Antecedentes para la profesionalización de la conservación en México: diplomacia cultural y políticas patrimonialistas

Abstract

In 1966, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) decreed the foundation of the Regional Laboratory and Training Center for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage in Mexico. This decision, which ruled out the candidacy of other Latin American headquarters, was the result of a policy by the Mexican State to present itself as the “big brother of Latin America.” Thus, it set itself up as a regional leader and intermediary in the necessary negotiations that took place during the political-economic readjustments of the period immediately following World War II. The field chosen to consolidate the public image of Mexico was culture and art. In order to strengthen the national identity inside and outside the country, afar-reaching campaign was carried out to promote the professionalization of disciplines directly related to the discovery, safeguarding, conservation, and exhibition of heritage of an identitary nature, mainly archeology, anthropology, history, and restoration. This paper addresses some of the methods implemented in such a successful institutional practice.