The Zihuatanejo Project

Abstract

This article analyzes how and why Timothy Leary established a psychedelic research center in Zihuatanejo, Mexico in the summers of 1962 and 1963. We analyze the reaction Mexican authorities and academics had to this event, the part the press played in public portrayal, the rise of psychedelic drug tourism, and the effect this center had on the local community and wider counterculture. Modern history of psychedelics in Mexico—including Leary’s influence—has seldom been studied. We contribute to the history of psychoactive substances by integrating a transnational perspective that focuses on people and events in Mexico and the United States, and on how international travel and the exchange of knowledge jointly constructed a fundamental part of the psychedelic movement. Based on historical and ethnographic sources, we argue that moral panic around drugs, fears over social and cultural changes, sensationalist press coverage, a rigid political system, and rifts with the local community contributed to the closure of the Zihuatanejo Project. More broadly, we note how these factors influenced the Mexican government and society’s reaction to the jipi movement throughout the 1960s.