From indigenous peasants to tourism promoters: the experience of Ejido San Cristobal, Hidalgo, México

Abstract

The Tolantongo canyon is located in San Cristóbal, municipality of Cardonal, Hidalgo, México; it is considered unique in its genre in the state due to its botanical species, caves, and hot spring river. With these resources, the ejidatarios (shareholders of common land) created the “Tolantongo Caves Cooperative†(Cooperativa Grutas Tolantongo) to manage and formalize their tourism project. Currently, San Cristóbal is one of the main tourism destinations in Hidalgo; the project has detonated economic benefits for the ejidatarios and the rest of the population, and has generated multiplying effects at the regional level. The objective of this article is to analyze the factors that explain the conformation and organizational structure of the Tolantongo caves. For this purpose, ethnographic research was performed between May 2011 and May 2012, and July and August 2013; the techniques used were observation, literature review, and interview. The empirical evidence indicates a process of appropriation of natural resources, awareness of their wealth, defense of the territory, alternative development model, and community-based tourism, where the ancestral community structure has a preeminent role; all this within a context of latent tensions between the community principles, the capitalist economy, and with external agents such as the government and private interests