good evening it’s a special honor for me
to be here at National Geographic
because probably if I was born again I
would give it a try to be part of this
organization my poor kids all my life
whenever we went on vacation once they
told my little daughter said that why do
we always end up in the boondocks
because the passion to go to the jungle
to go to the countryside to to go see
nature and be close to it was close to
my heart had a pleasure and honor to
meet Bill Garrett when he was editor of
the magazine I went to hear him speak at
a university in Ando death had nothing
to do there other than wanted to go hear
him speak and we became very good
friends and I enjoyed wonderful trips
with him to Maya sites and photography
and learned a lot from Bill Garrett he
was a founder of the this wonderful
organization incorporated here in
Virginia La Ruta Maya Conservation
Foundation and his vision was to
preserve my heritage in different ways
and and I took the presidency of this
organization and took it to a different
to a different emphasis in in and tried
to do with it the best we could to
preserve this heritage for what
emmalin’s the piece you see on screen is
is called the Cancun panel it narrates
the history of the kings of Canaan their
heritage who the who they fought who
they captured and so forth a very
important archaeological piece that the
foundation acquired and it keeps today
it offers to museums as this piece has
traveled to world visiting museums and
we are constantly putting it on loan for
exhibits locally so we promote education
and we are also trying to to archive and
document everything that the collection
has these pieces on screen are visors
that were acquired here in the United
States were received as donations here
in the United States that were sent back
home the piece here on the left is very
important because that little Mickey
Mouse guy with the ears on the bottom is
done
it’s a glyph for Mirador a site in the
jungle so what I’m at a pre classic site
and this glass was used to drink
chocolate by the king when he was
appointed King and around the VAS it
says who his grandfather was who his
father was who he is and today he’s
appointed king of Mirador with the dates
of all this so this is called an
ascension cup archaeologically extremely
interesting and extremely valuable this
piece was donated by a collector here in
United States and so piece is very
artistic or archaeologically very
important are what we are endeavoring to
to bring to what emmalin’s through the
to the collection
we brought a container of pieces out of
the United States and one shipment
Sophia Pat is the executive director of
the foundation you can see her smile on
the face because she was so happy these
pieces were coming back home bring the
pieces back to what Amala
is not a simple story there’s no
legislation to bring them into the
country so I bumped into customs with
legislation that treats this these
pieces that are Guatemalan pieces as
merchandise they want us to pay duties
when we bring them in I raise hell and I
don’t pay the duties and I find a way to
bring them in because I was so offended
when they told me that we had a paid
Duty I say these are Guatemalans coming
back to Guatemala you cannot charge us
for it in I even threatened to take him
back bring him back to the States
and
but the truth is the fellow from custom
says please don’t be angry with me I
just don’t have legislation
to back me up and I have to charge the
duty so I got the Ministry of Culture to
to run them through customs for me and
they avoided the law and they we did not
pay we did not pay the duties we have a
law right now in hands of Congress that
we have worked and spent quite a bit of
an effort to correct this so we can in
the future import these pieces legally
in 2012 we bought these pieces in
California they were part of a private
collection very important pieces this
these are part of a staircase of the of
La Coruna a very important site that
archaeologists were crazy looking for
because they only knew by reference for
the other side that La Coruna existed
and it was finally found these pieces
the companion of these pieces are in
American museums illegally we’re going
to ask nicely to see if we can get them
back and if not later we will think of
other ways but these these pieces need
to go back they left the country
illegally we can prove that there we
have photographs of archaeologists at
the site with these pieces and the last
piece is very interesting because says
this King enjoyed drinking pulque which
is a wine made out of maize corn so the
Maya had a lot of sense of humor not
everything they put under stella’s is
very important information like this one
saying that he was drinking pulque but
but they’re very important
archaeologically for us and every piece
we have we invest huge effort in
documenting in our files for every piece
are as good as any Museum here in the
States
we’re very proud of that we are working
to put all these photographs online
high-resolution 20 megapixel photography
we’re putting them online as we speak
every piece we abide by the law is
properly registered with the National
Registry of of Antiquities
and the instant they become part of that
registry they obviously are available to
any researcher but if a researcher comes
to us we make the pieces available the
photography everything available for
free our collection is right now 3300
pieces that are registered some as I as
I say are extremely valuable and very
important every Museum of the country
has pieces from our collection and we
focus today on that effort of
documenting and repatriating and we have
received donations from what AM Island
collectors or international collectors
one of the most touching moments for me
I went to a house of a friend gives me a
piece and I am admiring assisted my god
this is it really an important piece and
I’m putting back on the shelf
said no no no no take it it’s for you
for the museum it’s for the foundation
my hair just you know you can imagine
the emotion of receiving that and I have
a friend in in North Carolina and he
puts in my hands a mosaic Jade mask and
and I’m putting it back says no no take
it but take it fast before I change my
mind and and I and I took it in my hand
and I smuggled into the country and is
happily sitting in a museum and Mosel
Miraflores and what about a city today
so this effort it’s it’s controversial
