The INAH authorized MrBeast to film in Balankanché, Chichén Itzá and Calakmul

▲ The governor of Campeche, Layda Sansores (left), published a photograph with MrBeast on her X account.

▲ Here, the Calakmul archaeological site in Campeche. Photo courtesy of INAH

Reyes Martínez Torrijos

La Jornada Newspaper, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, p. 2

The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) confirmed to La Jornada that it had granted permission to businessman and YouTuber MrBeast to film a nearly 16-minute video titled "I Survived 100 Hours Inside an Ancient Temple " in the archaeological sites of Calakmul (Campeche), Balankanché and Chichén Itzá (Yucatán), which shows the interiors of spaces restricted to the public.

The broadcast's release on YouTube sparked a controversy over the American's access to venues that are normally restricted, even to researchers, despite meeting the requirements. The recurring question was how much he paid to obtain the permit.

Archaeologist Adriana Velázquez Morlet, head of the INAH Campeche Center, explained that this visit to Calakmul was permitted at the request of the state government and the federal Ministry of Tourism.

He commented that this is material to promote Calakmul among young audiences, who don't watch academic videos. This isn't a scientific video. It's for educational purposes. It doesn't have much information. The state government's idea is for other audiences to learn about the site and come .

Velázquez Morlet said that entry was allowed, "as we have done on other occasions.

"In the morning, Mr. Beast and his team were there and then left." INAH staff constantly monitored the presence of the recording equipment, although none of its researchers or staff appear on camera.

The institute only provided the necessary facilities and ensured that no damage was caused. It's important to note that none of the site's elements were affected , the archaeologist added.

The outreach capsule begins when MrBeast and others descend the steps of a pyramid in Calakmul, and a helicopter flies away from the summit. The YouTuber declares: "They just dropped us off at this 2,000-year-old temple ."

He boasts that no one can go where we are going today, and that includes exploring one of the seven wonders of the world , referring to the Kukulcan Castle, in Chichen Itza.

While entering the Temple of Oxte'Tun in Calakmul, the character mentions, "I can't believe the government is letting us do this. It's crazy. Not even archaeologists are allowed in here ."

They were accompanied by a man who showed them a supposed funerary mask, more than a thousand years old, belonging to one of the kings of the Serpent Kingdom . At night, they walked through the archaeological zone's corridors lit by torches that were later reported to be digital effects.

The next day, they headed to the area known as Chichén Viejo. They are later seen in the Balankanché cave. They also emulated the Mesoamerican ball game on a prop hoop. They visited a cenote and had a traditional Mayan dinner, while also advertising a dessert for sale.

They concluded with a view of the Temple of Kukulcán. Drone footage is shown inside the temple that crowns the structure, also known as El Castillo.

Adriana Velázquez mentioned that the space they visited in Calakmul is a structure that was excavated long ago and features masks and a frieze. This frieze, for conservation and space reasons, is not open to the public, but tours are occasionally organized, with members of the community and those who request them .

Regarding the man showing MrBeast a supposedly authentic Mayan artifact, the researcher stated that he's not associated with the INAH and that it's obviously a plastic mask. It's not original. There's a lot of production in that video . Furthermore, the supposed landing of a helicopter on top of the pyramid is a setup, she said, because we wouldn't allow it, and it's also not possible given the large amount of vegetation .

On the other hand, Guadalupe Espinosa, director of the Chichén Itzá archaeological site, told this newspaper that for MrBeast 's visit, they complied with the permit issued by the National Coordination of Legal Affairs of the INAH, which included the flight of a drone. The use of this device was closely supervised.

The businessman was accompanied at the site by archaeologists Arturo Cortés Gutiérrez, deputy director of Technical Protection, and Guillermo de Anda, who has worked with submerged heritage for many years. "We must understand that culture is dynamic and evolving; therefore, we must also adapt to other forms of cultural heritage appreciation ," the archaeologist said.

He added that the video is aimed at a young audience, but the distribution of this young man in no way undermines the normative and regulatory nature we have in all these aspects, which is the aspect that was carefully considered. He adhered to everything stated in the permit .

Among the criticisms, on the Facebook page of user Buza Caperuza, it is read that while archaeologists and heritage researchers must navigate bureaucracy to enter restricted heritage areas, MrBeast was able to do so in a further example of how money can overcome law and ethics .

On the same platform, Luis Martín questions the reasons why the INAH "uses influencers to promote the Calakmul pyramid. In other words: frivolity outweighs intellectual, analytical, and academic merit in a tourism campaign."

An X user, identified as Agent: PIUduck, demanded an explanation on the social network : how the INAH granted the permit, which of its personnel were in the field, and why a YouTube video was approved instead of the investigations that have been in the pipeline for at least two years.

He added that Chichén requires additional procedures for drones (ranging from the capabilities of a DJI device onward) and is typically denied. And there are certain requests, so to speak, for which government oversight is required. Even for me, as a Mérida resident, it's often a problem entering Uxmal with simple drones. Requests from the Autonomous University of Yucatán to allow drones were rejected just over a year ago .

