Teotihuacan: The Place Where Men Become Gods

Wal-Mart Store Near Mexican Ruins Riles Activists 

Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) 3sep04

[Other articles below]

TEOTIHUACAN, MEXICO - A small coalition struggling to defend Mexico's landscape and culture is objecting to Wal-Mart's construction of a discount store that will be visible from the ancient temples of Teotihuacan.

The coalition argues that the multinational corporation's newest operation in Mexico will mar the view from the top of the Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon at the famous ruins of the 2,000-year-old metropolis.

Thousands of visitors climb to the top of the temples each day.

The store is being built in the town of Teotihuacan, less than a kilometre from the ancient site where 150,000 people once lived.

The civilization came to an end for reasons that remain unclear.

The activists, organized as the Front to Defend the Teotihuacan, say they will lobby foreign tourists to stop visiting the ancient site until the discount store is shut down.

But many of the town's poor residents say they would rather pay lower prices on the staples of life than enjoy a pristine view from the archeological wonder.

Wal-Mart says it will be sensitive to cultural issues, giving the new store a stone facade and subdued colours, as well as a sign that is situated low to the ground.

It will operate under the American-run chain's Bodega Aurrera brand.

Wal-Mart is now Mexico's biggest retailer, after buying many of the country's chains in recent years.

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Wal-Mart Upsets Cosmic Balance of Ruins

Protesters decry building of store near mysterious Mexican city of Teotihuacan as attack on heritage which could spoil rural valley

JO TUCKMAN / The Guardian 4sep04

Teotihuacan — From the top of the Pyramid of the Sun in the ancient ruined city of Teotihuacan, Emma Ortega blows a haunting ode on her conch shell and points out a half-built Wal-Mart supermarket in the valley below.

Her blood boils at the sight. "It is an attack on our heritage," fumes Ms Ortega, a colourful figure in a small but vocal protest movement against the construction of a Bodega Aurrera superstore, a Wal-Mart Mexico subsidiary, half a mile from the monuments. "It is an attack on our cosmic equilibrium."

The movement gives full rein to spiritualists, such as Ms Ortega, who believe Teotihuacan's pyramids and temples possess a special energy that Wal-Mart's presence threatens to throw off balance.

The protest is brought down to earth by traditional conservationists who fear that the development will encourage urban spillover from the capital 30 miles away and spoil the largely rural valley for ever. Then there are the local shopkeepers and stall owners from the small town of San Juan who cannot compete with the biggest retailer in the world.

Most recently the anti-Wal-Mart campaign in Teotihuacan has attracted support from other campaign groups because of the undeniable importance of the ruins.

One of Mexico's oldest and most mysterious civilisations, Teotihuacan boasted a population of up to 150,000 about 300AD. It faded away a few centuries later for unknown reasons and leaving few clues about what life was like. Archaeologists furiously debate issues such as whether it was ruled by kings or collectives.

"A big supermarket so close to the monuments sounds worrying," says Javier Villalobos, of the Paris-based International Council of Monuments and Sites, an influential conservation group. Mr Villalobos is planning to visit Teotihuacan this weekend to evaluate the threat.

But even if the protesters get international heavyweights on their side, theirs is no easy battle. There are many who welcome Wal-Mart, seeing modernisation where the protesters fear desecration.

"These people who are trying to stop it [the supermarket] don't understand the meaning of progress," says Victor Hernandez, a bicycle salesman who is fed up with travelling 15 miles to shop in bulk. He is hopeful that Wal-Mart will give his son a job. "This is progress," he says.

The protesters are also having a tough time challenging a construction that apparently has all its permits in order.

The development on an alfalfa field, just outside the zone where all building is prohibited, was approved by the archaeological authorities on condition that Wal-Mart employed archaeologists to survey the site.

The archaeologists have reported that there is little worth saving beyond a semi-rural domestic compound unlikely to produce anything of value when excavated.

They have also questioned the authenticity of the protesters' claims to have found pots and ceramic figurines in waste heaps from the site.

It is very difficult to find out what is actually being uncovered behind the perimeter fence; the company refuses to let visitors in and armed guards keep a watchful eye for snoopers.

In the meantime, less than a month after construction began the grey concrete warehouse shell is already largely in place and the roof supports will be constructed shortly .

Still, Ms Ortega insists that Wal-Mart has met its match in Teotihuacan.

"We are going to make them demolish what they have already built, and return things to the way they were," she says.

She will need all the extra cosmic energy she can get.

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5008145-103681,00.html 19sep04

Citizens battle over Wal-Mart outlet near pyramid ruins 

MARK STEVENSON / AP 6sep04

MEXICO CITY — A Wal-Mart-owned discount store rising a half-mile from the ancient temples of Teotihuacan has touched off a fight by a small coalition that doesn't want to see the big, boxy outlet from the top of the Pyramid of the Sun.

But with most people in the area supporting Wal-Mart, the group is waging a lonely battle for what it calls its defense of Mexico's landscape and culture.

The dispute in Teotihuacan, a town built next to the ruins of the 2,000-year-old metropolis, illustrates how the allure of low prices and U.S. lifestyles often wins out in Mexico, leaving traditionalists struggling to draw a line in rapidly shifting cultural sands.

