On Wednesday, April 19 from 12:30-1:30pm, PPEH is delighted to host their PPEH Graduate Fellow Pablo Aguilera Del Castillo with a presentation titled “Subterranean Archives: The Epistemic Violence of Henequén Haciendas and their Erasure of the Subterranean Worlds in Yucatán, México.”

In the words of Pablo Aguilera del Castillo: Built after centuries of colonial domination, henequen haciendas (Agave fourcroydes) in Yucatán have established important land logics that continue to define how people interact with the land in Mexico today. These land logics, among many other things, make possible the development of large agroindustrial sites and the continuing dispossession of land by national and international capitals. To challenge these enduring colonial logics and their consequences, I propose to excavate local Yucatec archives as a means of rebuilding a history of the indigenous subterranean worlds of Yucatán. To do this, I examine historical maps and photographs offering new readings of the history of the land in this region of Mexico. Through the critical exploration of these new archives, I propose to build a story of subterranean erasures over the 1900s and their relevance for the establishment of vital forms of indigenous sovereignty today.

All sessions are open to the PPEH community and require an RSVP. Grab a lunch and join them!