Patrimonialization in Mexico: disputes over intangible cultural heritage

The aim of the article is to analyze the tense and conflictive process of legitimizing intangible cultural heritage (ICP) in order to enhance its value, which in Mexico goes through a dispute between the intention of obtaining the maximum commercial use and the best way to protect it. This leads to a political arena in which the different ways of conceiving the management of the ICP and what is expected of it struggle: frequently, a collision between the interests that move the community to participate and the powers, motivated by profit. Therefore, the defense of the PCI has to resolve the contradictions between the logic of cultural valuation and economic valuation. This paper reviews how this dispute has unfolded in some communities and localities in Mexico regarding asset activation. Our report illustrates the processes of patrimonialization –the process of construction of the meaning and sense of the cultural manifestations of a people–, various conjugations of the political, economic and social uses of intangible cultural heritage, as well as the effects derived from litigation.