pay tribute to the works and careers of writers Sara Poot Herrera, literary researcher and FILEY consultant, and Gonzalo Celorio.

At another point in the interview, Rafael Morcillo said that for the first time a meeting of cultural journalism will take place with the participation of over 70 national and international cultural journalists.

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IHMY Presents Magazine

City of

Museums

Specializing in museographic content, the magazine aims to nationally and internationally showcase the historical heritage found in Mérida’s museu ms

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he Yucatan Institute for History and Museums (IHMY) recently introduced the magazine “Merida, City of Museums,” which you, dear reader, now hold in your hands. Our mission is to preserve, promote and disseminate the extensive heritage of Mayan culture, as well as our regional and national history, using new mechanisms that provide an economic, tourist and cultural platform to promote our state’s development and Merida’s status as “The city of museums.”

The presentation was made by IHMY’s director, Jorge Esma Bazan, accompanied by the secretary of culture and the arts, Roger Metri Duarte, who attended on behalf of Research and Curatorship of Merida’s Grand Museum of the of Governor Rolando Zapata Bello. Also present Mayan World, Silvia Terán Contreras. were IHMY’s director of museums and special The director of the IHMY explained that this magazine aims events, Beatriz Peniche Lopez; the director of the to be a museum tour guide, content illustrator, and reporter Yucatan School of Arts (ESAY), Beatriz Rodriguez of events, celebrations and temporary exhibitions, and will Guillermo; writer and editorial coordinator for “Merida, feature explanatory articles on specific pieces and areas City of Museums,” Joaquin Tamayo; and journalist Eduardo of the permanent galleries, findings, expert opinions Rivera Coss. and information on guided tours; all of this, through He noted the presence of each of the museums’ heads: the a common, coordinated effort to encourage local, director of the Macay Cultural Foundation, Elba Garcia Villarreal; national and foreign readers to visit the museums the director of the “Palacio Canton”Yucatan Regional Museum of of the city of Merida.

Anthropology, Giovana Jaspersen Garcia; the director of the Folk Meanwhile, the head of SEDECULTA explained Art Museum, Luz Elena Arroyo Irigoyen; the director of the Museum of that this will be a quarterly publication, with Yucatan Music, Elena Fernandez Moral; and the head of the Department written and graphic content to provide

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Rivera Coss explained that a proposal like this has a fundamental purpose: by creating a direct link between museums and society, it brings the content and activities of these places to households, stressing that this translates into greater interest from the public to visit them.

The director of the Yucatan School of Arts, Beatriz Rodriguez Guillermo, said this magazine will allow the IHMY to strengthen extramural activities and objectives as well as interinstitutional relations for the benefit of better services within the museum network—which comprises Merida’s Grand Museum of the Mayan World, the Yucatan Atheneum Museum of Contemporary Art, the Yucatan Folk information that will Art Museum, the Palacio Cantón Regional Museum of encourage reflection, Anthropology in coordination with the National History enrich our thinking and and Anthropology Institute, and the Museum of Yucatan illustrate our knowledge Music—and more cultural tourism options both for locals and about specific issues, visitors from other parts of Mexico and the world. focusing on the Merida’s museums offer plenty to discover about the Mayans, endless work of and plenty to learn in general. Visiting our museums is the best sowing the fertile way to find out who we are, where we come from and where field of culture. we’re headed. The magazine Joaquin Tamayo Merida, City of Museums will make us feel proud of our historical noted this proposal past; it will encourage us to promote, conserve and preserve the is also intended Mayan language, our historical buildings, the beauty of our city, as a bridge to its traditions and its customs, and it will invite us to participate in connect topics of interest about our ancient, conferences, seminars, workshops for children, family entertainment, traditional and ever-changing Mayan culture exciting exhibitions, news and features that will help us gain a deeper with other realities such as cultural tourism, knowledge of our beautiful city of Merida. academic and scientific exchanges, and the socio-economic development of our state.

Journalist and magazine collaborator Eduardo

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Fernando García Ponce a contemporary classic Staff

Fernando Garcia Ponce (1933-1987) was a decisive figure in Mexican art in the mid-20th century. His work, colonized by abstract expressionism, spearheaded the rupture movement and helped then-rising talents of the visual art scene break out internationally. Today, Carlos Garcia Ponce, Fernando’s brother and promoter of his legacy, participates in an honest conversation about the artist’s permanent collection and endearingly recalls a few anecdotes about his creative passion.

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O

ne might say a painting by Fernando Garcia Ponce is simultaneously a symmetric and overflowing journey, brimming with abrupt and sharp cuts, grooves and reliefs, strange sediments. Or that it’s an accident of well-controlled, sudden lights and bursts of shadow. One might say his work creates an ensemble within the window’s secret will. One might say... but it’s clear that within this incessant list of impressions and unchangeable features, no description would ever be sufficient to cover everything that his career and his energy are, and everything they were.

“Because paintings are meant to be seen, not explained,” he himself would say while shrugging, almost indifferently. The truth is that time and again, this Yucatan creator’s oeuvre, belonging to the Rupture Generation, always turns back into itself: it has the stubborn desire to close itself, only to then open again toward new expressions: repeating itself in order to be different, to transgress its original forms. And to begin again. So, now more than ever, Garcia Ponce’s work is current, away from the abrasive rule of aesthetic trends. It is, in short, a contemporary classic. Any way you look at it, this collection of thirty-three large pieces is never the same, be it separately or as a whole. Geometric correspondences between them are never finished.

The paintings sing the desperation of collage, the color’s intense desire to become an infinite composition, the urgency of the creative mystery to be revealed to viewers’ sensibilities. They are also seeking to consummate the true dialogue between the eyes and the object of their gaze. Who looks at whom?

The images are always organized within their natural chaos.

The Garcia Ponce retrospective, on permanent display at the Yucatan Museum of Contemporary Art (which also carries the painter’s name), is but a plastic autobiography; it serves as an introspective log detailing the most genuine abstract expressionism and the final obsessions by this author, who was born in Mérida in 1933 and died in Mexico City in 1987.

A CALLING, A DESTINY Fernando Garcia Ponce was interested in visual arts from an early age; even as a little boy he knew the calling that would eventually become his destiny. Brother of the writer and art critic Juan Garcia Ponce, Fernando

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studied architecture; his legacy also includes referential buildings in this city like the Clinica de Merida and the former premises of the local Coca Cola bottling company, among others. Architecture would also influence his artwork. In fact, art historian Teresa del Conde confirmed it in one of her essays: “...the fabric, the triangles, the cuts, under that sensitive geometry (a term coined by Roberto Puntual) that [Fernando Garcia Ponce] began to generate from his architectural vision, which he never completely left behind, transmuting it into his workshop, where he was able to break into collage and pop transpositions, always kept under the idea of strong tectonic frames.”

