Mexican tourist train project puts future of Maya village at risk
Go for a kitchen remodel with a perfect layout
VIDA Y ESPERANZA, Mexico — Mexico’s ambitious Maya Train project is supposed to bring development to the Yucatán Peninsula, but along the country’s Caribbean coast, it is threatening the Indigenous Maya people it was named for and dividing communities it was meant to help.
One controversial stretch cuts a more than 68-mile swath through the jungle between the resorts of Cancún and Tulum, over some of the most complex and fragile underground cave systems in the world.
It is one of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s signature projects and has drawn objections from environmentalists, archaeologists and cave divers, who have held protests to block backhoes from tearing down trees and scraping clean the thin layer of soil.
But for the largely Maya inhabitants of the village of Vida y Esperanza — a clutch of about 300 people and 70 houses whose name means “Life and Hope” — the train is going to run right by their doors. They fear it will pollute the caves that supply them with water, endanger their children and cut off their access to the outside world.
A few miles away from the acres of felled trees where the train is supposed to run, archaeologist and cave diver Octavio Del Rio points to the Guardianes cave that lies directly beneath the train’s path. The cave’s limestone roof is only 2 or 3 feet thick in some places and would almost certainly collapse under the weight of a speeding train.
“We are running the risk that all this will be buried and this history lost,” Del Rio says.
Lopez Obrador dismisses critics like Del Rio as “pseudo environmentalists” funded by foreign governments.
As with his other signature projects, including a new airport in the capital and a massive new oil refinery on the Gulf of Mexico, the president exempted the train from environmental impact studies and last month invoked national security powers to forge ahead, overriding court injunctions.
Many critics say Lopez Obrador’s obsession with the projects threatens Mexico’s democratic institutions. But the president counters that he just wants to develop the historically poor southern part of Mexico.
“We want to take advantage of all the tourism that arrives in Cancún, so they can take the Maya Train to see other natural beauty spots, especially the ancient Mayan cities in Yucatán, Campeche, Chiapas, Tabasco,” which are poor neighboring states, Lopez Obrador said earlier this month.
But the Maya themselves are people scraping a living from the limestone bed of the dry tropical jungle. The ancient Mayan civilization reached its height from 300 A.D. to 900 A.D. on the Yucatán Peninsula and in adjacent to parts of Central America, and they are best known for constructing monumental temple sites like Chichen Itza.
The Mayas’ descendants continue to live on the peninsula, many speaking the Mayan language and wearing traditional clothing, while also conserving traditional foods, crops, religion and medicine practices, despite the conquest of the region by the Spanish between 1527 and 1546.
“I think that there is nothing Maya” about the train, said Lidia Caamal Puc, whose family came from the Mayan town of Peto, in the neighboring Yucatán state, to settle here 22 years ago. “Some people say it will bring great benefits, but for us Mayas that work the land, that live here, we don’t see any benefits.”
“Rather, it will hurt us, because, how should I put it, they are taking away what we love so much, the land.”
When marines showed up last month to start cutting down trees in preparation for the train on the edge of the village, residents who hadn’t been paid for their expropriated land stopped them from working.
The head of the village council and a supporter of the train, Jorge Sanchez, acknowledged that the government “had not paid the people who were affected,” even though the government has said they will get compensation.
But it’s not just about the money, Sanchez said.
“It will bring back jobs for our people.”
The 950-mile Maya Train line will run in a rough loop around the Yucatán Peninsula, connecting beach resorts and archaeological sites. But in Vida y Esperanza, the train will cut directly through the narrow, rutted 4-mile dirt road that leads to the nearest paved highway.
For more than two years, Mayan communities have been objecting to the train line, filing court challenges arguing the railway violated their right to a safe, clean environment, and to be consulted; in 2019, the Mexico office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights found that what consultations the government did do were flawed.
The question about the economics of the train, and tourism income, is more complex, in part because no credible feasibility studies were done. The project is expected to cost about $8 billion — but appears likely to rise to as much as $11 billion — while the government calculates it will bring in $9.5 billion in revenue or “benefits.”
But those estimates are widely doubted because Lopez Obrador is essentially betting on luring sun-and-sand beachgoers to the ruins and Indigenous towns for so-called “cultural tourism.” It is not clear how many want to combine those two activities, especially if the high-speed train zooms past the beauties of the low jungle.
International tourism to the country has started to recover from pandemic losses, with the strongest showing from U.S. visitors. In the first half of 2022, just over 10 million tourists arrived from January to June, 1.5 percent higher than the first half of 2019. But overall tourist spending remains below pre-pandemic levels.
Unless the army, which is building the train line, constructs a large overpass bridge above the tracks, villagers would be forced to take a back road four times as long to get to the highway. It would no longer make economic sense to live there.
