Preserve Maya Heritage at Jaguar Park & Museums in Mexico

Over 2.659 billion pesos were invested in the development of Jaguar Park, situated in the municipality of Tulum, Quintana Roo, through the Urban Improvement Program. The park spans a thousand hectares and includes a reforestation project on the site of a former aerodrome. It also establishes a link between the Maya Train, the East Coast Museum, and the archaeological area of Tulum, according to Román Meyer Falcón, Secretary of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (SEDATU) of the Mexican Government.

At the heart of the park lies the East Coast Museum, a smoke kitchen, a new visitor center, an Educal bookstore, and a terrace. The project also included the restoration of an old lighthouse and modifications to the Coastal Avenue to provide safer, more accessible routes to the archaeological area and beaches. The revamped avenue now connects Santa Fe, Fishermen, Maya, and Mangle beaches.

The park also hosts a National Guard camp and the administrative offices of the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena), the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa), the National Commission for Protected Natural Areas (Conanp), and the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

Diego Prieto Hernández, INAH's general director, stated that the East Coast Museum is the largest in the Maya Train system and Quintana Roo. It will exhibit the richness of the Mesoamerican Maya world, a unique culture known for its history, architectural styles, economy, interurban network, and maritime vocation, among other distinctive features. The museum covers 1,200 square meters and houses more than 300 original pieces and around 50 reproductions, both indoors and outdoors.

Mexico's President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the elected president Claudia Sheinbaum, accompanied by Governor Mara Lezama Espinosa, revealed this during a three-day tour of Quintana Roo. They also inaugurated the Historical Museum in Felipe Carrillo Puerto, a community named after the museum. The museum, housed in a former indigenous boarding school, narrates 174 years of history. It displays the legacy of Maya bravery, from the Caste War and the formation of ejidos and cooperatives to negotiate with foreign companies, to the cultural mediation by teachers that led to the recognition of bilingualism and education and the ancestral practices of the Maya culture in the 1950s.

Governor of Quintana Roo believes these inaugurations restore dignity and respect for the original cultures of Quintana Roo, particularly the Maya, who she refers to as "the living legacy of civilization and its impact on the dynamics of the Mexican Caribbean".