“The thing is, for Fernando, any work, any project was previously incubated and matured. Before beginning the actual work, he already knew the painting’s dimensions. He’d make a sketch on a small piece of paper and say: it’ll be ten feet. Everything about his works was developed through a predetermined, rigorous method of deep self-criticism. Nothing was really left to chance...

“Look!”

Carlos Garcia Ponce, the painter’s younger brother and president of the Fernando Garcia Ponce Foundation, points at a collage.

He goes on: “There you can see the action painting [style]: you can see the technique, the stroke, the violent slash; but I’m sure if Fernando didn’t like its final shape, he’d end up cutting it, correcting its initial concept, in order to leave as he had conceived it. Once, for example, I got home after a vacation and discovered that one of his paintings wasn’t like it was before. He had given it to me months before, but something had changed. The people who worked with me told me that my brother had come over to retouch it. That was him: a perfectionist.

He would sell and exhibit his works in order to stop correcting them.”

A full-time collector, cultural promoter, campaigner of his older brother’s work and founder of the Yucatan Museum of Contemporary Art, Carlos Garcia Ponce remembers Fernando’s career in Mexican art started to gain strength in the sixties, with the Rupture movement.

THE AWARD AND THE CONTROVERSY “Since last year, actually, because of a joint initiative by the Yucatan government and Conaculta, the Fernando

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Garcia Ponce Museum became the Rupture Forum.

Many say it should say “opening” instead of “rupture,” and I agree with that view, but it took the name “rupture” from an observation by (Mexican Nobel laureate) Octavio Paz. And so it remained. However, that movement was indeed a watershed in Mexican art. When I say art I’m not talking only about visual arts; I also mean literature, theater, everything. In other words, there came a radical change that’s most noticeable in visual arts; young people back then broke up with the Mexican School (Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros) but with a sense of openness, because they were looking for other artistic expressions from around the world. Then, within this important movement, there

were two people who stood out: Juan Garcia Ponce, the art critic, author of literary essays on painting, and among the eight painters there was always Fernando Garcia Ponce; both were from Yucatan. Two Yucatecos were decisive to the course of national culture back then. Because of that, the MACAY will now serve as an information center about the Rupture Movement,” Carlos Garcia Ponce explains. And he adds: “Tragedy struck the rupture. It happened in 1968. But it all started with the ESSO prize, awarded by Mexico’s Museum of Modern Art. At the time the first prize was given to Fernando Garcia Ponce, and the second to Lilia Carrillo, two abstract painters of the Rupture Movement. This caused controversy, brought problems and caused discomfort to the Mexican government.

However, the federal government itself decided the awards had been designated correctly and that it was time for change, and as if to confirm there was already an openness on the part of the federal government, there was a major exhibition at Mexico City’s Palace of Fine Arts. It was called “Confrontation 66;” one of the curators was actually Juan Garcia Ponce, our brother.”

“What happened next?”

“Then came the 1968 student movement, driven by young people who wanted to create a watershed in the system, and that caused the government to retract even about the rupture artists. What did this mean? That for many years, if a piece of Mexican art was to be sent abroad, it would always be works by Rivera, Frida, Siqueiros, Orozco, but never by Manuel Felguérez or Vicente Rojo or García Ponce, the rupturists. Only now, nearly fifty years later, in an exhibition at the University Museum of Science and Arts, was this movement given all the support and the value it deserved. Today, if you look at Fernando Garcia Ponce’s work, you’ll find it is completely current.

In commemoration of the 25th anniversary of his death, there was a major exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, and reviewers’ consensus was that it was remarkable how current it was after so many years. “ In Carlos Garcia Ponce’s opinion, his brother managed to transcend his time “because Fernando was totally devoted to his creation and absolutely absent from his surroundings. He would work, paint, have the works exhibited, and he wasn’t interested in anything else. Once, while working in Barcelona, he dared to ask me, very worried, “Well, what country am I in?” “...Spain,” I told him. He hadn’t realized that in Barcelona they speak Catalan. I mean, if you interviewed Fernando and asked him, “Well, what is this painting, what does it mean?” he would stare at you and say “Well, it means what you see.” He was unable to describe his art, to tell you the reason behind the shapes. My brother was contrasting. Just like many things did not interest him at all, to some others he would react with a child’s sense of wonder. Something he was always amazed by was aircraft. I remember him watching the sky and saying, “How perfect, that a thing like that can fly.” Speaking of his personality, painter Vicente Rojo, our great friend and one of the rupture survivors, once said something about my brother, which I think is great because it defines him very well. He said: ‘I don’t understand how Fernando, who is so crazy, can create such a sane painting.’”

Carlos García Ponce

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Staff

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Y

DECADES OF COURTSHIP ucatecan trova is considered part of the cultural heritage of the state of Yucatan; the state has been home to many well-known musicians who popularized this musical-poetic genre, with many of them becoming nationally and internationally known.

That’s why in 1978 the Museum of Yucatan Music was founded in the beautiful neighborhood of La Mejorada in the historical center

of Merida, thanks to an initiative by the granddaughter of renowned composer “Chan-Cil.” The museum welcomes its visitors with statues of trovadores that decorate the main facade, inviting them to discover this genre’s history and most significant performers. It has four halls, devoted to composers, singers-songwriters, performers and poets. Among oil paintings made by artist Alonso Gutierrez Espinosa and life-size bronze sculptures of legends like Ricardo Palmerín and Armando Manzanero, each hall features displays of personal items such as musical instruments, photographs, awards, sheet music and lyrics that belonged to the greatest musicians of our beautiful state.

We can also find items such as guitars, violins, phonographs, photographs, medals, awards, scores—including the score to one of Yucatan’s bestknown traditional songs, “Peregrina”—and even the bullet that ended the life of the great Guty Cardenas, displayed alongside portraits of famous trovadores.

One of the rooms features an

exhibition of busts of people who were relevant to the history of Yucatan music; in others, items donated and loaned by artists’ families are on display.

LIVING MUSIC In addition to the important collection it houses, the Museum of Yucatan Music offers weekly recitals by trios and trovadores, as well as a video hall, an indoor theater and a small gift shop where you can purchase CDs and videos of this traditional genre of southeast Mexico.

Whether you live in Merida or are just visiting “the white city,” don’t miss out on a visit to this museum, also known as “the gateway to the world of romantic music:” a tribute to the art of vernacular songs.

A SPACE FOR FAMILIES The museum also has a cafeteria, auditorium, bookstore and, of course, a gift shop where you can buy CDs, videos and songbooks, among other things. There are also guided tours that will allow you to discover even more about the history in each of the museum’s halls.

MUSEUM OF YUCATAN MUSIC

Director: Mario Augusto Esquivel Rios Address: Calle 57 no.

464, 48, Centro; Parque La Mejorada.

Hours: Tuesday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Admission is 20 pesos for adults; children, students and seniors pay 10 pesos. On Sundays admission is free for everyone.