The government tourism agency that oversees the train project, Fonatur, says an overpass will be built for Vida y Esperanza. But such promises have gone unfulfilled in the past.
And the army plans to fill the underground caves to support the weight of the passing trains, which could block or contaminate the underground water system.
The high-speed train can’t have at-grade crossings, and won’t be fenced, so that 100-mile per hour trains will rush past an elementary school. Most of the students walk to get there.
Just as bad, the train project has divided Vida y Esperanza.
Luis Lopez, 36, who works at a local store and opposes the train, said “it might bring minor benefits, but it has downsides.”
“The cenotes will be filled or contaminated,” he said, referring to the sinkholes that villagers rely on. “I survive on the water from a cenote, to wash dishes, to bathe.”
Many residents of Vida y Esperanza, who rely on diesel generators, would much rather have electricity than a tourist train that will rush by and never stop there.
Mario Basto, 78, a wiry resident who works as a gardener, said he’d rather have decent medical care than the train.
“It seems like the government has money it just needs to get rid of, when there are hundreds of hospitals that don’t have medicine,” Basto said.
And there are some people in Vida y Esperanza who support the train project, almost entirely because of jobs it has brought during construction.
Benjamin Chim, a taxi and truck driver who is already employed by the Maya Train, will also lose part of his land to the project. But he says he doesn’t care, noting “it is going to be a benefit, in terms of jobs.”
“They are taking a bit of land, but it’s a bit that doesn’t have any symbolic value, for me it doesn’t mean anything,” Chim said.
While the president’s supporters have claimed that anybody who opposes the train isn’t really Mayan, that would be news to people in Vida y Esperanza, where residents swear that Mayan spirits, known as “Aluxes,” inhabit the forest.
Locals pacify the spirits by leaving a small drink of wine out for them.
Bright blue-green Toh birds, tarantulas, blue morpho butterflies, iguanas and the occasional jaguar cross the roads and jungle.
And it would also threaten something older than even the Mayas.
Del Rio, the archaeologist, discovered human remains of the Maya’s ancestors that may date as far back as 13,700 years in another cave network — but it took him and other divers 1½ years to snake through a single cavern system. “This is work that takes years, years,” he said.
Lopez Obrador wants to finish the entire train in 16 months by filling the caves with cement or sinking concrete columns through the caverns — the only places that allowed humans to survive in this area.
But for the villagers, much of the damage has already been done.
“They have already stolen our tranquility, the moment they cut through to lay the train line,” Caamal Puc said.
Are you planning to remodel your kitchen? If so, this is the perfect time to rethink your current layout to meet your families wants and needs.
Just like in the movie City Slickers, the secret to a perfect kitchen layout is “just one thing”. For some it’s about being efficient. For others its organization. For many it’s about creating a space to bring their family and friends into. There are even those who don’t cook, and they want to create a perfect space that could be considered a work of art.
The takeaway is that every layout is the right one as long as it is for you. Therefore, ask yourself how many cooks are in your family? How many people use the kitchen at the same time? How often do you entertain?
Keep in mind three basic areas to a kitchen: food preparation, cooking and cleanup. Traditionally, the work triangle consists of the refrigerator (where food is stored), the stove (where food is cooked) and the sink (where cleanup takes place) at each point of the triangle. This creates a very efficient kitchen space.
Some common kitchen layouts include the following:
L Shape — A kitchen with two adjacent walls. This shape allows for a free flow of traffic through the space. An island or peninsula can be added for more countertop space and seating.
Galley — A kitchen with parallel walls or one wall with an island. This is very efficient because everything is closely located. However, this may not be the best layout for entertaining or if you have multiple people working or walking through the kitchen.
U shape — This kitchen has three walls. This shape creates an efficient work triangle and generally works well for two or more cooks. There is usually plenty of counter space and less traffic flow. If the kitchen is large enough, an island can provide additional space for food prep, storage and eating.
Are two kitchen islands better than one? Double islands may be right for your kitchen remodeling project. This recent popular trend allows for one work island and one island with seating.
Whether you have a large or small kitchen, choosing the right layout will let you make the most out of your space.
Therefore, in closing, when considering your perfect kitchen remember it’s all about one thing. The one thing that is most important to you.
This article was provided by a member of the Remodelers Council of the Greater Houston Builders Association. The Remodelers Council is dedicated to promoting professionalism and public awareness of the remodeling profession through education, certification and service to the Houston community. To contact the author, email will@divinerenovation.com. For more information on this article, please contact Lorraine Hart at lorraine@idealconsulting.net. To join the council or to find a professional remodeler in your area, please visit www.ghba.org.