ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the way in which space is "consumed needs to be set in historical context. Investigating an area such as the Mexican Caribbean people meet several different historical narratives of space, and competing interpretations. The space represented by Playa can be translated into several spaces, each with their own history and mythology. The Mexican Caribbean was important to pirates and privateers, mercenaries like Henry Morgan, who performed illegal acts on behalf of the British crown. Indeed, it is difficult to draw convincing lines of legality" in the white sand of the Caribbean, since natural resources were often exploited without license, and certainly without the consent of indigenous populations. The histories and politics of space are reinventions, for different generations and for different groups of people. Similarly, the tourists from North America and Europe who visit the new 'Eco-Parks' being built on the coast, 'discover' the marine environments and 'Mayan' cultures in new, hybridized forms.