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MEMORIES OF A

PALACE

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Celia Pedrero

In each of its walls, in each of its colu mns, in each of its rooms and stairs, the canton palace, for many years the site of the museu m of anthropology and history, contains a series of events that has led in part to what it is now the meridian’s identity. An architectural reference, cultural emblem of our city, symbol of an era, but above all a reflection of a spirit that fades in time, the canton palace opens its doors not to show us simply an exposition of museu m pieces, but its own memory.

GRAN MUSEO DEL MUNDO MAYA

A recounting of the site of the Museum of Anthropology and History

L

a historia del Palacio Cantón se asemeja a la historia de vida de cualquier persona, las circunstancias o el destino o vaya uno a saber qué, a veces forman redes, círculos, espirales, retornos, marcados por la ironía, la paradoja y las coincidencias.

Esta historia inicia en 1904, cuando Mérida se adornaba de veletas, del ir y venir de decenas de coches de alquiler, del próspero comercio y su bullicio, la llegada por ferrocarril de trabajadores, obreros y vendedores de productos del campo que invadían la ciudad.

The history of the Canton Palace resembles the history of a person: the circumstances or destiny or who knows what that sometimes form webs, circles, spirals, returns, marked by irony, paradox and coincidence.

This story begins in 1904, when the city of Merida was adorned with weathervanes, the comings and goings of dozens of carriages for rent, thriving, bustling trade and the arrivals of workers, laborers and sellers of farm products by train, invading the city.

It was a Merida of contrasts. El Mosaico magazine, whose editor Antonio Mediz Bolio published the arrival of the Orrin brothers’ circus and their trained elephants, the Carnex cyclists, the artists Leon and Adelina and their aerial games; the announcement of the Spanish female bullfighters; in Adolfo Llorens Tordesillos’ fencing room, located on Calle 61, students’ progress was showcased through fencing foil assaults; Circo Theater presented the actress Italia Vitaliani in 12 showings of Marie Antoinette and the Mexican tenor Gustavo Bernal was the public’s darling. Baseball, “the fashionable sport,” with games on the grounds of El Fenix was reviewed in the magazine by both fans and detractors.

In the village (now neighborhood) of Itzimná the tradition of playground games and mechanical rides continued during summer and holidays, and however much home sales were promoted, people from Merida resisted moving that far. Maybe that’s why a raffle of six masonry houses on Calle 17 and 20,000 pesos in cash appeared in El Mosaico. A

different fate befell the western part of the city, where that year the Garcia Gineres neighborhood was founded.

Calle 58-A was a large square surrounded by trees, thatched houses and walls. It would become the site of the city’s most important avenue where hacienda owners and entrepreneurs would build their mansions. It was first planned as a gated neighborhood and later as the Paseo del Adelantado Francisco de Montejo.

There, in 1904, the desire of a man to build his residence, the best of Merida and Mexico’s southeast, after selling his railway line to achieve that dream, finally became a reality with the beginning of the construction of what now reflects Yucatan’s Porfirian opulence, named Canton Palace by the

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press and Villa General Canton by its descendants.

Francisco Canton Rosado, rancher, railroad businessman, decorated soldier for his participation in the Caste War and twice governor. General Canton, a valiant man who escaped death many times, built a house for his wife and only son that would house more than 30 family members and friends.

Over seven years, the Canton Palace required the labor of dozens of masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, plumbers and electricians. The design was entrusted to the famous Italian architect Enrico Desserti, who also designed many mansions in Merida, and even assisted in the renovation of the Peon Contreras Theater. Designers and sculptors came from Spain and Italy to give this Merida residence a neoclassical and baroque touch similar to French palaces. The woodwork was under the skilled direction of Donato Pech. No expense was spared when it came to building materials, which were imported and transported by boat from France, Italy and Germany, and included marble, glass, bricks and metal beams.

With a total of two floors, on the ground floor were the bedrooms, dining room, a library, several living rooms, a chapel with a fresco of the Ascension and numerous stained-glass windows that are now in the church of San Sebastian. An impressive marble staircase and an elevator, the first on the peninsula, brought from Germany, highlight the ostentation of the time. Due to changes in the original dimensions of the land, the stables and game room, which was under a majestic dome, were built on Calle 54.

Decades later they were put to various other uses, from a communal dwelling to a carpentry shop to a nightclub.

Today it is a private house.

By 1911, the palace was completed, but General Canton did not move in until the next year when Porfirio Diaz allowed him to return from Mexico City to Merida. He arrived on September 28 and two days later suffered a stroke. In 1915, with the entry of the constitutionalist troops, the family left its residence for a short time for their hacienda Kantó.

General Canton lived just four years

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at his palace, until age 71. He died on January 31, 1917. That day the Constitutional Congress at the Iturbide Theater in Queretaro celebrated the completion of the new constitution that was to be enacted on February 5. Among the Yucatan deputies was Héctor Victoria Aguilar, who wrote Article 123. In 1911 he would lead the first strike of Yucatecan Railways.

HISTORY AND ITS ROUGH TRACK OR DESTINY AS A SWITCHMAN On April 2, 1880, the day he turned 47, Canton Rosado received the

“The building in 1907.”

Ramón Rianchio G. Cantón’s Private Collection

concession to operate the MéridaValladolid railway line from the Ministry of Development. On May 4, 1906, traffic was opened on this line, and Governor Olegario Molina presided over the ceremony. Present were superintendents Francisco Canton Rosado, Delio Moreno Canton (son and nephew of General Canton, respectively) as a machinist, Carlos Castro Morales and driver Felipe Carrillo Puerto, who years later would found the Socialist Party of the Southeast and would both become governors of Yucatan.

For over 20 years, General Canton’s

family lived in the Palace. In the book The Palace of General Canton, 100 years of history, the author Blanca M. Rodriguez tells the story: “...The general’s family started having serious economic difficulties. With the railways sold, the debts settled and, with the sisal crisis at its worst, they had no income. He could no longer maintain the residence full of relatives.

‘So more than 30 people ate at the Palace, relatives and friends who the general had previously hosted,’ says his granddaughter Delfina. That was all over and eventually he had to trade

then sold to Don Raul Molina Castillo, ‘ says Dona Delfina, and she clarifies that ‘in the house were two sets of dishware: one for 48 people and another for less. From the latter many pieces were broken when they fled to the Kanto Hacienda, when Alvarado came to Mérida.’

In addition, the family’s life was constrained exclusively to the building’s upper floor, where even a small kitchen was installed. In such limited conditions, they stopped receiving visitors.”

Because of heavy debts with the

the house. When the Canton Cano couple’s children were born, only the nuclear family lived in the Palace. The old servants had been progressively removed and only a houseboy, a gardener, and a cook were left. Except for the library, the first floor was emptied of furniture that was sold, but this was only done after the death of the general’s wife.