▲ As a parallel activity to the premiere of the podcast's second season, a visual tour of images captured between 1939 and 1964 that portray the daily life of Mixtec women will be offered in the lobby of the Library of the Arts. These images are part of the Nacho López Photo Library of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples. Photo courtesy of Cenart

▲ As a parallel activity to the premiere of the podcast's second season, a visual tour of images captured between 1939 and 1964 that portray the daily life of Mixtec women will be offered in the lobby of the Library of the Arts. These images are part of the Nacho López Photo Library of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples. Photo courtesy of Cenart

Reyes Martínez Torrijos

La Jornada Newspaper, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, p. 3

The work of Ñuu Savi poet Nadia López will be explored in the second season of the Arts Library's podcast, "Indigenous Voices: A Soundscape of Narratives in Indigenous Languages." The first episode will be released tomorrow.

The next four chapters will be released every two months on the Arts Library's YouTube channel, Armando González Rangel, the collection's curator, told La Jornada .

She explained: Nadia (1992, Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca) is a poet who conveys her own experiences through her work; that's the important part we're interested in learning about. Her poetry reveals her identity, and in some ways, it reaffirms the presence of Indigenous women in the lives of indigenous peoples .

Each episode will feature readings in the original language and will be translated into Spanish. An introduction to the season will also be included in the first episode of the podcast.

The official commented that the idea of ​​the project was to help keep our languages ​​alive , and for the author to tell us a little about the presence of women in the lives of indigenous peoples. That's the goal of these first two seasons .

He recalled that the initiative began more than two years ago, when the Multimedia Center of the National Center for the Arts (Cenart) undertook the task of sharing part of the library's collection with the public. Various topics and authors were discussed, including shedding light on our collections of literature related to some languages ​​still spoken in our country. "This was the project that took off ," said the library science professor.

The official said that for the second season, a different language was planned, under the same concept: having a poet help us with the reading, recording, and so on. This is the continuation of an initiative that we didn't see as much attention at first and that would be continued in different media .

Armando González announced that the second season will be launched at Plaza de las Artes (Río Churubusco 79, Country Club neighborhood) and will be broadcast on the Cenart's Interface minisite and on the library and cultural center's YouTube channels. Nadia López and the musical group Yodoquinsi will be in attendance.

Some 20 documents from the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples will be on display in the library lobby to accompany the podcast. It will be a visual tour of photographs from 1939 and 1964 that portray the daily lives of Mixtec women.

▲ Paul Celan sheds the self. His poetry is polyphonic, fragmented. There is no confession or testimony. There is a language that trembles , Linares Ortiz commented in an interview with La Jornada. Here, the Romanian writer in a photo of unknown date and author.

Daniel López Aguilar

La Jornada Newspaper, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, p. 4

In Poetry and Catastrophe in Paul Celan, a new bibliographical work by Jorge Linares Ortiz, the essayist and professor at the Autonomous University of Mexico City (UACM) explores the complexity of the poet's work from a philosophical and literary perspective.

Born in 1920 in Romania, Celan survived the Holocaust and wrote in German, which, although it was the language of the executioners, was also the language of his mother.

Her writing, deeply marked by pain and devastation, is considered one of the most profound accounts of the 20th century. Through it, she confronts catastrophe not in search of solace, but by exploring the tensions and fractures of language.

Celan writes after the fire, after the disappearance, with red eyes. And he returns. He returns with the twisted word. The word that still pulses , Linares explained in an interview with La Jornada.

More than an academic analysis, the book proposes a reflection on the relationship between catastrophe and language. Linares argues that Celan's poetry does not seek consolation or redemption, but rather confronts the contradiction and rupture of language.

Throughout his work, Celan engages in dialogue with real and fictional figures who accompany him on his journey through the ruins of the 20th century. Figures such as Ulysses, Monte Cristo, Nietzsche, Cavafy, and Ingeborg Bachmann cross his path.

Linares added that “the traveler is no longer the hero of the Odyssey. The journey loses its crown and suggests that the search for meaning has changed. What survives is fragility, the sigh of one who persists in the face of adversity.” This reflection refers to the transformation of the journey, where the heroic figure disintegrates, giving way to a new perception of the world, one that is less triumphant and more vulnerable.

Celan doesn't concede. His poetry doesn't seek a direct connection with the reader. Instead of offering consolation, it's poetry that breathes the pain of catastrophe, yet continues to beat with vitality , Linares stated.

This analysis highlights Celanian poetry's ability to maintain the tension of experience without succumbing to pain.

The essayist builds a bridge between the pain that runs through the Romanian writer's poetry and that of those who today face the horror of forced disappearance or daily violence.

The question , "What can my exhausted body do when faced with this name, Paul Celan?" doesn't arise solely from within. It amplifies itself like a collective echo, where personal wounds intertwine with a historical memory marked by tragedy.

The volume—published by the UACM and Gedisa—is sustained by personal involvement and an open attitude. Jorge Linares approaches poetry without academic shields and allows its power to permeate him.

