Abstract
In 1923 the peripheral state of Yucatán saw an unusual confluence of personalities and interests. The new governor, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, was putting a radical socialist experiment into practice, while trying to impress upon the Maya campesinato the glories of their underrespected heritage. The liberal New York magazine Survey Graphic was putting together a special issue that would highlight that experiment. The local upper classes were awakening to the possibilities of cultural tourism. US archaeologists were beginning a major investigation and restoration project at the Maya city of Chichén Itzá. A Californian woman journalist was accompanying the archaeologists, in the process both learning about earlier US depredations at Chichén Itzá and falling in love with the new governor. This paper disentangles these threads in the interest of illuminating a key moment of cultural production in the American periphery.
Highlights
On Thursday February 15, 1923, a group of some of the most distinguished US archaeologists of the day visited the ruined Maya city of Uxmal on the Yucatán peninsula, accompanied by various local dignitaries and a journalist from the New York Times
Fall Issue, 2021 memoir written by the journalist, which was published more than eighty years after the events here described and a set of photographs documenting the socialist experiment
The Archaeologists The archaeologists visiting Uxmal belonged to a new organization called the Archaeological Institute of Yucatan (AIY), announced in New York and Mexico City in late October 1922 (“Plan”)
Summary
On Thursday February 15, 1923, a group of some of the most distinguished US archaeologists of the day visited the ruined Maya city of Uxmal on the Yucatán peninsula, accompanied by various local dignitaries and a journalist from the New York Times.
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