Kind: captions
Language: en
the problem with misinformation is that
you don't realize it's wrong
until you've made a complete full of
yourself
that's what happened to me
i've been making a video about the
monarch butterflies
the iconic insect that migrates from
parts of canada
all the way to michoacan in western
mexico
where i grew up to do so i'm on my way
to meet teresa madrigal
a prominent member of the buddhicha an
indigenous community in the area
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i'm interested in speaking with edisa
because i'd always heard that monarchs
were incredibly important
for the border
and that the butterflies yearly returned
to michoacan signifies
the reincarnation of the purificha's
ancestor's souls
unfortunately theresa is about to inform
me that the story that i've been working
on for four months
is wrong
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turns out this belief belongs to
completely different
indigenous communities including at
least two
that are closer to the forest where the
monarchs winter
but here's the thing i remember learning
about the buddhapecha
and the monarchs in school only 45
minutes away from here
and i have seen this incorrect piece of
information pop up
in a bunch of different publications
both from the us
and from mexico and that got me thinking
how did this
really specific bit of misinformation
get propagated
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descent who dedicated his life to
studying the purapecha culture
and he's talking about the 1910 mexican
revolution
unification
just one unifying mexican identity
but in a country with over 65 indigenous
communities
and more than 360 languages this
unification
would come at the cost of placing a few
cultures
center stage while pushing everyone else
into obscurity
and as a result those cultures become
more difficult for historians to study
we don't have the detail for budapecca
culture that same level as say we do
mayans
and the aztecs on top of the relative
anonymity
and the sparse study of these indigenous
communities
many of them passed down their ideas
through symbols
and unwritten traditions
the problem is these can end up being
misinterpreted
by outsiders lake pot squaro is about
250 miles west of mexico city
more often than not the island fishermen
live in primitive adobe buildings
centuries old people on the outside have
failed to understand the complexity of
these traditions
and how they might differ among multiple
indigenous cultures
most primitive people all over the world
stopped using the throwing stick when
the bow
and arrow was discovered but here on
this beautiful lake in mexico
it is still used every day and it is
from this
outside and uninformed perspective that
the misinformation about monarch
butterflies
might have originated and so
these are the creations of the magic
hands of mexico
i mean i think it starts with tourism
these hands are not limited by age or
gender they know
only one thing how to create beauty
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is
centuries ago the ancient maya realized
the
mesmerizing power of silver a tourist
focused process it doesn't care so much
about authenticity it cares about just
aggregating imagined realities of
those people
exploded magic hands of mexico
find beauty in everything most of all
in sharing that beauty with you
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spectacular
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this is still happening today
take the day of the dead el dia de los
muertos as an example
traditionally it's a day when family and
friends gather to remember those who
have died
but over time it's become a huge
spectacle
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so
and in 2016 mexico city adopted a yearly
day of the dead parade
copying a fictitious parade featuring
the james bond film
spectre a completely new tradition
created by the imagination of foreigners
foreign
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which is why understanding and
ultimately respecting unique traditions
is so important so let's get the facts
right
the purpicha do use butterflies as a way
to
think about the afterlife but not the
monarchs
fares are butterflies that are small and
white
mariposa
but it's not just swapping monarchs for
white butterflies
it is a completely different and more
nuanced way of viewing the dead
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the dead remain constantly present
encountered in nature
all around us to explain this belief
the purification turned to these small
white butterflies and
other natural phenomena now
misunderstandings aren't exclusive to
mexico
many would argue that lots of modern
communities all around the world
have their own misconceptions about
indigenous cultures
but that in itself just raises the
question
how many more of these cultural
misconceptions are out there
and what can we do to prevent them
by including indigenous voices today
in understanding the deep history of the
americas
we get not only a more accurate
understanding but one that
reflects all of the diversity
and the different perspectives of
native peoples who've inhabited this
hemisphere for thousands of years
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is
you