Intangible Cultural Heritage and Institutionalized Extractivism. The Declaration of the Queretaro Semi-Desert

Abstract

The inscription in UNESCO of the expression “Places of memory and living traditions of the Otomí-Chichimecas people of Tolimán; the Peña de Bernal, guardian of a sacred territory” is turning ten years old. It is in our interest to build a critical vision from two categories that reflect its multiple contradictions: heritage and extractivism. The general objective is to show how the UNESCO declarations become forms of institutionalized extractivism that, in favor of safeguarding and conserving memory and culture, generate extensive and intensive extraction processes. For this, we expose the results of the research carried out from 2019-2020 to prepare the Queretaro Semi-Desert Safeguard Plan. As a situated analysis, we show the case of the town of San Sebastián de Bernal, municipality of Ezequiel Montes. We close by making an alert call to the groups that carry culture, appealing to their historical protagonism to preserve their cultural expressions, either from the defense of the territory or from their community, local, and self-management initiatives.