‘The hall fixtures were sold to Don Rogelio Suarez. We were left with the Palace’s most beautiful lamp, which was above the bust of my grandfather, near the staircase. It was a Baccarat chandelier of over two meters. It was

Municipal Treasury, Francisco Canton Rosado negotiated through a third party the exchange of the Palacio for another house and payment of taxes.

On May 18, 1932, the family moved to #460 Calle 60, which had previously been the site for the School of Fine Arts. In a Solomon-like decision, the school continued to use the Palace’s wide corridors and rooms from 1932 to 1937. There, Italian sculptor Alfonso Cardone was the director after arriving in Merida early in the century; he also participated in the construction of the Peon Contreras Theater, and supposedly also worked on General

n.

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Canton’s residence. At that time it was customary for directors to live with their families in the schools they were in charge of, and so the Cardone family lived on the second floor while the first floor was used as the school.

Caught between columns and pilasters was the distant murmur of banquets, dinners and gatherings, birthdays of friends and family, the gentle waves of Dona Delfina Rosado Canton’s wicker chair, the prayers of the rosary and the long nights of silence, laughter and grandchildren’s games, of the general and his steps.

To the present day, Raul Bermudez Febles remembers those days of 1938. In sixth grade at Hidalgo School, classes were from 7-10 a.m. and from 3-5 in the afternoon. A basketball court had been installed in the Canton Palace’s back patio, where recess challenges were brought. Whoever wanted something more exciting would evade the vigilance of teachers, climb and slide down the banister of the old marble staircase, which had often been the setting of family photos, whose steps brushed fabrics and lace dresses in the latest Parisian style.

Lacking its own building, from 1937 to 1948 Hidalgo Elementary School was housed in the Palace, where the director, Remigio Aguilar Sosa, also lived with his family.

Governor Jose Gonzalez Beytia, a former school teacher, gave it its own building on Street 60 and 41, where it is still located today.

Over the years the Palace deteriorated, and González Beytia decided to provide some maintenance and restoration. He built a garage and installed new stained-glass windows with a regional design on the ground floor. Finally, in May 1950, the work was finished and the building was given a new life as the governor’s residence, where official receptions were held and the families of at least two governors lived.

The year 1959 marked a new stage for the building. Governor Agustin Franco Aguilar allocated the Palace for the study,

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conservation and protection of the Mayan and Yucatecan cultures. In December, President Adolfo Lopez Mateos inaugurated the Archaeological and Historical Museum of Yucatan, part of the Yucatan Institute of Anthropology and History, directed by Professor Alfredo Barrera Vasquez. This institute also comprised the Center for Mayan Studies, the Crescencio Carrillo y Ancona Library and the Academy of the Mayan Language; all of them occupied the ground floor, while the basement was adapted to hold the museum’s archaeological and historical collections. Upstairs classes for the first degree in Mayan Philology were taught, and rooms for temporary exhibitions and cultural activities were created.

In 1975, the National Institute of Anthropology and History was in charge of Canton Palace; new renovations and upgrades were carried out, and the agencies making up the Yucatan Institute were relocated to different areas. In 1980, the “Palacio Canton” Regional Museum of Anthropology was established. One of its directors was historian Blanca Gonzalez Rodriguez, author of the book cited above, who also lived with her family in the Palace from 1950 to 1951.

Her father was Governor González Beytia.

Today, 111 years after the first foundation stone was placed for its construction, through its corridors and rooms, admiration and amazement for this imposing building remain alive. Tourists, local visitors and hundreds of children live the history of Yucatan through its exhibitions. For many Yucatecans, this museum is and will remain an urban, cultural and sentimental reference. The Canton Palace, the home of a general, still controversial in the critical examination of Yucatan’s history, who received a medal with the inscription “campaign against the Mayans,” but just around the corner from the pages of destiny, circumstances, or who knows what, proudly shows the world the culture of a people who do not forget their origin.

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n a t a c u Th e Y y r o t s i of H s m u e s Mu l a n a ar t i s “Being a craftsma n is a way of life that is linked to the roots of one’s a ncestors, so we must valu e a nd respect their work.” — Jorge Esma Ba zán.

T

he director of the Yucatan Institute of History and Museums, Jorge Esma Bazan, met with men and women devoted to making crafts; through their work, these artisans contribute to the state’s identity and cultural richness.

The director said he’s proud to have the artisans’ works displayed in many museums, not only in Yucatan, but in all of Mexico and the world, enriching our heritage and showcasing our culture, and he acknowledged the talent found in their everyday work.

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e t u t i t s In an d s t h g i l h hig n o i t a e cr

ITEMS IN OTHER MUSEUMS In addition to the venues above, the He added that Yucatan’s museums are a window into work of artisans and many plastic understanding and admiring the artistic expressions of our and visual artists is also on display in artisans, detailing that venues like the Yucatan Folk Art museums such as the yucatan song Museum feature a rich display of pieces in a tour that traverses every Mexican state. museum, located in the mejorada neighborhood; the fernando garcía ponce ‘macay’ museum, next to the cathedral; the CRAFTS ARE A REFLECTION OF CULTURAL merida city museum, near the former post EXPRESSIONS office building; the canton palace museum on He also recognized the work of artisan Santos Esteban Chuc Caamal, a native of the town of Yaxuná, in paseo de montejo; the natural the Municipality of Yaxcabá; his wood-carved history museum, next to the animal figurines can be admired in the permanent ‘el centenario’ zoo; the exhibition hall of the Grand Museum of the Mayan museum of the mayan World in Merida (GMMMM). people in dzibilchaltun; After congratulating him on his work, Esma Bazan explained that artisans’ talent gives life to many the juan gamboa guzman of the cultural expressions that identify us, state art gallery, next to making it vitally important to provide support the church of the third and spaces to people devoted to the creation order; the yucatan of these works in any form; he also noted folk art museum that this contributes to artisans receiving an economic incentive from the sale of their near mejorada work; in most cases, the only source of neighborhood, income for their families. and the ‘arcadio “Being a craftsman is a way of life linked poveda ricalde’ to the roots of one’s ancestors, so we planetarium at must value and respect their work; in many cases, this work encompasses the ‘olimpo’ values and religion, that are evidence cultural of a full, living identity that jointly center of makes up our nation, and which are merida. proudly displayed at most museums in Yucatan,” he said.

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NEW IMAGE

UPCOMING FOR

Writing

T

he director of the Yucatan Institute of History and Museums (IHMY in Spanish), Jorge Esma Bazan, announced earlier this year an investment of 12 million pesos for the restoration, conservation and furnishing of the

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An investment of 12 million pesos furnishing and maintenance of

organizations’ museums, aimed at safeguarding their museographic content and providing a safer experience for their visitors.

The announcement was made during a press conference led by the head of IHMY in the Fernando García Ponce (MACAY) Museum, where he

was accompanied by the museum’s director, Elba García Villareal; IHMY’s Director of Museums and Special Events, Beatriz Peniche López, and Victor Manuel Guillermo Alavez and Luis Enrique Reyes Bolio, who

REMODELING MUSEUMS will go toward the restoration, these Merida cultural sites.

highlighted the technical details of the upcoming work.

