Who is it for?

Today we listened to a presentation on the proposed museum to be built here in Guadalajara. It seems to be an extremely ambitious project, but our presentation today was full of hope and optimism about what this project would do for the city of Guadalajara and for México.

I am also hopeful and optimistic, but during the presentation today I couldn't help wondering who all this is really supposed to benefit. The presentation featured beautiful slide shows, computer-renderings of people visiting the museum, and a giant skyscraper to be built on the edge of la barranca. Maybe I am cynical or too much of a humanitarian, but there was just something about this that bothered me.

I think it started when the presenter was asked, "Is this a project that will benefit local people?" The presenter answered, "Well, the museum is not really built to attract local people, we are hoping to bring in international tourists and visitors." Apparently, the museum will help people indirectly by providing jobs and labor work, but are the people of Guadalajara not expected to be interested in a contemporary art museum?

Not only that, but the computer-renderings of people inside the museum showed very pale, white-looking people... these are not the people of México at all. What about the children begging on the street? The people who can't go to school or the ones who don't even know what contemporary art is? Who will help them? How does this fit? I can't make sense of it.