some archeologists don’t like what I do
I’m very proud of what I do and we can
have a very solid discussion about it
and we can agree to disagree but these
are public places where our pieces are
exhibited and they have no place in us
in a warehouse I don’t have enough
places to exhibit them and we need to
create a place world-class place to
exhibit the arts show of Los Angeles
invited us to exhibit there and we
presented the piece and the center
there’s almost 10 feet long some
monumental piece and it’s a very
important piece we acquired from a
collector
these pieces today are should be the
core of a museum and these pieces are
part of the collection like this rattle
here on the left for a child or for an
instrument for music you can see there
they’re really fun and very beautiful
some of them and for example this bust
is the only bust of that we know that
comes from Tikal very beautiful also
that’s a that piece we acquired in
Florida and the one on the right there
is a another vessel to drink chocolate
Maya
consider chocolate very important and it
says Lord ah how so and so this is this
cup for chocolate just like you have one
in the kitchen that says sugar and this
he had one that says chocolate so these
are really fun piece is very beautiful
and it takes us to the big dream we want
to create a museum world-class museum we
want to replicate the success of cities
in Europe like Bilbao and the Museum of
Bilbao that changed and in a fairly ugly
industrial city into a cultural
destination today Bilbao has 1.1 million
tourists a year it did not receive
before involved in formula was a crisis
in Spain this last few years because we
bow was receiving double or triple the
tourism than the rest of the country was
because of one museum if we can do that
for what Amala we can increase the GNP
by one percent because the country
receives 1.8 million tourists a year I
think the museum can bring 600,000
people a year the math we do with
government one percentage increase in
gross national product that could be
done through culture through an
institution like this so I won’t bore
you with the museum but that’s my big
dream today I’m dedicating and
committing probably in next 10 or 20
years of my life that I hope we can
enjoy to bring a world-class museum
dedicated to the preservation of this
wonderful heritage we went to the best
art architects of the
world and we found some architects in
Switzerland this is seen from the an
airplane view over the museum and this
is the view of what we intend to build
this is 60,000 square-foot building it
will take quite a bit of money that we
need to raise and we’re in the process
of that the government will give us the
land there’s a lot more to talk about
that but the purpose is conservation the
purpose is to bring well-being to our
country through tourism and for me one
of the biggest purposes is to give the
Maya people of my country a sense of
pride of being Indian a sense of pride
of being Maya because there’s a huge
heritage to be proud of and a museum
like this would be built and created to
celebrate that heritage so National
Geographic with this invitation is
giving us credibility for this effort in
in for that I thank you very much thank
you
you
to be here at National Geographic
because probably if I was born again I
would give it a try to be part of this
organization my poor kids all my life
whenever we went on vacation once they
told my little daughter said that why do
we always end up in the boondocks
because the passion to go to the jungle
to go to the countryside to to go see
nature and be close to it was close to
my heart had a pleasure and honor to
meet Bill Garrett when he was editor of
the magazine I went to hear him speak at
a university in Ando death had nothing
to do there other than wanted to go hear
him speak and we became very good
friends and I enjoyed wonderful trips
with him to Maya sites and photography
and learned a lot from Bill Garrett he
was a founder of the this wonderful
organization incorporated here in
Virginia La Ruta Maya Conservation
Foundation and his vision was to
preserve my heritage in different ways
and and I took the presidency of this
organization and took it to a different
to a different emphasis in in and tried
to do with it the best we could to
preserve this heritage for what
emmalin’s the piece you see on screen is
is called the Cancun panel it narrates
the history of the kings of Canaan their
heritage who the who they fought who
they captured and so forth a very
important archaeological piece that the
foundation acquired and it keeps today
it offers to museums as this piece has
traveled to world visiting museums and
we are constantly putting it on loan for
exhibits locally so we promote education
and we are also trying to to archive and
document everything that the collection
has these pieces on screen are visors
that were acquired here in the United
States were received as donations here
in the United States that were sent back
home the piece here on the left is very
important because that little Mickey
Mouse guy with the ears on the bottom is
done
it’s a glyph for Mirador a site in the
jungle so what I’m at a pre classic site
and this glass was used to drink
chocolate by the king when he was
appointed King and around the VAS it
says who his grandfather was who his
father was who he is and today he’s
appointed king of Mirador with the dates
of all this so this is called an
ascension cup archaeologically extremely
interesting and extremely valuable this
piece was donated by a collector here in
United States and so piece is very
artistic or archaeologically very
important are what we are endeavoring to
to bring to what emmalin’s through the
to the collection
we brought a container of pieces out of
the United States and one shipment
Sophia Pat is the executive director of
the foundation you can see her smile on
the face because she was so happy these
pieces were coming back home bring the
pieces back to what Amala
is not a simple story there’s no
legislation to bring them into the
country so I bumped into customs with
legislation that treats this these
pieces that are Guatemalan pieces as
merchandise they want us to pay duties
when we bring them in I raise hell and I
don’t pay the duties and I find a way to
bring them in because I was so offended
when they told me that we had a paid
Duty I say these are Guatemalans coming
back to Guatemala you cannot charge us
