Troncoso, then director of the National Museum. 7 Some photographs, preserved in the albums of the INAH’s National Coordination of Historical Monument’s Photography Archive, show the inside of the ethnography rooms. 8 Herrera y Cícero, op. cit., p. 83. 9 See Dora Sierra Carrillo, op. cit., for an account of the INAH’s creation and the changes that took place when it took over the National Museum’s collections. 10 Ibid., pp. 94-96. 11 The information on the two stages of the making of mannequins and the display seen today in the Museum of Anthropology was kindly provided by the subdirector of Museology of NMA, Patricia Real (interview on 4/27/01.) 12 For Teratology, see Frida Gorbach, El monstruo, objeto imposible. Un estudio sobre teratología mexicana (1860-1900), Doctoral thesis on History of Art, FFyL-UNAM, Mexico, City, May 2000. 13 See: Barbara Kirchenblatt-Gimblett, “Objects of Etnography” in Ivan Karp and Stephen D. Lavine Editors Exhibiting Cultures; The Poetics And Politics of Museum Display, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington and London, 1991, pp-386-443. Translated by Zaidee Stavely
MODUS OPERANDI Ana Elena Mallet After almost three months of unsuccessful calls and endless letters, photographer Carlos Ranc and I were able to enter the headquarters of the National Ministry of Defence (SEDENA) in Mexico City. An unexpected retinue greeted us on the seventh floor: the Presidential Staff’s Artillery Colonel, General Director of Social Communication at the Ministry Francisco
Aguilar Hernández, Captain Víctor Manuel Jiménez, two midrank military men and a threesoldier escort. We had finally succeeded in entering the socalled Narcotics’ Museum, a fifteen year-old building closed to the public which aims to explain to incoming cadets drug trafficking activities and drug dealers’modus operandi in Mexico. Two soldiers accompanied us during the entire visit and a video camera recorded every single movement we made, as well as our questions and comments. After a brief theoretical and technical introduction, when we were told about the current operations—Cóndor in Chihuahua, Marte in Durango and Tarea Azteca in Sinaloa—we went on with our visit which was to take us three hours. Showcases, home-made dioramas and countless objects found during the raids are part of Captain Víctor Manuel Jiménez’s museological discourse. All the material exhibited in the museum is real, including drugs in a great variety of forms. The exhibition makes use of many photographs. Laminated photos mounted in frames show the destruction of illegal runways or gigantic discarded airplanes found in the Sonora desert, in Sombrerete and in Baja California. The first diorama depicting camp life next to plantations features a mannequin dressed as a “typical” low-ranking drug peddler: with a lurid half-unbottoned shirt, cowboy hat, sunglasses, showy golden chains, a belt with a big buckle, blue jeans and pointed
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boots. One of the displays shows anonymous notes written by farmers working with high-risk agriculture —threats or bribes with which they attempt to protect their plantations. There is also a huge, carved, solid wood door from the Lizárraga family home in Mazatlán, that depicts the proud silhouette of a drugdealer with an AK47 in his hand. There is a replica of an altar documenting the worship of Jesús Malverde, drug dealers’ patron saint, whose widespread legend refers to him as a kind of benefactor to the poor. According to the caption, Malverde was born in Sinaloa and died on the scaffold in1909. A recreation of a greenhouse shows the cultivation of marijuana. The promoters of this expensive but apparently very efficient system are said to be the Arellano Felix family. The seeds, imported either from the Netherlands or Colombia, are sown under controlled environmental conditions and watered by a computerized system of Israeli origin. Lamps are used to dry the leaves, accelerating the entire process. In a long hall, all kinds of different devices are displayed, from presses to chemicals. Different marijuana processing methods are also depicted, as well as the way opium gum is turned into morphine and heroin. Mexican poppy seeds are brown, like coffee beans, while Colombian seeds are white. On display in a rather rustic shelving unit is the costly and sophisticated technology used