According to the director of IHMY, this will be a joint effort between the Yucatan state government and

the National Council for Culture and the Arts (CONACULTA); together, through the Program for the Support of States’ Cultural Infrastructure (PAICE), they will make an investment totaling approximately 8 million pesos for the MACAY, while the remaining 4 million pesos will go to the Museum

of Yucatan Music and the Yucatan Folk Art Museum. “Today we have come to formally announce the start of the restoration, remodeling, furnishing and maintenance of these areas, in a process that will be carried out in four stages starting with the MACAY

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museum, which will be equipped with better infrastructure. Technical studies show it has some structural issues that are a serious threat to this historical building, so we must pay attention and act immediately,” said Jorge Esma.

He clarified the INAH will accompany the process so the main provisions of heritage conservation will be followed; additionally, there will be a legal and technical obligation to follow up on the work through a committee,

in order to establish a close collaboration that will be carried out jointly by IHMY and CONACULTA through PAICE. He also noted that a new attendance record was set, as the venues that make up the Yucatan Institute of History and Museums network were visited by over 22,500 people during the holiday period at the end of 2014 (December 19 to 31), breaking the record of 18 thousand visitors set over the same period in 2013.

AT THE END OF 2014, MUSEUMS IN MERIDA RECEIVED OVER 22,500 VISITORS

According to IHMY’s general director, Jorge Esma Bazan, the growing interest in visiting museu ms is due to the excellent quality of the exhibits displayed within these cultural venues where Y ucatan’s history, rich in tradition and culture, is so masterfully captured.

“During 2014 we carried out extensive work so the institute’s museu ms would become more dyna mic, in order for

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national and foreign visitors—in addition to the locals who make up the majority— to feel the history of Y ucatán as a bastion that shelters those wishing to delve into this land’s fascinating history,” Jorge Esma explained.

He added that efforts will be strengthened in all of the museu ms in the IHMY’s network to carry out actions that will encourage even more visitors to discover

these venues.

F inally, he gave an account of the 33 exhibitions held during the 2014 International Festival of Mayan Culture (F ICMaya), which he said are proof of the genius, talent, culture and dedication that exist in our land, the heritage of a past that is both ancient and dyna mic because of its wide variety of shapes and details.

Joaquín Filio

U

pon reaching the Folk Art Museum of Yucatan, you enter into a pact with the past: you face history, travel through our roots and traverse Mexico discovering our culture. The building that houses the museum was erected over a hundred years ago by Don Olegario Molina Solis, a henequen merchant who was also governor of Yucatan and Minister of Economic Development during one of Porfirio Diaz’s terms as president.

This house was originally a wedding present, one of the museographers explains. It was built for Carmela Molina in 1900; besides bearing witness to her marriage, it was the site of various episodes in Mérida history.

It’s located in the neighborhood of “La Mejorada” in the city center, and it can be recognized by a plaque on its yellow walls.

To appreciate the richness between these walls, visitors should arrive hungry for culture. They must be ready to embark on an amazing journey through the colors, masks and clothing displayed within each of the rooms. Don’t be fooled by the museum windows’ simple appearance; a tidal wave of history is contained in a brief but profound journey.

THE MANGER TECHNIQUE At the beginning of the tour you’ll find the Temporary Exhibit Hall, which is currently home to a collection of works depicting the birth of Jesus. It isn’t only the subject matter that’s interesting, but the form and the technique with which each nativity scene was designed and built.

There are at least twentyfive works ranging from traditional wood to exquisite quartz. Details compel visitors to slightly bow their heads to examine each person and animal. Undeniably, a representation worthy of a closer analysis is Nacimiento en Volcho (VW Beetle Birth), by Edilma Cruz Prudencia, because it summarizes the pilgrimage of the Magi. In this piece, religious figures are integrated with pop culture: the scene is set in a Volkswagen beetle, where colors and psychedelia stand out.

THE CLOSET OF TIME Upon reaching the first Permanent Exhibit Hall, visitors will find the closet of time.

Quexquémetl (a native type of garment, sort of like a poncho), blouses, sarapes (blankets), enredos (wrap-around skirts) and posahuancos (long handwoven textiles) are only some of the items that are displayed and which may as well have been created by God’s hand, as they’re all anonymous pieces. In addition, this is where one of the most valuable pieces of the museum is located: a shawl of beads. This is a rare technique, and even among artisans themselves it has become an enigma due to the process’s complexity.

An informational plaque reads that permanence throughout time is one of basket-weaving’s defining features. A historic vision of dressing is a personal discovery, and these garments remind us that clothes are a collective expression; that’s why they remain unsigned.

A CERAMIC JUNGLE Beyond the stairs, across the courtyard and through the large oak doors, you’ll find the ceramic jungle. It is a place trapped in silence. It is the home of iguanas, snakes, trees of life and spiders made of black clay from Tonalá. There’s a collection of pots and pans that were “captured” all over the country to be placed in “captivity.” Miniature figures depicting everyday scenes from Jalisco and Michoacán, clay pottery from Mama and Ticul in Yucatan, and the Majolica technique from Guanajuato are just a few examples of artisanal creativity in Mexico. In this room, you only need to look at the “Pot of insects” to get a full view of the outstanding brush technique developed in Oaxaca. It is a clay piece that has been overtaken by flies, crickets and other bugs boasting a full range of colors. The old house at La Mejorada is worth a picture, and worth your time. This—going to the heart of Mexican culture and the identity it displays to the rest of the world—is the only way we can understand a little more of what we Mexicans have been and what we will be. There is no doubt: our handicrafts are creations deeply rooted in our dreams. Visiting the Folk Art Museum of Yucatan is returning to ourselves.

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THE HISTORY OF SISAL,

THE “GREEN GOLD” Its origin, domestication and crafts Silvia Terán Contreras. Anthropologist.

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isal is not only a fiber; it has been and remains one of the most powerful symbols of Yucatan. Although it was consolidated in the 19th and 20th centuries in the middle of the “green gold” boom, the origin of sisal dates back to before the Spanish conquest, and its “inventors” weren’t the rich landowners, as one might guess within the context of regional history, but Mayan farmers.

Mayan farmers domesticated sisal from a wild species, Agave angustifolia Haw. They selected the plant and groomed it through the centuries, primarily as a fiber, but perhaps also for other purposes. In other areas, other ethnic groups also domesticated it.

In Yucatan, this fiber has been primarily used to make crafts designed to meet multiple practical needs, from which began the domestication process in the area.

Thanks to Friar Diego de Landa, we know the Mayans cultivated it in their plots and probably used it to make sabucanes (a regional variety of satchel), ropes, tumplines and all kinds of artifacts required to perform various activities. These must have

been diversified with the arrival of the Spaniards, since they introduced new animals, like horses, and activities such as stockbreeding.