"We'd rather not have Mickey Mouse on top of the Pyramid of the Moon," says Emmanuel D'Herrera, a business owner in Teotihuacan, 30 miles north of Mexico City.

He claims a tall sign will loom near the huge twin pyramids that draw hundreds of thousands of tourists annually, although a government-appointed archaeologist disputes that.

And while the store is visible from atop the pyramid, so are many other modern businesses and houses.

Underlining his group's lack of support, D'Herrera said probably 70 percent of the town's mostly poor residents support the new store because it will offer lower prices than the area's small shops.

"The housewives want to go shopping with credit cards ... and the teenagers want to go skateboarding in the parking lot, like in the United States," he said.

The archaeologist, Veronica Ortega, said the opponents represent shopkeepers afraid of losing business to Wal-Mart.

The opponents don't deny that, but they argue that small stores and markets should be preserved, even if they offer little cultural purity.

"There is a street market at Otumba, a mile or so away, that will be destroyed by Wal-Mart," D'Herrera said. "The market is full of plastic stuff and Chinese goods, but it still should be preserved."

Wal-Mart says it has "promoted and respected Mexican culture and traditions."

"A number of conditions have been set to make the store blend in," said Ortega, who monitors the site. "It will be lower than a regular store — below the tree line. It will have more subdued colors and a stone facade."

The low-to-the-ground sign won't even say Wal-Mart. The U.S. company — now Mexico's biggest retailer after buying up numerous Mexican store chains in recent years — is putting in one of its Bodega Aurrera outlets, which offer cheaper merchandise than a Wal-Mart-branded store.

D'Herrera's Front to Defend the Teotihuacan Valley led dozens of machete-wielding protesters in a failed bid to shut down the construction site Aug. 6. The demonstrators argued the work would damage artifacts and pre-Hispanic ruins on the property.

Old Teotihuacan was large — about 150,000 people lived here 2,000 years ago — and the remains of ancient residential areas extend beyond the protected temple complex. The 7-1/2-acre lot for the store is in a secondary archaeological buffer zone where construction is subject to limits, but where hundreds of buildings have been allowed.

source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2002027684&zsection_id=268448413&slug=mexmart06&date=20040906 19sep04

Fight Over Wal-Mart at Mexico Ruins 

Reuters 12sep04

TEOTIHUACAN, Mexico — Burning incense and sounding a conch shell horn, residents of an ancient Mexican city protested on Saturday at the construction of a Wal-Mart store on the edge of the ruins.

The sprawling warehouse-style Bodega Aurrera, a unit of Wal-Mart in Mexico, is due to open in December in Teotihuacan, a major archeological site outside Mexico City.

Opponents say it will ruin a way of life that dates back centuries and have taken legal action to stop it, in a fight that gives a grand dimension to the classic battle between big business and small-town values.

"What they are doing in Teotihuacan is destroying Mexico's deepest roots for short-term interests like lower prices," local teacher Emanuel D'Herrera told about a dozen protesters outside Teotihuacan's town hall. "This is the flag of conquest by global interests, the symbol of the destruction of our culture."

Other protesters bearing placards against the "gringo business" entered the town hall and pledged to stay there until the mayor heard them out.

U.S.-based Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, faces increasing opposition in the United States as it stretches beyond its rural roots and into urban areas. Voters in a Los Angeles suburb recently rejected a Wal-Mart supercenter, and other communities have passed ordinances blocking its so-called big-box stores.

The Teotihuacan construction site lies less than a mile (1.6 km) from the gated tourist park housing the main ruins and is visible from atop the Pyramid of the Sun that has defined the skyline for 2,000 years.

Uphill battle Local activists know they are fighting a steep uphill battle. Wal-Mart Mexico has local and state approval for the store and construction is well under way.

"I support the store, it will save me time and money," said Camilo Olivas, a father of four who works for the federal electricity commission in Teotihuacan.

He drives 10 minutes every two weeks to shop at a Wal-Mart store in another town to find low prices.

But a handful of opponents say Wal-Mart will kill local family-owned enterprises and erode a lifestyle dating back centuries, while sucking income from locals.

They have filed a criminal complaint, charging authorities with acting illegally in approving the project. They filed a civil complaint on the same grounds and asked the nation's rights ombudsman to step in.

Amid rising controversy, Mexico's government this month said a small pre-Hispanic altar was found buried at the construction site. Plans call for preserving the small structure under Plexiglas in what will be the store's parking lot.

"Mexico is one of the few places in the world where the seeds of culture and religion remain," said Tim Sikyea, or Lonely Eagle, a Dene Indian from the Northwest Territories in Canada who came to Teotihuacan this weekend for an annual ceremony with indigenous peoples from across the continent.

"When you have big business come in you lose touch with that culture."

No one knows for sure who founded the ancient seat of power and then abandoned it around 600 A.D. The Aztecs later came upon it and named it Teotihuacan (The Place Where Men Become Gods).

source: http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/09/11/mexico.walmart.reut/ 19sep04