mexico, memories, money and the things we take home

 mexico, memories, money and the things we take home

November 14 – International Day against Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Property

Today is the International Day against Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Property.

Theft, looting and the illegal trade in cultural objects happen in countries all over the world. Communities lose pieces of their history, identity and heritage when objects are taken from their rightful places and sold elsewhere.

It is worth thinking about, especially when you've spent decades travelling, as I have.

When I first started going to Mexico, back in the late 1980s, I met a man from California. He was considerably older than me, but I really liked him.

I believe that, in his earlier days, he made some of his money buying and selling Mexican artifacts.

At the time, I don't remember people giving much thought to where things came from. There were plenty of tourist markets selling things described as antiques, reproductions and traditional Mexican crafts. There were also fakes.

But there's a difference between buying a locally made souvenir, buying a reproduction and buying an authentic cultural object that may have been stolen, looted or illegally removed from its country.

That distinction matters.

Anyway, life took some difficult turns for him. He had a wife who became ill with malaria and died while he was away. He eventually returned to the United States, but apparently wasn't doing very well. I suspect drinking had become a problem. His family encouraged him to return to Mexico.

By the time I knew him, he had a travel agency and exchanged money for visitors.

That was actually a huge help.

Younger travellers probably have no idea what travelling was like before debit cards, online banking and ATMs everywhere.

We carried traveller's cheques. These were prepaid paper cheques that you could exchange for local currency at banks, hotels or exchange offices. You bought them before leaving home, kept track of them, and signed them when cashing them. It was another thing to worry about while travelling!

Eventually, he became quite successful.

He had a beautiful house, and I was fortunate enough to stay there for a while. He was also involved in selling and renting some very expensive homes in Bucerías, near Puerto Vallarta.

I watched that little place change over the years.

What had once felt like a relatively quiet, little-known coastal community became a much busier tourist destination. Million-dollar homes, retirement properties, visitors and more development.

Older timers everywhere. Almost a retirement village compared with the Zipolite I knew.

And speaking of Zipolite...

There was a time when I was travelling all over Mexico, partly trying to get over this man. Long story short, that's how I ended up seeing so much of the country!

He eventually married a Mexican woman and had a child. I heard a few years ago that he had passed away. I don't know exactly when or what happened.

He also took me into the mountains for a few days, to Santa María del Oro.

That was an interesting trip, although not exactly a romantic adventure. He was unwell with amoebas, taking medication and sleeping much of the time. On our first day, someone drowned in the lake.

And then there were my green contact lenses.

We went into a little store, and I noticed people whispering and pointing. I was already a little nervous because we were so far up in the mountains.

I couldn't figure out what was happening.

He finally said, "It's your eyes. Your green eyes. They probably haven't seen that before."

Ohhhhh!

One of those little travel memories that stays with you.

Years later, I returned to Mexico with my child. I would have been around 46, and my child was six. We were finishing a big journey around the country, ending in Bucerías.

I remember thinking I was going to lose it.

Music playing everywhere. Everywhere you went, it felt like being inside a supermarket.

We had just come from the freedom of Zipolite, where we had been running around barefoot, sometimes naked or half-dressed, listening to music from all over the world.

We weren't exactly prepared to fit neatly back into Bucerías, never mind Vancouver!

And I repeated that recipe for adventure with my child at six, seven, ten and fifteen.

Those experiences became part of our lives.

But back to today's subject.

Travelling changes how you see things. It also makes you think about what happens when places become popular, when money arrives, when land changes hands and when the things that belong to a community become commodities for someone else's enjoyment or profit.

Cultural heritage isn't just something sitting behind glass in a museum.

It belongs to people. It belongs to communities, to Indigenous peoples, to families and to generations who came before us.

An archaeological object is not simply a pretty thing to put on a shelf. It can carry information about an entire civilization, a community's traditions and a history that cannot be replaced.

And just because something is offered for sale doesn't mean it should be bought.

UNESCO's 1970 Convention provides an international framework for preventing the illegal import, export and transfer of cultural property, and for helping return stolen objects to their countries of origin.

Perhaps the most important lesson is to ask questions before buying.

Where did it come from? Who did it belong to? Was it legally obtained? And who benefits from the sale?

I've seen Mexico change over nearly four decades. I've met people, fallen in love, travelled, made mistakes, learned things and collected memories.

Some things we bring home in our luggage.

Other things we should leave where they belong.

Reflective Questions

Who has the right to sell a country's history?

When does collecting become exploitation?

How many cultural objects in private collections have histories that nobody has bothered to investigate?

Does tourism preserve communities, or sometimes gradually replace them?

Should buyers be responsible for proving where cultural objects came from?

Happy International Day against Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Property.

UNESCO: https://www.unesco.org/en/days/against-illicit-trafficking

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