We also know that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, sisal made its historic debut as an internationally in-demand fiber used to bind wheat in sheaves; it was at this point in history when it became noticeable, and its use became widespread.

“HONOR TO WHOM HONOR IS DUE ...”

However, many people don’t know that sisal comes from Yucatan, that farmers selected and domesticated it throughout centuries, and that the artisanal use they gave it is what actually drove the process.

It must be noted that because the industrialization process encouraged the cultivation of “white sisal” or sackij—since its characteristics best suited the ropemaking industry’s needs—it also caused a major genetic erosion, so that by 1980 only three variants were left of the seven whose

existence was reported in late 19thcentury agronomy manuals. It also should be noted that the other two variants that survived (Yaaxkij, “green” sisal, and Kitamkij, “boar” sisal), are used for handicrafts due to the softness of their fibers.

CRAFT ITEMS TODAY Except for hammocks, sabucanes and ropes (which are very old, traditional products), all other sisal products that are currently marketed have been developed to cater to tourist demand.

After the collapse of the sisal industry in the 1970s, many farmers went back to craft production in order to maintain their income.

The difference with artisanal products from previous times is that traditional items were manufactured to satisfy practical needs of both the Mayans and the mestizo population; in short,

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for the local domestic market.

Conversely, the products sold as a result of the sisal crisis were geared to meet the growing domestic and international tourism demand, which started to rise in the 70s from promotion of the Caribbean coast and Mayan ruins.

Artisanal alternatives have been important because they have meant a secure source of income for many families, especially those found in the most remote communities.

A WIDE VARIETY Unlike the old items oriented to the domestic market, the ones currently being produced are listed in the box accompanying this article, and we should highlight there is a demand for them; craftsmen and women produce a wide variety in different colors, sizes and techniques.

Among the techniques used to develop sisal fiber crafts we can list the loom weave, corchado (a weaving technique used to

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make hammocks), braiding, “margaritas,” crocheting, manojos enrollados (rolled bunches) and sewn manojos enrollados.

Regarding the colors, though most artisans color their work with industrial (aniline) dyes, there are still some who work with natural dyes that give them a special, high-quality finish.

Natural dyes are extracted from bark and wood chips from regional trees like chukum and tzalam and leaves from plants that are either grown or found in the wild, including k’anan, x’kakaltun, sapodilla and sabakché. These products are more expensive because preparing the dye involves hard work.

The villages where sisal has been artisanally developed are Hocabá Sahcabá, Xocchel, Sanhacat, Holactún, Dzoncahuich, Motul, Merida, Tixkokob, Temozón, Temax, Dzindzantun, Popola Tixhualactun and Hacienda Poxilá.

SISAL HANDICRAFTS CURRENTLY IN PRODUCTION: Jewelry boxes Animal figurines Bags Boxes Baskets Folders Hair bands Candy bowls Scouring pads Shams Hammocks Placemats Bread boxes Lamp screens Pot-holders Soap dishes Coasters Satchels Sandals Ropes Rugs Tortilla holders

Mural about Korean immigration

KOREAN THROUGH AND THROUGH

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Javier Amado Corona Baeza he dream of gathering together the mementos of many Yucatecan families’ stories who share the same Korean origin became a reality with the adaptation of the old Korean Association’s site into the Korean Immigration Commemorative

Museum.

This building was the Korean Association’s headquarters in Merida during the early 30s. Among the organization’s principles were to care for its members’ welfare and to protect the customs brought to these lands by the Koreans who arrived to the Yucatan peninsula in 1905.

Those years, when the Korean community and their descendants celebrated traditional festivals with memorable family get-togethers, were slowly being forgotten when people began migrating to Mexico City and Tijuana, Baja California, shortly after the middle of the 20th century with the goal of improving their living conditions.

This is how this building’s keys kept changing hands until around the time of the hundred-year celebration of Korean immigration in Mexico, held in the city of Merida in February 2005. As part of that Friday the 26th’s activities, after the official inauguration ceremony of the monument dedicated to immigration in another part of the city, the president of the Korean government’s National Assembly, Won Ki Kim, handed the keys to the remodeled building back to the Yucatan Association of Korean Descendants in the presence of invited Korean officials, municipal authorities from Merida, the Korean community and the media so it could serve as the Korean Immigration Commemorative Center.

And so, a short history of this building was carved in stone, which states: “This property was acquired by Korean descendants in 1934 and was the former Korean Association’s headquarters, site of the independence movement and unity of the

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Korean community in Yucatan until the beginning of the 60s.Within the setting of the centennial celebration of Korean immigration to Mexico, sponsored by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs of the Republic of Korea, in February 2005 the original building was remodeled to be used as the Korean Immigration Commemorative Center in Mexico. 26-02-05.”

That day, an exhibition was presented of just over 200 objects in 17 glass cases, which held, among various objects: a copy of a 1905 passport; documents from the Korean Association in Tampico, Tamaulipas; bibles from three different religions and other ancient religious books; records and payment of fees of the Korean Association in Merida; payment vouchers to help the struggle of the Korean independence movement; letters detailing the experiences of Koreans in Cuba; documents from some of the first Koreans, including credentials to work in the haciendas; and regulations from the same association founded in 1950.

Handing over the keys. On behalf of Korean descendants in Yucatan, Ulises Park receives the keys for the Korean Immigration Commemorative Center symbolically from the Korean government with Amado Corona Diaz, vice president of Koryuc, on February 26, 2005.

All this took place under the gaze of the portraits of Korean independence actors, religious leaders who lived among Koreans on haciendas and the old Korean flag that once flew at official events.

The chronicle of this event details that many more people than expected by organizers attended, which was a pleasant surprise for everyone and a valuable gift from the Korean government.

The site was later tapped to host the Korean language school, and so a few months after starting classes, the windows had to be moved to have more space for the student tables and organized activities. It was also the venue for meetings of the members of the Association of Korean Descendants, who met every first Tuesday of the month to discuss various community issues.

The days passed for the building, which everyone referred to as Hanin Juegan, and not until December 2006 did it close its doors. In less than a month, work and improvements began to accommodate what would become the new museum, according to the Association of Korean Descendants’ (Koryuc A.C.) meeting held on January 15, 2007, which unanimously approved the overall project. Coordination of the creation of the museum fell to Javier Amado Corona Baeza, a 4th-generation descendant, who worked on the construction with Marcelo Itza Canal.

At the same time, the collection of historical documents, photographs, newspaper clippings and old books from the families of Korean descendants began, and, along with many nails, screws, cans of paint, boards, lightbulbs, cables and a lot of sweat, the creation of this museum as it currently operates was finished.

Thus the board for the Association of Korean Descendants in Yucatan A.C., supported by the Korean embassy in Mexico, inaugurated the Korean Immigration Commemorative Museum on Tuesday, May 15 at 8 p.m. with the presence of Jongchan Won, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Korea and his wife Jungsook Suh, representatives of the state government and the local city council and the guest of honor Alfredo Romero Castilla, professor in the political science department at UNAM and first Mexican exchange student to Korea.

