Journey to Xibalba: A Life in Archaeology

Letter continued

TheHouseofDogs(PilotProject)฀฀ v฀฀ 253 Dr. Florescano, before we could move the INAH offices from our home on Jesús to the Allende house, but finally it happened. Apart from political and diplomatic issues, there was the awful condition of the house; after such a long abandonment the house had some serious problems. The second-floor roof leaked. The most obvious result was the destruction of the beautiful French-style decorative murals that had been painted on canvas during the Porfiriato era in the nineteenth century. Once these were removed it became apparent that the ceiling beams underneath the murals were in need of replacement. Termites had gotten fat off the neglect. We had to work around the trenches on the ground floor that crossed the main patio and continued back into the stable area. There were huge holes in several of the first-floor interior walls. The governor of the state of Guanajuato inaugurated the museum on Allende’s birthday, January 21, 1985. The museum is still being enjoyed by thousands of visitors each year. v฀v฀v฀ LETTER CONTINUED v฀v฀v Several factors influenced my decision to give up my tenure in INAH. The first was economic. By the end of 1986, I was earning more pesos per month than I had ever earned before; in fact, I jokingly referred to our family as millionaires. However, at 720 pesos per dollar exchange rate, a governmental announcement of 100 percent inflation over the preceding four years, and with the peso’s devaluation accelerating, my salary was no longer sufficient to purchase the computer, cameras, and other high-tech equipment pertinent to my field of Archaeological Documentation. The tens of thousands of pesos I earned each month, converted to dollars, came to the equivalent of US$250. And the same economic conditions fared by our family and work companions were being felt by the entire nation. On top of this, it did not look like INAH would be able to continue funding the Chichén project. The competition for funds was going to be horrific. Another factor that influenced my decision to leave INAH was a growing political awareness that Roberto García Moll was going to be the institution’s next general director. I had several nightmares during the winter of 1986 and 1987 and all of them involved confrontations with Roberto. Looking back, they were silly dreams. For example, in one of the dreams I found my wrists and ankles chained to a stone wall in a scene reminiscent of Alexander Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo. The dungeon was dark but I could make out the shadowy robed figure of a man kneeling in front of me. As he leaned toward me and passed me a bowl of putrid smelling gruel I saw the smirk on the face. It was Roberto. However one may want to interpret the dream, one thing was for certain: if Roberto became INAH’s general director, I wouldn’t get any support. There was also our family to consider. I had spent so much time in the field that, for the first time in my life, I was beginning to suffer from homesickness. Added to this factor, I had an opportunity to participate in an unrealized economic niche in San Miguel’s tourist industry. So in February of 1987 I resigned. Seven years passed before I returned to the world of archaeology and the site at the Cañada de la Virgen. v฀v฀v 254฀฀ v฀฀ L E T T E R C O N T I N U E D ...