Surviving in the Rainforest:
The Realities of Looting in the Rural Villages of El Petén, Guatemala

List of Figures

Figure   1.   Author in front of a looted structure at Naactún, locally called El Infierno or Infiernón ("Hell"), located in dense jungle on the Guatemala-México border, just 3 km north.

Figure   2.   El Zacatal camp. Chicleros and a toucan as a pet.

Figure   3.   La Toronja, chicle gathering camp.

Figure   4.   Blocks or marquetas of cooked and molded gum.

Figure   5.   Children of a chiclero in a central distribution camp north of Uaxactún. In several cases, chicleros take their entire families to live in the seasonal camps.

Figure   6.   Abandoned ceramic objects at a chiclero camp. Some are reused or kept as ornaments.

Figure   7.   Mr. "Alpha" at a looted mound, explaining how saques are made and checking for possible remains.

Figure   8.   Mules carrying blocks of gum back to the central camp. Archaeological objects are transported out of the forest the same way.

Figure   9.   Don Santiago, a farmer from San Miguel La Palotada, shows the main structure looted by FYDEP. The building has more than one trench. The size indicates the work of a large crew.

Figure 10.   Different styles of ceramics brought back by the chicleros from the jungle. They are now in exhibition to the public. (Dos Lagunas Biotope and Uaxactún Collections.)

Figure 11.   Felicita Barrera, a cook from La Toronja camp, with the bowl she uses to contain tortillas.

Figure 12.   Bowl used to pour water in the camp’s "dishwasher". (Los Pichos)

Figure 13.   Broken stela cut in pieces to build a hearth to cook chicle. Stelae are often re-used to construct other facilities because of their ready-to-use slab shape. (El Suspiro camp, abandoned in August 1996.)

Figure 14.   Norberto Tesucún, the museum coordinator for the Tikal Precolumbian Collections in the Sylvanus G. Morley Museum, Tikal, holding a jade statuette representing a sleeping jaguar, after the object was returned from an international exhibition.

Figure 15a.  View of the Uaxactún Collection, in Posada Campamento El Chiclero.

Figure 15b.  View of the Uaxactún Collection, in Posada Campamento El Chiclero.

Figure 16.   One of the several mounds of the site of Kaminaljuyú (Guatemala City, zone 11). Ironically, the Hyatt Hotel built over the site is called "Tikal Futura" and is decorated with Mayan motifs.

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