More than studying an author, it's about confronting their language and their pain. It's an embodied reading. My purpose isn't to forge meanings; I prefer to raise questions; to accompany the storms of the world rather than offer certainties.

Evoking figures like Gilles Deleuze, who also chose to leap into the void, Linares argues that falling is not equivalent to surrender. He interprets it as a poetic-philosophical gesture capable of generating living forms of thought. The poem is a leap. So is philosophy. Both leap into uncertainty, not to perish, but to leave behind a living form of thought , he affirmed.

From this perspective, Celan moves away from the figure of someone seeking to restore what was lost and becomes someone who excavates among ruins to imagine new forms of connection. In his verses, the self is not a solid or triumphant entity; instead, remnants, murmurs, and interruptions emerge.

"He sheds the self. His poetry is polyphonic, fragmented. There is no confession or testimony. There is a language that trembles ," commented Linares Ortiz.

Celan doesn't impose the word; he lets it emerge from the margins of silence. You can remain silent, or you can pronounce the word that was never spoken, the one that died before being spoken. You can say it here, or let your pulse do it for you. The poetic word doesn't redeem, but it survives . In this journey, catastrophe ceases to be an event of the past and becomes a key to reading both the present and poetry itself.

Jorge Linares proposes to understand it as the colossal, that which, in the Kantian way, exceeds our capacity for understanding.

Thus, the poem is no longer understood as a refuge of beauty, but as the space where language is tested, where it reveals its crack, its edge, its limit. "Poetry is the place where language is thought at its limits, and where that limit is felt.

Celan doesn't offer a project of salvation, nor does he intend to rebuild the world. However, his word burns. It's a word that has survived death, and from that place, he wrote in the murderer's language. And he transformed it. He twisted it until it became habitable, and that is already a form of resistance.

Paul Celan died on April 20, 1970, in Paris, France. He hanged himself from the bridge over the Seine River.

Israel Campos Mondragón

La Jornada Newspaper, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, p. 4

The human figure and movement are the axes of the exhibition Transiciones, by Alberto Penagos (Mexico City, 1988), which can be visited from May 15 in the lobby gallery of the Presidente InterContinental Hotel.

In the exhibition, the Mexican painter abstractly addresses objects that refer to change, whether physical or conceptual.

The works I present are linked to travel, suitcases, elements that refer us to movement, and to the concept of transition with respect to the paths I have traveled as an artist, although in this exhibition I integrate works that border on abstraction , Penagos explained to La Jornada.

The exhibition brings together 22 pieces, most of them large-format, some made in 2018 and others more recent.

It includes paintings from my previous exhibition, Mirar al tiempo (2022), which was mounted in the Contemporary Cell of the Cloister of Sor Juana. One of the differences in this show is that the works border on abstraction; some were made for this new exhibition, conceived around space.

“In Transitions, the backgrounds intertwine with the figure, which becomes distorted and blends much more with abstraction. It's been three years since my last exhibition, and several things have happened that have slightly modified the syntax of my discourse, in addition to my changing my residence. During that time, I've had many more influences and interests from other places, and that has generated variations in my artistic discourse regarding my ideas,” the artist explained.

Alberto Penagos emerged from graffiti and later delved into painting, combining hyperrealism and mythological symbols to develop his own style, but he says he respects the experience he gained from other painters.

In his work he also uses photography as a medium, but he considers that his work is not an exact copy: he reinterprets the image .

The artist has participated in a wide range of group exhibitions in Mexico and abroad. He was awarded a scholarship to the Barcelona Academy of Art for his brilliant and inspiring participation in the Moodportrait portrait competition in Madrid in 2013. He also worked with painter Rafael Cauduro during the process for the murals he created at the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation.

“Since I began to intervene in my work with different materials, moving away from oil on canvas, it has been a process very close to abstraction in certain parts, but it begins as a large stain that later reconfigures itself.

Artificial intelligence is practically everywhere now, and it's also present in art; as long as it's used as a tool, it can work very well. I've never been against new creative methods, because oil painting was innovative at the time, and its use was adopted as a technology we now consider classic , the painter concluded.

The Presidente InterContinental Hotel is located at Campos Elíseos 218, Polanco.

Alonso Urrutia and Emir Olivares

La Jornada Newspaper, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, p. 4

President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed her administration's decision to reverse the concession to operate the Bicentennial Park at the former facilities of the March 18 refinery. She asserted that the Executive Branch's Legal Counsel is analyzing, in coordination with the Secretariat of Agrarian, Territorial, and Urban Development (Sedatu), the legal route to implement this decision.

In his press conference, he said the idea is that once the concession—granted at the end of Enrique Peña Nieto's six-year term—is canceled, the park will be operated by the federal Ministry of Culture and the Mexico City government.

-Is there an estimated date?

−The Institute for the Administration and Appraisal of National Assets and Sedatu can provide information on everything related to the park, but the goal is for it to be operated by the Ministry of Culture.