for it in I even threatened to take him
back bring him back to the States
and
but the truth is the fellow from custom
says please don’t be angry with me I
just don’t have legislation
to back me up and I have to charge the
duty so I got the Ministry of Culture to
to run them through customs for me and
they avoided the law and they we did not
pay we did not pay the duties we have a
law right now in hands of Congress that
we have worked and spent quite a bit of
an effort to correct this so we can in
the future import these pieces legally
in 2012 we bought these pieces in
California they were part of a private
collection very important pieces this
these are part of a staircase of the of
La Coruna a very important site that
archaeologists were crazy looking for
because they only knew by reference for
the other side that La Coruna existed
and it was finally found these pieces
the companion of these pieces are in
American museums illegally we’re going
to ask nicely to see if we can get them
back and if not later we will think of
other ways but these these pieces need
to go back they left the country
illegally we can prove that there we
have photographs of archaeologists at
the site with these pieces and the last
piece is very interesting because says
this King enjoyed drinking pulque which
is a wine made out of maize corn so the
Maya had a lot of sense of humor not
everything they put under stella’s is
very important information like this one
saying that he was drinking pulque but
but they’re very important
archaeologically for us and every piece
we have we invest huge effort in
documenting in our files for every piece
are as good as any Museum here in the
States
we’re very proud of that we are working
to put all these photographs online
high-resolution 20 megapixel photography
we’re putting them online as we speak
every piece we abide by the law is
properly registered with the National
Registry of of Antiquities
and the instant they become part of that
registry they obviously are available to
any researcher but if a researcher comes
to us we make the pieces available the
photography everything available for
free our collection is right now 3300
pieces that are registered some as I as
I say are extremely valuable and very
important every Museum of the country
has pieces from our collection and we
focus today on that effort of
documenting and repatriating and we have
received donations from what AM Island
collectors or international collectors
one of the most touching moments for me
I went to a house of a friend gives me a
piece and I am admiring assisted my god
this is it really an important piece and
I’m putting back on the shelf
said no no no no take it it’s for you
for the museum it’s for the foundation
my hair just you know you can imagine
the emotion of receiving that and I have
a friend in in North Carolina and he
puts in my hands a mosaic Jade mask and
and I’m putting it back says no no take
it but take it fast before I change my
mind and and I and I took it in my hand
and I smuggled into the country and is
happily sitting in a museum and Mosel
Miraflores and what about a city today
so this effort it’s it’s controversial
some archeologists don’t like what I do
I’m very proud of what I do and we can
have a very solid discussion about it
and we can agree to disagree but these
are public places where our pieces are
exhibited and they have no place in us
in a warehouse I don’t have enough
places to exhibit them and we need to
create a place world-class place to
exhibit the arts show of Los Angeles
invited us to exhibit there and we
presented the piece and the center
there’s almost 10 feet long some
monumental piece and it’s a very
important piece we acquired from a
collector
these pieces today are should be the
core of a museum and these pieces are
part of the collection like this rattle
here on the left for a child or for an
instrument for music you can see there
they’re really fun and very beautiful
some of them and for example this bust
is the only bust of that we know that
comes from Tikal very beautiful also
that’s a that piece we acquired in
Florida and the one on the right there
is a another vessel to drink chocolate
Maya
consider chocolate very important and it
says Lord ah how so and so this is this
cup for chocolate just like you have one
in the kitchen that says sugar and this
he had one that says chocolate so these
are really fun piece is very beautiful
and it takes us to the big dream we want
to create a museum world-class museum we
want to replicate the success of cities
in Europe like Bilbao and the Museum of
Bilbao that changed and in a fairly ugly
industrial city into a cultural
destination today Bilbao has 1.1 million
tourists a year it did not receive
before involved in formula was a crisis
in Spain this last few years because we
bow was receiving double or triple the
tourism than the rest of the country was
because of one museum if we can do that
for what Amala we can increase the GNP
by one percent because the country
receives 1.8 million tourists a year I
think the museum can bring 600,000
people a year the math we do with
government one percentage increase in
gross national product that could be
done through culture through an
institution like this so I won’t bore
you with the museum but that’s my big
dream today I’m dedicating and
committing probably in next 10 or 20
years of my life that I hope we can
enjoy to bring a world-class museum
dedicated to the preservation of this
wonderful heritage we went to the best
art architects of the
world and we found some architects in
Switzerland this is seen from the an
airplane view over the museum and this
is the view of what we intend to build
this is 60,000 square-foot building it
will take quite a bit of money that we
need to raise and we’re in the process
of that the government will give us the
land there’s a lot more to talk about
that but the purpose is conservation the
purpose is to bring well-being to our
country through tourism and for me one
of the biggest purposes is to give the
Maya people of my country a sense of
pride of being Indian a sense of pride
of being Maya because there’s a huge
heritage to be proud of and a museum
like this would be built and created to
celebrate that heritage so National
Geographic with this invitation is
giving us credibility for this effort in
in for that I thank you very much thank
you
you
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