One of my idols won an award of the highest world prestige. Yesterday when I woke up shortly before six in the morning and checked my phone, I found the great news:
The archaeologist of archaeologists, Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, was awarded the Princess of Asturias Award in the category of Social Sciences for this 2022. It is a distinction comparable to the Nobel Prize.
Master Matos, as he is known among his many students and admirers, is the man behind the Templo Mayor. He coordinated that project for four decades, excavated the Pyramid of the Sun, founded the Museum of Teotihuacan Culture, has 500 publications and at Harvard they even gave him a chair named following him.
The award jury, made up of 14 experts, recognized his work to reconstruct the civilizations of Mexico and Mesoamerica for their incorporation into history “objectively and free from any myth.”
I highlight this phrase: with objectivity and free of any myth. What a timely reminder on how History should be written, used and cited. Last year, Master Matos, with the weight of his intelligence, condemned the historical manipulation led by President López Obrador by inventing -without any scientific basis and with the sole objective of nourishing his political narrative- that 700 years of the foundation of the Great Tenochtitlan. Matos put him in his place, as he has done with other presidents, with that critical gaze that has accompanied his career.
Yesterday, in his first statements upon being notified of the Award, Dr. Matos Moctezuma launched a message that also has a political reading: “Mexico and Spain are sister countries that are united by indissoluble ties and should strengthen their relations even more.” Those who want to dynamit those blood ties as a tool to avoid scrutiny of their daily failures should take note.
By extension and by dedication, the Prize to Maestro Matos is also an award for the resilience of Mexican archaeology, for the patient and dedicated vocation of those who have known how to circumvent -with the wisdom that comes from dealing daily with the legacies of centuries and not with the juncture of each morning- budget cuts, conditioning, rushing when a medal is needed and forgetting when the urge to wash your face passes. In this government they are even persecuted politicians. A toast to all of them, in charge of ensuring that history remains as it was, that it not be the victim of interests and whims, guardians of a truth that seeks to maintain a consistent dialogue between the past and the present.
SACIAMORBOS
I once read a phrase by the English writer Terry Pratchett who said: “History has a habit of changing people who think they are changing her.”
