Sam Holley-Kline

Mexico's cultural sector faces formidable challenges. Workers in archaeology protest precarity, and advocate for funding for the country's archaeological heritage. At the same time, diverse Indigenous communities fight for autonomy, and recognition of their deep histories. At the intersection of these movements lies more than a century of unrecognized labor in archaeology. Using administrative archives and oral histories, this project develops a history of archaeology that begins with the laborers, masons, and guards who have worked in sites across the country since 1885. By attending to the perspectives and practices of these majority-Indigenous workers, this project aims to support efforts to secure just livelihoods and recognition in the present.