Heritage Construction: the Mobilization of the Collective Memory in Mining towns in Coahuila, Mexico

Abstract

This report supports the idea that cultural heritage is a process in constant creation. For this, it documents two case studies resulting from the field work of the current project called “Mining industrial heritage. Exploration and assessment possibilities in the coalfield of Coahuila”: the “El viandero” dance, from Nueva Rosita (municipality of San Juan de Sabinas), and the activity of the civil group “Coterráneos de Rancherías” (municipality of Múzquiz). The purposes of this contribution concur with those of the above-mentioned general project: on the one hand, to identify the intangible expressions associated with coal mining, such as artistic representations, rituals, knowledge and techniques, as well as emblematic social movements and, on the other hand, to comprehend the meanings that surround the tangible and intangible heritage for the inhabitants of the coalfield of Coahuila in a context of deindustrialization. Non-structured interviews of members of these towns show that, even in such context, the collective memory associated with the mining work reemerges in different manners to take shape as heritage. Likewise, the information collected indicates that heritage is not only a selection and interpretation of the past but also a construction of the present, projected towards the future through the values that we want to preserve and convey.