These Mexican mummies draw crowds — and controversy
Both exploited and cherished, the mummies of Guanajuato are at the centre of a debate over displaying human remains. Guanajuato, Mexico has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1988, thanks to its colonial Spanish architecture, silver-mining history, and sites related to the Mexican Revolution. Its baroque churches, narrow cobblestone streets, and candy-coloured houses are postcard-pretty, but the biggest tourist attraction in the central Mexican city is darker and more gruesome than all that: an underground museum of one hundred mummies. The slack-jawed men, leathery-skinned infants, and other corpses have been luring curious travellers for more than a century. Visitors first paid a few pesos to view the mummies in an underground crypt. Since 1969, they’ve been displayed under spooky spotlights at the Museo de las Momias. These naturally preserved corpses (no bandages or embalming here) from the 19th and 20th centuries are a revenue generator and a source of local pride ...