ABSTRACT
The silver mines of Zacatecas have loomed large in New Spain’s mining history. The extraction of silver here began in 1546 and yielded such a surplus that it caused the Spanish Crown to modify its policies in New Spain toward mining. These mines substantially financed Spain’s presence in the Americas, and they allow us to understand with greater clarity the northward expansion of the viceregal boundary in the direction of what was considered the Chichimeca populations and the founding of cities. New musealization initiatives find value in this Novohispanic mining history, and this chapter examines the different ways in which that past is being recovered in service of agendas in the present. Heritage models, to this end, are diverse. Several cases, such as La Bufadora in Zacatecas, La Fundidora in Monterrey, Las Minas del Boleo in Baja California, and Mineral del Chico in the state of Hidalgo, serve to advance the social function of heritage as an element of economic development. This chapter illuminates how the various management models employed shed light on a vision of these mining centers and their Atlantic history as evolving nodes in Mexico’s public heritage practice.
