Cultural Commodification and My Experience in Mexico: By Alex Hanley

https://timclewis.wordpress.com/articles/the-island-of-the-dolls-%E2%80%93-a-dark-tourist-attraction-in-mexico/

In this weeks blog posting, I've decided to use a darker example of of tourism to help prove the idea of cultural exploitation of Mexican culture to American tourists. The article I've attached is taken from a website that openly advertises a local Mexican man's effort to enshrine a little island in the canals near Mexico City for the spirit of a little girl who drowned there. This Island is called "La Isla de la Munecas" or The Island of the Dolls and the locals believe that the dolls possess the tortured spirit of the little girl.  None of the locals would even think about wandering around this erie island, and ever since its only inhabitant, Don Santana, has passed away; the island has been turned into a spooky adventure for white tourists. The main reason why American tourists are attracted here is because it "serves as a dark tourist attraction especially for the young generation who is fascinated by gore and death" (Clewis). This statement is shocking because of how depressingly true it is about our societies perspective on death and how it contradicts the Mexican superstition that it holds with the locals. The American eye is attracted to the disfigurement and corpse-like presence these dolls give off because it instills the feeling of fear from death in their minds. The real reason why these dolls are used is because they try to make people, especially children, more comfortable with death so there will be no feeling of fear once it actually approaches. This is what is overlooked by the American tourist because they only see it as cool and creepy, but as they forget to reflect on the life that was lost in the river, the refuse to respect the culture that surrounds them, making them a classified idiot in the terms of Kincaid. 

This is something that I just want to bring up because of how guilty I am of being an idiot tourist when I went to Mexico When I was 13. I wanted to get a sugar skull because of how grim and cool they look, so why not get the rasta skull and disrespect the Mexican culture even more than I could even process in my teenage brain. This is a great example because it is merging two religious ideas into one physical object, and heres the kicker, it doubles as a piggy bank, signifying the contradictory actions that the drug war has caused.