Local and public heritage at a World Heritage site

• Tangible/intangible and public/private heritage are distinguished.
• These concepts are applied to two heritages in the Sierra de San Francisco, Mexico.
• The community wishes to use both heritages to increase tourism opportunities.
• The conceptual distinction helps to clarify the challenges local custodians face.

The World Heritage Rock Art of the Sierra de San Francisco site in Mexico maintains some of the oldest and largest prehistoric murals in North America. The local ranching community is the custodian of a double heritage, the UNESCO-sanctioned rock art and their own ranching heritage. The rock art heritage is both tangible and public, known to and authenticated by professional archaeologists, while the ranching heritage is largely intangible and private, a lived and remembered experience known within families. As economic conditions deteriorate, the ranchers seek to expand their tourism activities to include their ranching heritage. Understanding their double heritage along tangible/intangible and public/private axes clarifies the challenges they face.