In July, 256 Aztec, Mexica and Mayan pieces will return to Mexico, after a Montreal woman donated them to the Mexican Consulate in Montreal. This restitution of archaeological objects would not have been possible without #MiPatromonioNeSeVende, a campaign by the Mexican government aimed at recovering Mesoamerican goods.
From the age of 8, Susana Zarco accompanied her father on impromptu archaeological expeditions across the southwest coast of Mexico. More than 70 years and hundreds of father-daughter explorations later, she bequeathed 256 pieces from various periods, from the Mesoamerican Preclassic, to the Mexican government.
“Each of these objects represents a moment in my life for me,” said Mr.me Zarco during the restitution ceremony held by the Mexican Consulate in Montreal. “It is with nostalgia and sadness that I part with my treasure, but with the satisfaction that they will return to their place of origin,” she said, with a hand on her heart.
Mexican by origin, Mme Zarco settled in Montreal in the late 1960s, where she became involved in Hispanic cultural centers. To this day, she has carefully guarded the pieces she collected during the intrepid adventures with her father. But seeing that time waits for no one, Mme Zarco wanted to make sure that these archaeological assets would be in good hands. They will be, by constituting the collection of the National Institute of Anthropology and History, in Mexico City.
In 2018, the Mexican government launched the #MiPatrimonioNoSeVende (“My Heritage Is Not for Sale”) campaign to recover all Mesoamerican works from 900 to 1521 B.C. that had been lost in museums and private collections around the world. Since then, more than 13,400 objects have been repatriated to Mexico, according to Alejandra Frausto Guerrero, Mexico’s Secretary of Culture.
The move is part of a global effort, with countries including Cambodia, Iraq and India trying to return their cultural assets. On July 3, for example, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York handed over 14 Angkorian sculptures to the Cambodian government.
Pre-Hispanic Civilizations
The 256 pieces that Mme Zarco ceded to the Mexican government all come from the Mexican Central Altiplano, a place rich in history with its temples and pyramids of different pre-Hispanic civilizations. The best known architectural complex in the area is the one in Teuchitlán: historians believe that the Guachimontones (from 300 to 350 BC) performed rituals for the wind god, Ehécatl.
The returned objects come from different periods, but archaeologist Jaime Alejandro Bautista Valdespino, who is responsible for this file, estimates that they date from 600 to 200 BC (Preclassic period), 200 to 750 BC (Classic period) and 1200 to 1521 BC (during the Mesoamerican Postclassic period).
Included in the collection are a clay figurine wearing an earmuff from the Preclassic period, a small double-chambered clay candlestick from Teotihuacán made during the Classic period, and a set of two circular clay winches decorated with frets and circles from the Postclassic period.
Endless anecdotes
Mme Zarco explains that her father allowed her to keep “the little pieces” and when he and she found interesting objects, such as statuettes, they often donated them to local schools, to history teachers.
The duo mostly explored abandoned tombs and ceremonial centers of the Aztec, Mexica, and Mayan peoples. At times, his father even collaborated with the Mexican philosopher Antonio Caso Andrade (1883-1946), who was rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico from 1921 to 1923.
She also recounts that while cooling off in a river near the archaeological site of El Tajín, in the town of Papantla, she found what appeared to be the remains of a necklace: seven cylindrical beads made of metamorphic rocks and small jade masks.
After hearing all these anecdotes at the restitution ceremony, Mexican Consul in Montreal Victor Treviño admitted that at the time there were no laws protecting Mexico’s heritage. “It was common when we went to a hill and found these pieces,” he explained. “The best way to pay tribute” to Mexico, Treviño said, “is to do what M.me Zarco ».