Launching his new book, “A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area, The Lost Civilization of Teuchitlán,” at Guadalajara’s Paleontology Museum this week, Reporter columnist and cave explorer John Pint described his initial encounter with the late archaeologist Phil Weigand, the discoverer of Jalisco’s most famous ruins.
“In 1997, I heard rumors about an American archaeologist living in the town of Etzatlán, 26 kilometers northwest of Teuchitlán,” Pint told a captive audience. “Tracking down a foreigner in a small Mexican town is easy and this is how I first met the Weigands. One of the endearing characteristics of Phil was his total lack of pretentiousness and his willingness to share his discoveries with anyone who would listen – and I do mean anyone, even the humblest rancher or laborer.”
John Pint’s photo of Guachimonton number 2, taken in the late 1980s. “It just seemed like a heap of rocks,” wrote Pint. “We couldn’t have been more mistaken.”
“I still find these maquetas fascinating,” Pint told his audience. “They show musicians, ball players, dancers and folks rubbing shoulders with their neighbors and playing with their dogs. We see that the Guachimontones were not sterile monuments for show, but vibrant, popular places where the action was in those days.”
Pint also screened rare photos of what the Guachimontones looked like 30 years ago. “There was no museum in Teuchitlán in those days,” he said. “Instead, we found a table and two shelves inside the town hall, piled high with dusty, but ever so intriguing objects unearthed by the local people plowing their fields.”
Author John Pint with his new Guachimontones Guide.
“I would like to tell you a bit about the author,” said Esparza, while projecting an image of two helmeted cave explorers inside a large, jet-black room from whose ceiling hung long, razor-sharp shards of obsidian.
The archaeologist explained that the photo had been taken deep inside one of Mexico’s very few underground obsidian mines, located near Mázatepec.
“This mine contained dark green obsidian, highly valued 2,000 years ago. Phil Weigand wanted to have a map of the place, but when we had ventured just a little way into it, we were greeted by utter blackness and the stench of vampire-bat guano. Weigand then turned to me and said, ‘I know a guy who would love to crawl deep into this hole and map it for us.’ It was at that mine, one week later, where I first met John and his wife Susy.”
Both Pint and Esparza made references to the frontispiece of the new guidebook, a sketch of the Guachimontones by British artist and explorer Adela Breton, drawn during her visit to Teuchitlán in 1896.
“I found the map on the internet and John managed to talk the Bristol Museum in England into sending us a high-resolution copy of it,” said Esparza,
Thanks to Pint and Esparza’s correspondence with the Bristol Museum, next year the Jalisco Secretariat of Culture plans to bring to Guadalajara the exhibit of Adela Breton’s paintings, sketches and photographs which is on show in the English city until May 2016.
“A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones” is available from Sandi Bookstore in Guadalajara (33-3121-0863), or by mail from ranchopint@hotmail.comThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">.