What does "culture" mean to the de facto regime?

Having rid herself of the burden of having internationally renowned scholars and writers as directors of the institutions that make up the core of the Ministry of Culture, Mirna Castro is now at liberty to show her critics what she thinks the mission of the Ministry of Culture, Arts, and Sports should be.

Selected by the regime of Roberto Micheletti to try to fill the shoes of Honduran historian and Minister of Culture Rodolfo Pastor Fasquelle, Castro has been roundly criticized by Honduran artists and intellectuals for her denunciation of book distribution to the indigenous, african-descendant, and rural people of the country, who she described as "vulnerable" to dangerous ideas. She has been the subject of parody, including a campaign to donate books for her education-- a solicitation specifying children's books as appropriate for her assumed ignorance.

It may be that the cutting treatment she has received from the writers and artists of Honduras is unfair. Perhaps she is secretly an intellectual. But her own words make clear that she misunderstands the mission of the ministry over which she currently holds sway; and her recent actions surpass any parody that the most creative Honduran writers could invent.

In an article published in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Ms. Castro argued that her internationally condemned dismissal of Honduran historian, Dr. Darío Euraque, was justified:

He was indifferent [to Copan], and due to the economic crisis, tourism started to decline... It was his job to manage, and he wasn't fulfilling his job. [emphasis added]

Dr. Euraque is the legally appointed Director of the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History. That is a scholarly institute whose mission, defined in its original founding law in 1952, was "the exploration, restoration, conservation and vigilance of archaeological monuments, the improvement of the organization and administration of museums, the study of history, etc." [Founding decree of IHAH, Acuerdo 245, July 22, 1952].

The mission of the IHAH was further defined in the Ley Organica del IHAH, Decreto 118 of 1968:

Article 5: The Institute has as its goal the defense, exploration, conservation, restoration, repair, recovery, growth, and scientific investigation of the archaeological, anthropological, historic and artistic treasures of the nation, as well as places of natural beauty and typical places.

In 1997, Decreto 220-97 restated the same mission of defense, rescue, restoration, protection, investigation, sharing of information, growth and transmission to future generations of what now is officially the Cultural Patrimony of the Nation.

The development of tourism, not mentioned in the 1997 Law, is the work of the aptly named Honduran Institute of Tourism (IHT), part of an entirely different ministry.

IHAH's job was and is to encourage the development of knowledge about the Cultural Patrimony, and its preservation.

Which brings us to Ms. Castro's current program of cultural activities, using the museums administered by IHAH and the budget of which she has systematically deprived existing programs of research, publication, and development of museums, to creatively expand the legal definition of culture to activities with which she is more comfortable.

It's Fashion Week in Honduras! and the Ministry of Culture is one of the patrons, to the tune of 100,000 lempiras, as reported in the social pages of pro-coup newspapers and the website Vos el Soberano.

Ms. Castro has been quoted as saying of her funding, offered so that Honduran designers would exploit designs from the cultural patrimony

This initiative was to recover national identity, and not only history, archaeology, Copan were culture, but also fashion.

Chapter IV, Article 23 of the Law of the IHAH is actually concerned with the use of cultural patrimony for the purpose of making a profit, not to mention the active debates world-wide about the appropriation of cultural heritage in trivial ways and the issues it raises about the intellectual property rights in such things.

An article published in El Heraldo documenting a cocktail reception held at the museum of the history of the republic housed in the historic presidential mansion, Villa Roy, to celebrate the signing of the agreement to sponsor Fashion Week, quotes Castro as reiterating her innovative claim that fashion is one of the key forms of cultural patrimony:

It is to open spaces for those young people that are beginning to enter design. Fashion is an industry but it is also part of the culture of the people and for that reason it is important to support this type of events.

As a participant in this form of authentic Honduran culture, Exhibit A: Mirna Castro (right)

History is Dangerous

Cultural policy, we have noted, is also economic policy. The work of the Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia over the last three years successfully engaged funding from the US, Spain, and the UN, whose losses we calculated in a previous post.

But money doesn't tell the whole story of what has been lost in the takeover of the Ministry of Culture by the de facto regime, and their dismissal of the Director of the Institute. A closer look at the nature of the projects that have now been suspended gives insight into the priorities of the coup regime by showing us what they do not think is worth supporting, or even think is so dangerous to the status quo and the maintenance of power by a small elite that they merited removing the main advocate for these projects from his office.

The cancelled initiatives, in their breadth and scope, also give insight into the depth of civic engagement and public participation encouraged by policies of the Zelaya administration.

Notably, many of the projects now deprived of funding involved bringing together local stakeholders, community and regional historians, and potential cultural resource guardians, providing them with training in how to undertake historical research, and engaging them with the projected opening of new museums and cultural parks located throughout the country.

The IHAH document reports that after training 256 people

about Cultural patrimony and national identity seen from the point of view of civic participation

the disruption caused by the de facto regime has led to cancellation of programs intended to train an additional 35 participants.

