With great anticipation and curiosity I attended the media preview of the Detroit Science Center’s “Accidental Mummies” exhibit. I had heard of Las Mómias de Guanajuato when I was in this charming regional capitol two years ago, so I wondered how they would display the preserved bodies at an American exhibit. I was not disappointed.
Meet Rosi, Noé and one named La Bruja, my favorites of the 36 mummies on loan in the Detroit exhibit on display until April 11, 2010. The exhibit tells their story and showcases Mexican culture in a way I’ve never seen before.
These were real people who lived over one-and-a-half century ago---in the era of my great-grandfather Senóbio Diaz, who also was from Guanajuato. As I viewed the fully clothed Mummie Noe, I looked over his uniform, his boots, as they were indicative of a soldier who probably fought during the Mexican Revolution like many Guanajuatenses.
I really was journeying back 100 years, as the exhibit artist had intended.
I envision my great-grandfather wearing similar shoes as he crossed into the U.S.A in 1919, to flee the war that most probably killed this Noé, who was young and healthy when he died.
The story of the mummies began in 1865 when cemetery workers in the Santa Paula Panteón exhumed the remains of Dr. Remigio Leroy, and were astonished to find that his body had not decayed, but had instead mummified. He was the first of more than 100.
It’s amazing these mummies accidentally mummified due to climate and soil conditions as explained in the“ forensic lab” part of the exhibit. There was no special embalming or wrapping process like the pharaos of Egypt.
How on earth did the Mexican government allow these national treasures outside of Mexico in the first place? It would be like the Romans allowing the remains of the first Christians from the catacombs outside of Rome.
Two years ago, Detroit Science Center President Kevin Prihod, read an article in the Chicago Tribune about a community-center gym in Cicero, Ill., possibly housing the mummies in a cheesy-class case. Prihod felt this was wrong and began his quest to lobby Guanajuato’s city council to let the DSC tell the mummies’ story with dignity. Eventually he received their approval for a December 2008 arrival, but they did not arrive.
Enter Martina Guzman, a native southwest Detroiter who was instrumental in solidifying the approval of the city council who were not convinced to loan-out their ancestors.
“I was sort of ordered to not come back without them,” said Guzman half-jokingly. “I met with every government official who would listen to me, telling them we would honor them (mummies) in a way never done before. They had to understand that we were going to promote their culture and use elements of Guanajuato and its history throughout.”
With Guzman and Prihod’s efforts, Guanajuato’s famous citizens finally arrived in April.
Once in Detroit, they went through forensic examinations. Think CSI Mummies, where CT scans and endoscopic testing was performed at the Imaging Center at Dearborn’s Oakwood Hospital & Medical Center to research more into their lives and eventual deaths.
Later, Barbara A. Martin Bailey, an FBI-trained forensic artist in the Oakland County Sheriff's crime lab, was asked to recreate more closely what they may have actually looked like.
Guzman centers on La Bruja, an elderly woman who most likely was a curandera (healer) due to her life experiences.
“Because they are so intact, some with full heads of hair, there is much to tell,” Guzman said. “With the CT scans and distinct posture they were able to tell us that she probably had severe arthritis and was riddled with pain. It humanized her. She was a first-hand source telling us her story and how difficult life must have been in the late 1800s.”
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox, also a Guanajuatense, made a special appearance at the world debut preview reception on October 9, where over 300 guest attended.
“I am absolutely surprised at what I have seen here today and I want to deeply congratulate the museum for what they have done,” Fox said. “The detail they placed on searching everyone of those 36 human beings’ life. And these bodies of the mummies really speak to us.”
Guzman gives kudos to the Eekstein’s Workshop, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the DSC that creates captivating, durable, engaging exhibits and displays for museum and corporate clients.
“These designers are word class. They can build a Hollywood set, it would be a cake walk,” said Guzman. “They had to design this keeping in mind that it had to be mobile and that it would be taken down and transported to other cities and put back up the way it is here.”
The replica of the Santa Paula Panteón moved the crowd—its intrinsic detail invites viewers into Guanajuato as visitors exit the fourth floor elevator at the DSC. All who visit agree with Martina Guzman when she says that “this is the most important exhibition on Mexican culture the Midwest has ever seen.”
As the U.S. embarks on one of its most celebrated holidays, Halloween, the Accidental Mummies exhibit seems seasonal. But I choose to promote the Mexican custom of el Dia De Los Muertos, which is incorporated into the museum display. It is much more organic and cultural, rather than commercial.
“Death has been part of the culture of Mexico, and in particular of Guanajuato for centuries. Our Mummy Museum represents our way of acknowledging the everyday citizens that once walked our streets, whose bodies have transcended generations because of a natural process,” said Dr. Eduardo Romero Hicks, mayor of the city of Guanajuato, Mexico in a press release on the exhibit. “This presentation for the first time in the U.S. provides the opportunity for these mummies to tell their story, to show the way they lived, and in some instances the way they died. In this global world that we live in, we want to make sure that their story is heard beyond our borders.”
I encourage all Mi Gente readers to see this exhibit in Detroit and learn, be touched, get emotionally involved — for this is what makes a great exhibit, but also we have to show our numbers so this isn’t the last major touring example of Mexican history and culture.
I think President Fox said it best during his remarks at the preview when he said: “The message of the mummies will be heard in all of the Unites States and I would invite every citizen of this great nation to come and [not only] see the mummies, but also come and learn the dignity of we, the Mexicans.”
