The power of bones: pilgrimage and identity in Ixcateopan de Cuauhtemoc, Guerrero

Abstract

Each February, hundreds of pilgrims and tourists, nationals and foreigners, come to Ixcateopan de Cuauhtemoc, a small town in the northern region of the state of Guerrero, in order to pay homage to the last Aztec emperor, after whom this municipal seat is named due to the polemical “discovery” of his remains in 1949. In this article, I overlook the topic of the “authenticity” of the remains in order to explore issues of tourism and identity that have characterized Ixcateopan for more than fifty years, since it became identified as the “cradle of indigenousness”. After a brief contextualization of the issue, I analyze the importance of the bones displayed as the remains of Cuauhtemoc as physical objects that sustain a cult of adora-tion, and I describe the practices in which inhabitants of Ixcateopan, tourists, pilgrims, politicians and academics participate, converting the site simultaneously into symbol and event.