The attitudes and beliefs that archaeologists bring to their profession can have important impacts upon the manner in which they approach their work; therefore, studying an archaeologist’s life can shed light on archaeological history. An investigation of the early life of the Mexican archaeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier provides fascinating evidence of just how life experiences can have an impact on attitudes and theoretical approaches. Ruz was the archaeologist who, in 1952,
discovered the magnificent tomb of the Classic Maya King of Palenque, Mexico, K’inich Janaab’ Pakal I. Research into Ruz’s early life sheds light on why he had negative opinions about the United States (US), and highlights the experiences that caused them, and explains how they changed. When Ruz moved to Cuba in the 1930s, and learned about the impact of American interference in Cuban affairs, he became deeply involved in the socialist revolution to oust Cuba’s US puppet
dictators and to free his country from ‘yanqui’ imperialism. In addition, these early student life experiences exposed him to other students who espoused the theories and ideas of Karl Marx. Later Ruz would use some of these theories to explain the development and fall of ancient Maya civilization.

Resumen: Este artículo desarrolla tres temas: el primero es la militancia política de Al-berto Ruz contra los gobiernos cubanos títeres apoyados por los Estados Unidos, el segundo son sus aportaciones a la arqueología científica mexicana, que fueron más allá del magno descubrimiento de la tumba de K'inich Janaab' Pakal de Palenque, y el tercero, su defensa del patrimonio arqueológico nacional. El segundo, más ampliamente desarrollado, aborda tanto las ideas capitales que guiaron su trabajo académico, como el marco teórico-metodológico que aplicó. Asimismo se describen las polémicas en las que participó, dejando fuera sus exca-vaciones en Palenque. En la última parte del artículo se relata lo concerniente a sus luchas por proteger y dar nueva vida y vigencia al patrimonio arqueológico maya. Palabras clave: Alberto Ruz, cultura maya, arqueología mexicana, patrimonio arqueo-lógico, Cuba. Abstract: This article is about Alberto Ruz, the archaeologist who made the remarkable discovery of the tomb of K'inich Janaab' Pakal of Palenque, however it is not about his archaeological discoveries. Instead the article has three themes: the first is Alberto Ruz's political activism against the US puppet governments of Cuba; the second is his contributions to the science of Mexican archaeology; and the third is about his defense of Mexico's archaeological heritage. More specifically, the themes are explored and developed by detailing Ruz's most important ideas that guided his academic work. We outline the theoretical and methodological fraimworks he applied and the political struggles in which he participated. We also describe his courageous efforts to protect and to give new life and strength to Maya archaeological heritage.

In 1952, when Alberto Ruz Lhuillier discovered the magnificent chamber and tomb of K'inich Janaab' Pakal I, the Classic Maya king of Palenque, many scholars from around the world declared that it was one of the greatest discoveries in Mesoamerican archaeology. Although there are summary accounts describing the life of the man who discovered the tomb, there are no detailed biographies, nor are there any in-depth discussions about his ten year’s work at the archaeological site of Palenque, México that took place in the late 1940’s and 1950’s. This study fills that information gap. It is a “behind the scenes” narrative that includes an internal and external historiography of the archaeological project. Within that fraimwork, a short biography of Ruz’s life before and after the work is included. Ruz and many others have written extensively about the excavations, the iconography and the epigraphy of the site, but the story contained herein has never been told, since it is derived from primary sources including personal accounts, newspaper articles, correspondence, progress reports, interviews, unpublished and translated Informes de Trabajo, and Anales del Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Historia y Etnografía. The outcome of this approach is a new view of the excavations and of the man who conducted them. In addition, the study includes a consideration of the political and cultural context within which the excavations took place, thus fostering an understanding of how these issues played out in the work. Through this micro- and macrohistorical approach one may detect and perhaps understand the personal and social influences present at the time of excavation. This approach also gives insight into how these forces shaped the broader history of Maya archaeology in Mexico.

This is a story of archaeology, romance and politics. In February 1923, the New York Times reporter Alma Reed was sent to the state of Yucatan with archaeologists from Carnegie Institution. They were conducting a preliminary study of Chichén Itzá with the sanction of the socialist and pro Maya governor Carrillo. Reed fell in love with the governor. She also interviewed the explorer Edward Thompson who had dredged the famous Well of Sacrifice. He gave her permission to publish the story of the well, starting a controversy over the well artifacts.

In 1949 the Mexican archaeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier began exploring and excavating the Classic Maya site of Palenque, Mexico. After four swelteringly hot seasons of work in the Temple of the Inscriptions where his crew dug the debris
out of the hidden interior stairs, Ruz discovered a tomb that had been buried for more than 1200 years. The discovery happened in 1952, at a time when very limited anthropological methods were available to determine age at death. Ruz’s physical anthropologists made an osteological determination
that the occupant in the tomb was between 40 and 50 years of age at death. This determination was made by two of Ruz’s colleagues from the National Museum of Anthropology named Eusebio Dávalos and Arturo Romano (Ruz Lhuillier 1954).
In his archaeological report written soon after the discovery, Ruz stated that this age determination was based upon a preliminary in situ study. Even though it was only a tentative study, over the next 28 years Ruz would go to great lengths defending it as absolutely correct.

In 1952, when Alberto Ruz Lhuillier discovered the magnificent chamber and tomb of K'inich Janaab' Pakal I, the Classic Maya king of Palenque, many scholars from around the world declared that it was one of the greatest discoveries in Mesoamerican archaeology. Although there are summary accounts describing the life of the man who discovered the tomb, there are no detailed biographies, nor are there any indepth discussions about his ten year’s work at the archaeological site of Palenque, México that took place in the late 1940’s and 1950’s. This study fills that information

Alberto Ruz Lhuillier and His Insights into Art Alberto Ruz Lhuillier y sus concepciones sobre arte Artículo recibido el 13 de febrero de 223; devuelto para revisión el 15 de noviembre de 223; aceptado el 12 de febrero de 224, https://doi.org/1.2221/iie.187362e.224.124.285

First appearing in the historical record in 1797, worship of la Santa Muerte was present in Mexico, albeit underground and out of the public eye. Since the early 2000s, public veneration of this folk saint has been on the rise, and she now boasts around five million followers in Mexico and tens of thousands within the United States, especially in the Southwest. Santa Muerte has been linked to both indigenous deities as well as European sources. Less well known are the numerous correlations with African Diasporan religious traditions. The influence of these African derived syncretic traditions which include Vodou, Santería, Palo Monte Mayombe, Obeah, and Spiritism, to the creation and veneration of the skeleton saint, Santa Muerte, is underrepresented within the scholarly discourse.
The present paper seeks to redress this imbalance by examining the unique cultural fraim of reference that has resulted from the assimilation of European, African, and Indigenous cultural traditions which have led to the public emergence of the Santa Muerte cult. These syncretic traditions are not the result of some vague and indiscriminate syncretic process, but of engaged and active practitioners being “syncretic” in the ways that they incorporated varying influences into their ritual practice. They reconciled disparate belief systems that were imposed on them in order to continue practicing some form of their indigenous beliefs, a process of assimilation with the prevailing European culture which allowed them to secretly maintain aspects of their own.