North American Migrants Working as Tour Guides in Alamos in Mexico Mobilities and Imaginaries

Abstract

The article focuses on the guide’s narratives and practices when guiding “HouseTours” that is the most visited tourist attraction in the Mexican town. We argue thatthese guides provide narratives about concrete imaginaries that constitute not onlyauthenticity but also utopia – that we consider one of the core elements in tourismimaginaries. The guides inscribe themselves in the utopian imaginaries in the Westernhemisphere that continue to be essential in the socio-cultural and political constructionof society. We conclude that these tourism imaginaries of places (and people) cannotbe considered only as commoditized representations with a symbolic content. Alamosdisplays that way the significant connections that exist in terms of both representationsand mobilities.