wept into office in 2000 in Mexico’s first real democratic election, former President Vicente Fox is breaking ground again, this time on a library devoted to his often stormy tenure.

Mr. Fox, who left office last year, envisions the library and museum, rising from the dust on his family’s ranch here, as a scholarly refuge devoted to the study of his place in history. There will be an academic center dedicated to democratization across the world, a collection of Mr. Fox’s presidential papers and an exhibition hall.

Still, the very notion of a presidential library has roiled many in Mexico’s chattering classes, who are used to seeing their former leaders, who can only serve a single six-year term, fade into the shadows. Indeed, the newspaper Reforma has given the project an amusement park name: “Foxilandia.”...

“I don’t know if it will take off as a Mexican tradition,” said Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. “Other presidents may not want to do it. It may be a one-shot deal.”