In this new exhibition of the migrants’ history, 94 photographs and 76 documents were on display, ranging from news stories from those years and a variety of documents used by the old Korean associations formed over nearly a century, which strengthened Yucatan as the main historical point of Korean immigration to Mexico. The museum also has a library specializing in issues of Korean immigration to Mexico.

As a general explanation for the exposition, the following words were written on a drawing of a sisal field and hacienda: “They came with the hope of improving their standard of living; they traveled with the few things they could carry in their hands. All had left their homes, their customs and friends to give themselves over to what they believed would

be a better life. But, the reality was different from their dreams, as they faced adjustment problems from the sudden change of climate, the language barrier, different customs, different food and the hard work of cutting the leaves of a plant they had never heard of before.

The immigration of just over 1,400 Koreans to Mexico, of which 1,014 were able to reach Yucatan in 1905, contributed, along with other immigration, to what is known as “the era of Green Gold” because of the sisal boom.

A little over a century after this, their descendants have created associations mainly in the cities of Merida, Mexico City and Tijuana. Part of the progress they have achieved has been receiving Korean government officers, offering scholarships to Korean student descendants and, more recently, the celebrations for the centennial of Korean immigration to Mexico.

It has been many years since the first stalk was cut by a Korean hand, and that memory is still preserved by those who live proudly, looking toward a better future, because they are part of a mix of different races, from distant peninsulas united by the dream of a better life.”

This is how the museum tour began, starting from the first news on immigration, through the participation of Koreans in the sisal boom, the formation of associations, their naturalization as Mexican citizens, the fusion and exchange with Mexican society, pieces from the historical promotion of immigration up to the most recent activities including visits of ambassadors to Merida, the activities of the current Korean Association and the celebration of the hundredyear anniversary of Korean immigration to Mexico, among other things.

The Korean Immigration Commemorative Museum is located on Calle 65 # 397-A between Calles 44 and 46, in the center of Merida. Visitors are greeted by Genny Chans Song from Tuesday to Friday from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and from 2 p.m.-5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Grand opening of the korean immigration commemorative center on february 26, 2005, with an exhibition of historical objects and documents.

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Isaac Magaña Gcantón

O

ften secretly, some of us maintain an adversarial relationship with museums. Personally, I have to say that on more than one occasion I have caught myself mechanically crossing the—sometimes infinite—spaces that house them. And behind those hurried steps, confined to those high, cold, prisoner walls, I’ve come across a persistent question: why museums? Humans have been at odds with them for some time. Paul Valéry vehemently complained about them; Marcel Proust eloquently worshipped them. Going to a museum is putting yourself in check: they enchant or crush you, but rarely leave you indifferent.

A museum is largely a curator’s responsibility, and curators can be either businesspeople or artists. Here we must pause to note that the ratio is uneven, with the former being abundant and the latter, without a doubt, being scarce. And the point isn’t to accumulate pieces to demonstrate power. A museum is not a business, so its value doesn’t lie in the number of overflowing corridors or crowded halls.

A multitude at the ticket office tells us nothing. A museum, as I understand it, is about intimacy. And our encounter with it must result in a surprise, a trance that brings us back to life with a new view of it. From my point of insistence, a museum should not go unnoticed; it should resonate within us, and make us

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get us carried away into ourselves.

Art has always aimed to question the individual. From cave paintings in Lascaux to the abstract expressionism of Pollock and Still, art has been— voluntarily or involuntarily—a reflection of the human condition. It reveals its creators, and is revealed by them. In turn, the creators realize their vision, and the manifestation belongs to all of us. As a result of the artist’s struggle with poetry—which is, by the way, responsible for all works of art— we receive the piece we lightly call a painting, sculpture, poem or musical composition.

No piece of art is created immediately.

Even those executed in a heartbeat hide a long process. Layers, a painter friend of mine would say. The time

artists spend away from their work— because they feel they can’t, because they won’t or because they’re tired or thirsty—is by no means dead time, but the almost inevitable dryness all artistic achievements have to go through. Eluding reason, something floats around in the air all that time, and every step artists take is, in a way, conditioning the work of art’s end result. Everything an artist has been all that time amalgamates slowly with the poetic vision received, be it at once or in small doses, to shape what our eyes can see.

With the above I tried to say that every work of art in a museum is the result of long effort carried out from within.

In this sense, it isn’t hyperbolic to say that a museum is a kind of temple and

everything it houses is a sacred object, which should therefore be treated with respect and carefully set in place.

That’s why, to me, the idea of saturating museum halls with items seems absurd, because as I’ve repeatedly said, each has gone through a unique, unrepeatable process. Each item is possessive and demands our attention.

The curator’s task is to satisfy the egos of each of the works in the museum, giving each of them a private space to say what they have to say, so that the viewer will, by looking attentively, be able to receive the heavy blow or the introspection each of them produces.

Each piece has a story; we must pay attention and listen to it.

I recently read an article in which an angry professor complained about the insufficient seven hundred pieces in a museum (!). For goodness’ sake, seven hundred pieces is a lot, and it could take a lifetime to become familiar with each of them. He argued that the museum’s size was meant to accommodate a greater number of pieces. I disagree: museums aren’t huge for the viewer to walk every inch of them and find them brimming with objects. Their size has to do with the space demanded by each piece, the minimum space it needs to minimally reveal itself. Or would any of us feel comfortable living in a 97-squarefoot room? Strictly speaking, our body would fit more than comfortably in

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that amount of space; in reality, it is insufficient.

Our vital expression requires more space.

Meanwhile, museums have another mission: protection and conservation. Certainly, pieces are best preserved in a museum than in a living room, but having many guests at a party doesn’t mean we have to talk to all of them. Sometimes we find museums with many finely arranged pieces, but that doesn’t mean we have (or would be able) to pay attention to all of them. As with parties, you go to museums to see some of the works, to get close to them, to get to know them. A few of them are enough to create a great museum. If they’re well distributed to establish a dialogue with the public, there will be intimacy, and if they’re well-preserved, we’ll have a chance to go back to meet again with them and with others. A roundtrip to and with the work of art.

Only when we’ve decided to break away from

the stagnant vision that conservatism has imposed on museums, using them to flaunt their own purchasing power and ability to plot relationships, will we be able to walk their halls as if they were the hallways of our houses, or a temple. True, breaking the impersonality of these rooms decorated with artifacts is the curator’s task, but it’s also our responsibility to shake off those auras of grandeur that form around them over the years. A joint task: the museum and its restorers fight the ravages of time (that’s why they’re there); we, when we look at the works of art, give them back to the world, we update them. In other words, our conversation with them keeps them fresh and us healthy.