What the bare numbers cannot capture is what these workshops were like. At those I participated in during the month of June, a mixture of people from across the country, including from the distant, difficult to reach watershed of the Rio Patuca in Eastern Honduras, people recognized by their communities as having greater historical perspective mingled with high school students and others interested in learning more about archaeological and historical sites that were or might be the targets of tourist visitation. Given the chance to hear from the acknowledged experts in the long-term histories of these places, workshop participants were connected with international and national scholars, and encouraged to ask their own questions about history in the places where they lived.

The point, in the words of Dr. Darío Euraque, dismissed by the illegitimate government from his post as Director of the Institute at the beginning of this month, was to encourage the production of "textured histories" by the people themselves. Encouraged to use photographs, gravestones, and other local resources for their research, these citizens offered the chance to participate in the work of creating national history were also to have been the beneficiaries of the most ambitious project of the Institute: the Documentary Center for Historic Investigations of Honduras (CDIHH).

What happened to this unparalleled historical research center in the wake of the coup is the topic of the next post in this series that explores precisely how the de facto regime works to destroy advances in civil society and broader political participation. But that will have to wait for another day.

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Translation of relevant portion of the IHAH statement of suspended projects (see future posts for other sections):

III. Programs of historical and ethnohistorical studies, and their registry.

Without doubt the II Encuentro de Historiadores (encounter of local and regional historians) planned for the month of October in Catacamas, Department of Olancho, under the responsibility of the History Unit of IHAH, in the care of Lic. Yesenia Martinez, will be suspended. This program was to have been made up of 40 students of the history of Honduras coming from 13 departments of Honduras. The suspension of this program will affect their projects of publication. The approximate budget destined for the II Encuentro de Historiadores in Catacamas, Olancho, is 150,000 lempiras.

The antecedents of this congress programmed for Catacamas go back to a first encounter of local and regional historians that was carried out in May 2008 in the Antigua Casa Presidencial and under the patronage of IHAH and the coordination of its History Unit. Later, in March of that year, the History Unit of IHAH organized a Workshop of Training in Methodology for Historic Research intended for the participants in the congress realized in Tegucigalpa in 2008. This Workshop, carried out by petition of the local historians of almost all the departments of Honduras, took place in the Museum of Anthropology and History in San Pedro Sula. At the same time, a special visit to the Municipal Historic Archives in the care of Lic. Eliseo Fajardo was carried out.

Various of the participants in these congresses and workshops in 2008 and the beginning of 2009 participated in another program that will be suspended, that of the training of Cultural Resource Guardians. This is a program of training about Cultural patrimony and national identity seen from the point of view of civic participation. Up until now 256 men and women have been trained on a national level, including from the banks of the Rio Patuca in the Mosquitia. Due to the lack of recognition of the authorities imposed since the 28th of June, a workshop for 35 cultural resource guardians for the site of Yarumela and its vicinity with the Museum of Comayagua, in the care of Lic. Miriam Zapata, has been cancelled. It was cancelled in process by the IHAH because the funds negotiated come from UNESCO, with a value of almost 90,000 lempiras.

These and other Cultural Resource Guardians work as a database of the cultural patrimony of the nation. One of the projects affected by the international repudiation of the new authorities of IHAH concerns an effort negotiated by the Registry and Control Unit of IHAH, financed by funds of the State Department of the US. The amount approved for this project is $31,288 (dollars). This has a duration of one year. Up until now, barely 33% has been executed. The Embassy of the US has carried only one disbursal of the three that were to be carried out had it not been suspended.

The damage that is done: Director of Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History dismissed

It may be timely to remind ourselves of the damage that is being done every day by the de facto regime. Coincidentally, at the same time that the State Department statement of new, limited sanctions was being publicized, grimmer news came from Honduras: Dr. Darío Euraque, an internationally distinguished historian, Professor of History at Trinity College in the US, who took a leave of absence in 2006 to serve his native country as leader of the Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia, was presented an order dismissing him, signed by the de facto regime's appointee to run the Ministry of Culture.

The report of this action notes that it was undertaken by the "new Consejo Directivo that the authorities of the government of Roberto Micheletti has named, convened in secret, without the authorities of the Institute being consulted and invited". The Institute officially has the right to be represented at meetings of the advisory board. The decision was made by a one-vote majority of the eligible votes. Members representing the National University or the scholarly associations of Honduras were either not present or did not vote. The final tally of 6 votes represents the representatives of the de facto regime, whose legality the US and other international bodies does not recognize.

The representatives of the de facto functionary running the ministry of culture brought with them agents of the Fiscalía prepared to charge any members of the staff of the Institute who might repeat their previous tactic of taking over the building. The union of the workers of this Institute supports the Director, and when he was presented with the letter of dismissal, communicated the damage to the mission of the Institute, including to international collaboration in ongoing projects. Letters to that effect had been received from scholars in the US, Spain, and throughout Central America. More than 400 scholars from disciplines including archaeology, anthropology, geography, history, and Latin American Studies had signed a joint letter objecting to the dismissal. The professional societies representing archaeologists in the US had written letters raising concerns about the proposed removal of Dr. Euraque.

