AMLO’s old Tabasco home may be restored as museum

March 17, 2020

AMLO's home 40 years ago: 'It all began here.'

The house in Nacajuca, Tabasco, in which President López Obrador lived when starting his political career as director of the local Indigenous Peoples Coordinating Center (CCPI) could be turned into a museum to honor his legacy.

The president lived in the house from 1977 to 1982, but it has been abandoned for at least 37 years and is in a state of disrepair. A development proposal created by the CCPI states that it is in need of major maintenance.

The four-bedroom home is “completely unusable” and on the point of collapse. The plaster has fallen from the ceiling to expose the roof beams and there are no doors or windows. The bathroom also needs remodeling and there are exposed wires in the walls.

The development plan also includes the renovation of the local CCPI office, which is proposed to house a tribute to the poet Carlos Pellicer, a political mentor to the president who encouraged him to take the position as director of the center.

Released during López Obrador’s presidential campaign, the 2017 documentary Este soy (This Is Me) shows footage of AMLO, as he is commonly known, visiting the house and saying “those six years here were one of the most important times of my life.”

“I lived in this house from ’77 to ’82. I lived here with my late wife Rocío [Beltrán Medina], and my oldest son, José Ramón, was born here.”

The president revisited the facilities on February 28 to reinaugurate the indigenous radio station La Voz de los Chontales (Voice of the Chontals), which he himself founded in 1982. It had been off the air since 1989, when then-Governor Neme Castillo refused to fund it.