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Merida’s Grand Museum of the Mayan World celebrates its TWO-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

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wo years after opening, the Grand Museum of the Mayan World of Merida (GMMWM) stands out as the museum housing the largest collection of pieces from the Mayan culture, from the Preclassic, Classic and Postclassic periods to the expressions that show the nuances Mayans still hold on to today as a living people.

To highlight the scope that this building, conceived within the PPP system, has had, academics, intellectuals, anthropologists, archaeologists, architects, hoteliers, museum directors, government officers, businessmen and investors came together to celebrate GMMWM’s opening two years ago, which took place on December 21, 2012, in accordance with the end of the cycle in the Mayan Long Count calendar.

Secretary of Culture and Arts Roger Metri Duarte attended on behalf of Governor of Yucatan Rolando Zapata Bello to lead the commemorative service, along with the general director of the museum and the Institute of Yucatan History and Museums (IHMY in Spanish) Jorge Esma, who highlighted the hard work in consolidating this space dedicated to the Mayan culture.

Also present was the general director of Yaxché Culture Promoting Organization Carlos Puente, who spoke about his experience creating the strategy for establishing the best public-

The Grand Museum of the Mayan World Merida celebrated two years in service.

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private partnership in the country—a museum built using the PPP framework—after which architect Josefina Rivas from the group “4A Arquitectos” detailed her experience with the working group that developed the GMMWM. Businessman Alberto Perez Jacome from the investor group Hermes said that building the museum has been one of the corporation’s wisest decisions, and went on to talk about the meeting he had with the then executive director of the project, Jorge Esma Bazan, who said: “There are many memories and countless stories, so from now on we will have to undertake new tasks and new responsibilities with the same commitment and passion we have for Mexico and Yucatan.”

He added that the Grand Museum of the Mayan World is a vital building that has been visited by more than 500,000 people, especially on Sundays since admission is free for Yucatan residents, when the museum is visited by numerous families from Yucatan’s interior who consider this their space, feeling a sense of belonging to their own culture.

In addition, Jorge Esma Bazan said that two projects, one at the national level and another at the international level, will be undertaken in 2015, which will seek to deepen the presence of

Bárbara Guasch Madáhuar and Raúl Aguilar.

Arq. Antonio Peniche Gallareta and Diana Eugenia Cen Zapata.

Roger Metri Duarte, representative of Yucatan’s governor, highlighted the work done by Jorge Esma Bazan.

Alberto Miranda, Dra. Fernanda Valencia, Mtro. Ulises Carrillo Cabrera and Judge Ana Brun. the museum and FICMAYA. Regarding this he said, “We will create a program that will have thousands of children visiting the coming year.”

He also added that as part of the consolidation strategies, making a pubic archaeology and anthropology library in a museum is planned, and an alliance will be established with UNESCO so GMMWM can take part in the World Museum Congress; with this, the museum’s name will be on the list of the most important in the world, thus joining the celebration of International Museum Day. He thanked investors, suppliers and industrialists for their participation in making this project a reality, citing that of the 23 public-private partnerships in Mexico, this is the most important and is in first place in terms of its monthly compliance in all aspects (economic, technical and functional).

“Mexicans should be proud of our roots, especially the Mayan people, who have kept their ancient essence alive,” explained Jorge Esma, after mentioning that Mérida’s Grand Museum of the Mayan World pays tribute to this culture’s knowledge and expressions. He asked the audience to take home a message of love for life.

The culture secretary welcomed the creation of this museum as one of the most important in Latin America, with several national and international awards, among them: The award “Best Pathfinder Project,” granted by the event

organizing committee Partnership Awards; the CIDI Iberoamerican Award for being the Emblematic Work of 2013; two awards from the construction industry, the CEMEX Prize, awarded in the category “Consistency in Accessibility,” and the Miguel Covarrubias Prize for the temporary exhibition “Chicxulub: The end of the dinosaurs,” awarded by INAH; the “International Grand Prize” thanks to the design of the Grand Museum of the Mayan World of Merida, during the XII International Architecture Biennial of Costa Rica; the “Comex Color Award” for its refined language and forceful application of color; the Humanist Architecture and Design Award” from Domus magazine; and the “Year Awards 2013,” given annually by U.S. business magazine World Finance.

“All these awards that adorn and distinguish the museum as one of the most important sites in Latin America and the world are an incentive to develop and promote cultural tourism in the country.

Because of this, Governor Rolando Zapata expresses his thanks for believing in domestic investment,” said the head of the Secretary of Culture and Arts, Roger Metri Duarte, citing that the Grand Museum of the Mayan World of Merida has a valuable urban conception and expressive architecture and offers a dynamic, interactive museology for understanding, living and feeling archeology, anthropology, ethnology, history and customs of the land of the Mayab.

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Jorge Esma Bazan, general director of the Institute of History and Museums of Yucatan, thanked the support and pledged to continue generating projects supporting Yucatecan and Mayan culture.

Architect Josefina Rivas Acevedo stressed the confidence the government had for this ambitious project.

Carlos Puente López, general director of the Yaxché Culture Promoting Organization, referred to the effort and the success the GMMW has generated.

Nidelvia Ávila and Miguel Angel Nuñez Cabrera.

Carlos Carrillo Maldonado and wife.

Beatriz Rodríguez Guillermo and Margarita Díaz Rubio.

Adolfo Peniche Pérez and Carlos Pasos Novelo.

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Ing. Enrique Molina Caballero and Silvia Sarti González.

It is one of the most important buildings in Latin America.

After being open for two years, it has been visited by more than 500,000 people.

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José Manuel López Campos with his wife, Carol Kolozs and Ana Karina Cruz.

Architect Josefina Rivas, Abril Pacheco Patrón, Prof. Veronica Garcia. Standing: Architect William Ramirez, Engineer Fernando Rivas, Jose Manuel Castillo Cortazar and Lic. Jorge Lara Rivera....

The Yucatecan singer-songwriter Sergio Esquivel entertained during the gala evening with a full repertoire.

Lupita Basteris de Molina and Adolfo Patron. Standing: Tere Ceballos Aznar and Margarita Molina.

Alberto Perez Jacome from the investment group Grupo Hermes highlighted the work achieved together by investors and the state and federal governments.

AWARDS * “Best Pathfinder Project” awarded by the event organizing committee Partnership Awards. * CIDI Iberoamerican Award for being the Emblematic Work of 2013. * The CEMEX Prize, awarded in the category “Consistency in Accessibility.” * The Miguel Covarrubias Prize for the temporary exhibition “Chicxulub: The end of the dinosaurs,” awarded

by INAH. * The “International Grand Prize” thanks to the design of the Grand Museum of the Mayan World of Merida. * The “Comex Color Award” for its refined language and forceful application of color during the XII International Architecture Biennial of Costa Rica. * The “Humanist Architecture and Design” Prize awarded by Domus magazine. * The “Year Awards 2013” recognition, awarded annually

by U.S. business magazine World Finance.

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