Good Hosts As Ideal Citizens: Crafting Identity on Isla De Mujeres

The main message described in the following pages is the conscious, intentional political project by Mexican government and tourism officials to promote an ideology of cultural citizenship that encompasses the notion of a clean and tidy citizen as a good host for tourists that visit Isla de Mujeres a small island located in the Mexican Caribbean. The promotion of cleanliness at the national, regional, and local levels by Mexican government officials and agencies trans­lates into marketing campaigns such as signs and murals designed for Isleños eyes only. What is underlined in the commentary of Isleños is the racialization of cleanliness based on an ideology of a biological lineage having to do with a purity of blood or limpieza de sangre -cleanliness of blood- brought to New Spain/Mexico by Spanish conquistadores. The promotion of cleanliness at the national, regional, and local levels by Mexican government officials and agencies translates into marketing campaigns such as television and radio commercials, signs, murals, school curriculum, and extra­curricular activities such as community organizations geared toward children.