The Rain God's No Rain Maker

Sol de Toluca reports that the folks in San Miguel Coatlinchan (former main city of the Acolhua) near Texcoco are getting a little grumpy, as 45 years has gone by since the National Anthropology Museum packed off the giant figure of Tlaloc. Losing out on the tourism that the stone used to bring in, the people are getting a little agitated - so much so that they are guiding visitors to archaeological zones and letting them dig for artifacts. It looks like the Municipal President in Texcoco is going to step in and "build a museum" to attract visitors to the town that won't loot the place. While the town traded Tlaloc for a road, school, electricity, and a hospital, the services have apparently not kept coming. And of course, one has to ask why a town has to swap heritage for services.

A year ago it looked like a replica in the central plaza might work to draw some tourists (they had a catchy tourism campaign about the past being the future) it looks like things haven't quite caught on as expected (like ecotourism in Chihuahua, I suppose).
(click on the photo to read the story of moving Tlaloc at Mexico Lore)

When Texcoco started to recognize that Tenochtitlan was taking a little too much off the top of the Triple Alliance deal, they probably weren't thinking that the city would continue to loot Texcoco for years to come. While I like the National Museum, I think it would have been far more beneficial to creat a string of museums around the old lake that celebrate the culture of the Central Valley... one out in Chalco, out in Xochimilco, over in Texcoco. The big museum in the center could still show case the culture of the nation, but it seems that some attempt to spread the wealth of history should be in order. Perhaps as Greece demands the repatriation of its artifacts, the pueblos of the nation should demand that Mexico return their heritage (no matter how imagined for some places).