Hi guys.
You’re about to watch my vlog from today and I just wanted to put a warning at the
top of this video.
I don’t know what I expected to see today but it certainly wasn’t what we saw.
I felt very uncomfortable taking the images that you’re about to see and I want to tell you that.
I’m putting them out into the world so that you can choose whether to look at them or
not, just like if you had the opportunity to see them here at the museum in Guanajuato.
I want you to know that I found this whole experience extremely upsetting, to be honest with you.
And if you feel like it might upset you too then I urge you not to watch.
We’re here outside of the museum: Museo de las Momias de Guanajuato and I’ve heard a lot
of conflicting things about this place.
Just to be totally up front, I have no idea what to expect inside.
I’ve heard that it’s extremely distasteful.
I’ve also heard that other people think it’s the most important thing to see in
Mexico, let alone Guanajuato.
Part of travelling is seeing things that you’re unsure about and that might challenge you.
So that’s why I’m here.
I want to go inside and form my own opinion.
Before we go inside I just want to quickly say why it’s so polarizing.
My understanding is that there’s a couple of theories about why these mummies exist
here and are on display.
The first one was put on display in 1865 after there was a huge cholera epidemic and the
cemeteries were overrun with bodies.
They didn’t have enough places to put bodies and so they took out some of the bodies that
were there and found that they were turned into mummies.
They found that instead of skeletons and so they decided to put them on display.
Another is that there was a tax that families paid to have their loved ones buried and you
had to put that tax in perpetuity.
And if you couldn’t afford to pay that tax then the body was taken out.
So those are two of the reasons I understand as to why it’s so…there’s so much conflict
about this place.
So I’m here to go inside, learn some more, and just try to see for myself and form my own opinion.
We just left the museum and I wanted to give you my thoughts right away.
I said I went inside to form an opinion and I certainly have one after being there.
And I just want to preface this by saying I’m not intending to offend anyone who has a different
view on this museum.
This ended up being a really interesting cultural experience for me because I fully understand
that Mexican culture, far more than my own, celebrates death and is accepting of it in
a way that my culture is not.
So that’s the perspective that I’m coming at this from.
The first thing you notice when you walk in is that the mummies - I’ll just refer to
them as mummies - are standing up.
And it’s really confronting.
You first walk in, you see a long hallway lined with maybe 20 or 30 mummies who are
all standing up just like you are facing you.
Sometimes right at your eye level, which is something that I’ve never experienced before.
So that was quite a first impression to have.
The mummies often have hair.
They have their teeth.
Many of them are still wearing clothes.
Their clothing is in tact.
Their skin…there’s one example of one mummy who has absolutely no punctures or scratches
on his skin.
So they say that that is the best preserved example.
And once I went inside I learned that the reason for this mummification occurring here
is that, except for one, all of the mummies inside were not interred in the ground.
So they were in tombs above ground and the temperature here and the humidity together
stop the body from decomposing in part.
And they have one body that was interred in the ground that looks more like a skeleton
we’re used to seeing to show you how that’s different.
So that was something they’re trying to teach you.
I think the reason behind my own discomfort is about consent and the question of how and
why these people came to be on display in that way.
It’s not clear to me that any of them or their families did consent or would have consented to this.
You know, if you make decisions during your life that affect your remains after you’re dead
that’s one thing.
If you choose to donate your organs - I’m an organ donor - if you choose to donate your
body to science, that feels different to me.
There’s no evidence that I could see that these people or their loved ones would have
consented to this.
And it feels really…to say ‘creepy’ minimizes it.
It feels much more…sorry.
These are people.
In many cases their names are there for you to see.
Some of them who are identified you know their profession.
The first mummy that they have in the museum is a doctor who was from France who was the
first one displayed in 1865.
And there’s a card there telling you that the reason he’s there is that he had no family here.
And to me that’s not a good reason.
I wanted to learn more after leaving the museum about the possibility of future mummies being
displayed there and the cemetery called Saint Paulo is right behind the museum where these
mummies have come from.
So I went to the administration office and just asked the gentleman there for some information
about whether it was possible that in the future there will be more remains taken from
this cemetery to be put on display and he said, yes, that is a possibility.
And I said what would be the reason behind that and he said if they have no family.
And I think for me it touches on this really deep fear that many of us have that…
the idea of having no family is scary, when you’re lucky like I am to have a great one.
But the idea that, even after death, not having a family could isolate you in that way and
put you in a position to be put on display and profited from.
I…I find that really disturbing.
Again, I know that this is just my perspective.
There are many, many tourists at this museum.
It’s obviously a very, very popular site here and, again, this is just my perspective.
But, to me, the idea of having a final resting place, being laid to rest…
that's what it means.
It means it’s final.
It means unless there’s some very, very good reason, which is eluding me right now,
you don’t get moved.
And the reason is not that your family can’t pay a tax and the reason is not that you don’t
have a family.
Those aren’t good reasons, for me.
And I think that’s what upset me the most.
This is my honest opinion after visiting Museo de las Momias.
I hope it’s been helpful in perhaps letting you decide for yourself if it’s a place
that you’d like to visit or not.