Anger at El Tajin

...Given the size of El Tajin, excavations will not be truly finished anytime soon...

...One cannot help wondering how President Salinas will present El Tajin to the Spanish King and Queen...

...Santez knows of many who suffered the same fate and who, like him, have only their labor for their subsistence...

...The authorities promptly sold it (with a suspected profit for themselves) to los espanoles...

...Or what the heirs of Columbus' benefactors will think they are looking at...

...Some share the expressed hope of a small farmer that the area's roads will be repaved before the visit, even though he himself believes "the people never get anything out of these official visits...

...The site is famous for its Pyramid of the Niches, for its many ball courts (where a game very similar to basketball is said to have been played), and for the performance of "the flying dance" by indigenous Totonacs...

...Five hundred people have been laboring on the site, and another 200 have been rushing to construct an adjoining museum...

...In addition, the disgruntlement at El Tajin serves as a reminder that the quincentenary of the encounter between Europe and the Americas is more than a symbolic occasion...

...He remembers, too, when the view from El Tajin consisted of small plots of maize, instead of the present ubiquitous and virtually vacant pasture...

...BLAMING SALINAS Anger at El Tajin by FORREST D. COLBURN Papantla El Tajin, located in the northern part of the Mexican state of Veracruz, is the most spectacular pre-Hispanic center on the Gulf Coast and surely ranks among the most important archaeological undertakings in Meso-america...

...Nationalism and pomp are no substitute for resolving festering problems of social and economic inequality and underdevelopment...

...Many residents go so far as to observe with disdain that Salinas does not even look Mexican...

...Among Mexico's elite, and especially abroad, Salinas is held in high esteem for his success in stabilizing the country's economy, a feat he has accomplished mostly by paring down its bloat...

...It is not good, they note, to be so pressed...

...Hostility toward Spain's royalty is rooted in more than an understanding of the tragedies of Mexican history...

...Initial excavations took place from 1939 to the mid-'50s, uncovering only a tenth of the buildings the settlement had at its zenith...

...Resentment of these individuals is heightened by the fact that the land is only used marginally for pasture or not at all...

...A second round of excavations, begun in the mid-'80s, is today proceeding at a breathtaking pace in anticipation of a "special occasion": a visit to the site by the King and Queen of Spain, accompanied by the President of Mexico, Carlos Salinas...

...For the indigent local residents, the Spanish conquista continues through the loss of land that once provided sustenance...

...At the same time, agriculture is depressed...

...The dancers who regularly perform at the site for tourists have announced that they will not appear for the pleasure of the King and Queen...

...To them it is a "blow'' that the project has taken on such a frantic pace, and that a museum is being built, because of a one-day trip by the symbolic representative of the country and civilization that brought death, enslavement and misery to their culture...

...Indeed, there is a widespread sense that at least the frenzied excavation and construction has generated much needed employment...

...Little doubt exists, though, about the gloom and mistrust the President and his European guests will be greeted with by the descendants of the native people who built El Tajin...

...He is similarly appreciated for diplomatic moves that have opened up Mexico to the rest of the world...

...In this corner of the country there is also uncertainty and fear about the impact of the Mexico-U.S.-Canada free trade agreement Salinas has championed...

...The area around the site and the neighboring city of Papantla used to be divided into small plots that produced for innumerable families maize, beans, squash, chilies, and fruit...

...Many feel the emphasis is more on making the site look "pretty" than on being accurate and scientific...

...The event is scheduled for October 12...

...Santez' grandfather did not have the money to pay, so he had to surrender the property...

...The planned visit, with all of its irony, has angered the largely Totonac-descendant workforce, neighboring residents, and the performers of "the flying dance...

...His latest book is My Car in Managua, a collection of essays...

...The city-state was at its peak of activity from 600 to 900, then was abandoned about 1200 and lay unknown to the Spaniards until 1785, when an official discovered it while searching for illegal tobacco plantings...

...The person the workers do blame for inviting the Spanish royalty is President Salinas...

...Archaeology risks becoming less an impartial science and more an unsuspecting political tool in this struggle, at an immeasurable cost to future generations...

...The workers and neighboring residents further console themselves that after the Spaniards have left, the ruins and the museum will stay for the benefit of the community...

...The area 's largest employer, pemex, the national oil monopoly, has laid off thousands of employees in the state of Veracruz...

...El Tajin was first occupied about 100 CE, but a majority of the buildings visible now were constructed around 600 or 700...

...Thanks to archaeology, future visitors will see at El Tajin the glory of the Gulf Coast culture...

...Forrest D. Colburn, a previous NL contributor, teaches politics at Princeton University...

...Now this land is increasingly held in large estates owned by men with Spanish (and in one case Italian) surnames...

...The sour disposition toward the President and his administration here illustrates that deep structural reforms in a polity have their price, and, unfortunately, the price is never evenly borne...

...But the apprehensions that are guardedly voiced seem understandable...

...Nevertheless, the workers at El Tajin do not plan to protest the arrival of Spain's King and Queen...

...Locally, therefore, the President is viewed as being more interested in the international perception of Mexico than in the welfare of the poor majority...

...In the environs of El Tajin and Papantla, however, streamlining the economy has led to higher unemployment...

...What they will not necessarily see, or comprehend as they drive past the estates that surround the ruins, are the prosaic conflicts over El Tajin's restoration and its ensuing appropriation as a national monument and tourist "cash cow...

...There persists—at least in some parts of the Americas—a struggle for power, for the fruits of the earth, and for cultural dominance...

...One worker at the ruins, Panfilo Santez, recalls with both sadness and bitterness how his grandfather lost his land...

...It is absurd...

...As an annoyed worker said, "After 500 years of resistance, we Totonacs are supposed to welcome with flowers the King of Spain...

...His numerous accomplishments, including holding down inflation, are only grudgingly acknowledged...

...Although the workers voice confidence in those entrusted with guiding the excavations, and certainly do not blame them for inviting the Spanish royalty, they worry that the timetable inflicted by "politics" inevitably means errors will be committed...

...The poor patriarch of the family was called into Papantla and told he had not paid his "contributions" (taxes) for several years...

...They are insulted, but they say they do not have the economic means either to organize a protest or to get them through a likely interruption of their wages...

...Seemingly everyone can recite the names of the biggest landowners —Trueba, Tremari, Morones, Marie, Gutierrez—and no one ever fails to emphasize that they are not indigenous...

...The workers are poor, many are illiterate, but they are well aware that 1992 marks the 500th anniversary of the Spanish conquista...