June 6- Dummies Hold Off Mummies-the Rest of the Story

Yesterday, I wrote about how the Mexican town of Guatajuato, home of some famous mummies, has supposedly changed their mind about displaying said mummies in the suburb of Cicero- when a new management team, coming in after an agreement was made, decided to display them in the town formerly best known as Al Capone’s hideout, wasn’t the attraction they had hoped for.
These misinformed officials seem as out of touch with the way things are today as was a high school exchange student we had in our class back in the late 60s, who, when taken on a trip to downtown Chicago, was crazy with fear, because he expected gangsters to be careening around every corner with machine guns blazing. In addition, they are feeling apprehensive, because Cicero is planning on displaying the mummies in a gymnasium, converted to a cultural center. Not good enough says they- it might make this whole thing look like, according to them, a “freak show.”
In truth, the museum has toured groupings of their 111 mummies around Mexico for years-and city officials, according to an article in the Tribune where many of the facts here came from, are considering placing the mummies on the Mexican stock exchange- so investors can buy shares in their future earnings, with hopes the debut of the mummies in America will turn the town of Gautajuato into an “international tourism destination.” Their director of museums says they worry about the mummies treatment, because they are the town’s “postmortem ambassadors.” He says that the mummies aren’t kings- they are neighbors of the townfolk, and must be treated with dignity. However, the authors of the article, Oscar Avila and Joseph Ruzich, point out that the museum itself hasn’t always treated the mummies with such respect- their gift shop has sold t-shirts of the mummies, including one with the legend “this is what my girlfriend looks like when she’s angry!”
One Cook County official has even said that it seems the Mexican town’s aim isn’t so much preserving dignity as making more money.
Is it possible that the actual story is- those Mexican officials heard that yours truly Svengoolie will be appearing in Cicero on June 20th- and are fearful that this whole thing will become a horror show- with the mummies coming to life, and it’ll be up to me to stop their progress towards the Cicero town limits into Berwyn? Well, probably not- but when suburbs like Berwyn and Cicero are currently trying to provide more arts and cultural displays for their citizens- why should a plan to
showcase mummies unravel so easily?
For a “wrap-up” (I’m on a roll!) of what we’ve got for you on this Saturday’s Sven show- come back here tomorrow!