Perhaps the most eloquent statement on this comes from a Costa Rican historian, who expresses sentiments of many of us:


"Death to Intelligence!"


Víctor Hugo Acuña Ortega

In the last year, on two occasions, I was invited by Darío Euraque to give workshops and talks at the IHAH, activities carried out in San Pedro Sula, Trujillo and Tegucigalpa. These experiences have permitted me to know the nature and the quality of the work that this distinguished historian has been being carrying out as director of that institution. I should recognize that I admire that a researcher and university teacher in the midst of a professional career in the US would have decided to dedicate many years of his most productive stage to work in his country and for his country. I suspect that for an academic like Darío Euraque this has been a professional sacrifice assumed conscientiously for the sake of personal and civic commitment to Honduras.



During those visits, I traveled with Darío Euraque on the north coast of Honduras and I have been a witness to his commitment, day and night, to his post, not only in the office, but also on the road and in whatever place he found himself. I have felt that one of the basic axes of his work consist in placing in dialogue the population in general, and those who, in a dedicated way, without being professionals, dedicate themselves to the study of the history of his country, with those who are dedicated to the professional practice of that discipline. I have also seen how he has fomented contact by the community of Honduran historians with their Central American and foreign peers.



It seems to me that in the the work of Darío Euraque there is a clear will to do a job from distinct perspectives: the protection and management of patrimony; the critical projection of national memory; the promotion of ethnic, regional, local, worker and campesino memories; the training and updating of those who practice history, both in a professional form as well as in an avocational form; the circulation of historical knowledge through a coherent policy of publications and the promotion of research of the highest level.



In such conditions, the firing of Darío Euraque on the part of the authorities of the de facto government of Honduras represents not only an arbitrary and illegal decision, rather, in addition, a deed with dire consequences for the culture, historic patrimony, and scientific research in Honduras. It is possible that this dismissal, from the point of view of those who today control in an illegal form the government of Honduras, could be considered a minor matter, since for that class of people everything that has to do with culture has a secondary value, if not devalued.



Nonetheless, this action is very, very symptomatic of the true nature of this regime whose motto, in its deeds and in respect to the firing of Darío Euraque, could be said in the sadly famous phrase that a Fascist general pronounced at the Universidad de Salamanca, in 1936, before its Rector Miguel de Unamuno: "death to intelligence". In the firing of Darío Euraque is summed up that which really represents for the Honduran people, for their democracy and for their culture the present de facto government. It is a duty of everyone, both within Honduras, as well as outside, to denounce and condemn this apology for obscurantism, an evil that we thought had disappeared at last from Central America. Let us say, with firmness, no to the firing of Darío Euraque.

IHAH Employees Support Dario Euraque

De facto regime illegally dismisses Director of Institute of Anthropology and History

Readers of this blog know that the de facto regime is no friend to the Ministry of Culture or its various programs and offices. We have documented the history of dismissals of talented and accomplished scholars and artists, as well as the evidence of ideological blindness about disseminating books and encouraging critical thinking.

Now comes the latest sad volley: Ms. Myrna Castro has issued an illegal dismissal letter intending to remove the Director of the Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia, Dr. Darío Euraque.

A historian and Professor of History at Trinity College in Connecticut, Dr. Euraque took a leave of absence from his position there to step in and provide leadership for the Institute. Under his leadership, it has fostered wide public participation through workshops, press coverage, and conferences that always include a public aspect. He has overseen the greatest expansion in the number of historical sites managed by the Institute for the Honduran public in its history.

Dr. Euraque's own research, including his ground-breaking book, Reinterpreting the Banana Republic (1996), and the 2004 Conversaciones históricas con el mestizaje y su identidad nacional en Honduras, are indispensable works to understood the roots of the present conflict, and also how Honduras is developing as a pluralistic, multicultural society.

What is different in this case is that the office of the director is preparing a legal defense and will fight this. The Honduran Institute is legally autonomous and is under the direction of a duly constituted board. The Director can only be legally dismissed by the board. The board must be legally convened, a quorum established, and a specific procedure following.

None of this has happened.

We are asking for solidarity on behalf of the directorship of the Institute and the integrity of its projects. This is, as the network of artists and scholars in resistance shows, a regime that lacks respect for the work of understanding culture and history.

Resisting this abuse of authority against an institution defending the cultural heritage of Honduras in the aftermath of the coup is something to which we can all contribute.

Update: As noted, this time, the person under attack is fighting back and holding the de facto regime responsible. See his response letter here.

Additional update: The union of employees of the Honduran Institute has issued a statement of support for Dr. Euraque, translated by Adrienne Pine, and employees took over IHAH installations across the country. Dr. Euraque continues to conduct the work of the Institute, with growing international support, including a letter signed by more than 350 academics, scholars, and intellectuals.