Ancient Origins of the Mexican Plaza

Ancient Origins of the Mexican Plaza PDF Author: Logan Wagner
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 029274983X
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
The plaza has been a defining feature of Mexican urban architecture and culture for at least 4,000 years. Ancient Mesoamericans conducted most of their communal life in outdoor public spaces, and today the plaza is still the public living room in every Mexican neighborhood, town, and city—the place where friends meet, news is shared, and personal and communal rituals and celebrations happen. The site of a community’s most important architecture—church, government buildings, and marketplace—the plaza is both sacred and secular space and thus the very heart of the community. This extensively illustrated book traces the evolution of the Mexican plaza from Mesoamerican sacred space to modern public gathering place. The authors led teams of volunteers who measured and documented nearly one hundred traditional Mexican town centers. The resulting plans reveal the layers of Mesoamerican and European history that underlie the contemporary plaza. The authors describe how Mesoamericans designed their ceremonial centers as embodiments of creation myths—the plaza as the primordial sea from which the earth emerged. They discuss how Europeans, even though they sought to eradicate native culture, actually preserved it as they overlaid the Mesoamerican sacred plaza with the Renaissance urban concept of an orthogonal grid with a central open space. The authors also show how the plaza’s historic, architectural, social, and economic qualities can contribute to mainstream urban design and architecture today.

Plaza of Sacrifices

Plaza of Sacrifices PDF Author: Elaine Carey
Publisher: UNM Press
ISBN: 9780826335456
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
On October 2, 1968, up to 700 students were killed by government authorities while protesting in Mexico City - many of them women. This analysis of the role of women in the protest movement shows how the events of 1968 shaped modern Mexican society.

Ancient Origins of the Mexican Plaza

Ancient Origins of the Mexican Plaza PDF Author: Logan Wagner
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 029274983X
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Get Book Here

Book Description
The plaza has been a defining feature of Mexican urban architecture and culture for at least 4,000 years. Ancient Mesoamericans conducted most of their communal life in outdoor public spaces, and today the plaza is still the public living room in every Mexican neighborhood, town, and city—the place where friends meet, news is shared, and personal and communal rituals and celebrations happen. The site of a community’s most important architecture—church, government buildings, and marketplace—the plaza is both sacred and secular space and thus the very heart of the community. This extensively illustrated book traces the evolution of the Mexican plaza from Mesoamerican sacred space to modern public gathering place. The authors led teams of volunteers who measured and documented nearly one hundred traditional Mexican town centers. The resulting plans reveal the layers of Mesoamerican and European history that underlie the contemporary plaza. The authors describe how Mesoamericans designed their ceremonial centers as embodiments of creation myths—the plaza as the primordial sea from which the earth emerged. They discuss how Europeans, even though they sought to eradicate native culture, actually preserved it as they overlaid the Mesoamerican sacred plaza with the Renaissance urban concept of an orthogonal grid with a central open space. The authors also show how the plaza’s historic, architectural, social, and economic qualities can contribute to mainstream urban design and architecture today.

Down and Delirious in Mexico City

Down and Delirious in Mexico City PDF Author: Daniel Hernandez
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451610181
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
MEXICO CITY, with some 20 million inhabitants, is the largest city in the Western Hemisphere. Enormous growth, raging crime, and tumultuous politics have also made it one of the most feared and misunderstood. Yet in the past decade, the city has become a hot spot for international business, fashion, and art, and a magnet for thrill-seeking expats from around the world. In 2002, Daniel Hernandez traveled to Mexico City, searching for his cultural roots. He encountered a city both chaotic and intoxicating, both underdeveloped and hypermodern. In 2007, after quitting a job, he moved back. With vivid, intimate storytelling, Hernandez visits slums populated by ex-punks; glittering, drug-fueled fashion parties; and pseudo-native rituals catering to new-age Mexicans. He takes readers into the world of youth subcultures, in a city where punk and emo stand for a whole way of life—and sometimes lead to rumbles on the streets. Surrounded by volcanoes, earthquake-prone, and shrouded in smog, the city that Hernandez lovingly chronicles is a place of astounding manifestations of danger, desire, humor, and beauty, a surreal landscape of “cosmic violence.” For those who care about one of the most electrifying cities on the planet, “Down & Delirious in Mexico City is essential reading” (David Lida, author of First Stop in the New World).

Mexico City’s Zócalo

Mexico City’s Zócalo PDF Author: Benjamin A. Bross
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000527301
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
This book presents a case study of one of Latin America’s most important and symbolic spaces, the Zócalo in Mexico City, weaving together historic events and corresponding morphological changes in the urban environment. It poses questions about how the identity of a place emerges, how it evolves and, why does it change? Mexico City’s Zócalo: A History of a Constructed Spatial Identity utilizes the history of a specific place, the Zócalo (Plaza de la Constitución), to explain the emergence and evolution of Mexican identities over time. Starting from the pre-Hispanic period to present day, the work illustrates how the Zócalo reveals spatial manifestations as part of the larger socio-cultural zeitgeist. By focusing on the history of changes in spatial production – what Henri Lefebvre calls society’s "secretions" – Bross traces how cultural, social, economic, and political forces shaped the Zócalo’s spatial identity and, in turn, how the Zócalo shaped and fostered new identities in return. It will be a fascinating read for architectural and urban historians investigating Latin America.

On the Plain of Snakes

On the Plain of Snakes PDF Author: Paul Theroux
Publisher: Mariner Books
ISBN: 0544866479
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 459

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Book Description
Legendary travel writer Theroux drives the entire length of the U.S.-Mexico border, then goes deep into the hinterland to uncover the rich, layered world behind today's brutal headlines.

Fodor's See It Mexico

Fodor's See It Mexico PDF Author: Fodor's Travel Publications, Inc
Publisher: Fodors Travel Publications
ISBN: 0891419292
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
"Fodor's travel intelligence"--P. [4] of cover.

Off We Go to Mexico!

Off We Go to Mexico! PDF Author: Laurie Krebs
Publisher: Barefoot Books
ISBN: 1905236409
Category : Children
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
We swim in turquoise water and build castles on the beach. We climb up rocks or watch from docks, To see the gray whales breach.

American Tacos

American Tacos PDF Author: José R. Ralat
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 1477329382
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
The first history of tacos developed in the United States, now revised and expanded, this book is the definitive survey that American taco lovers must have for their own taco explorations. “Everything a food history book should be: illuminating, well-written, crusading, and inspiring a taco run afterwards. You’ll gain five pounds reading it, but don’t worry—most of that will go to your brain.”—Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times “[Ralat] gives an in-depth look at each taco’s history and showcases other aspects of taco culture that has solidified it as a go-to dish on dinner tables throughout the nation.”—Smithsonian Magazine “A fascinating look at America’s many regional tacos. . . . From California’s locavore tacos to Korean ‘K-Mex’ tacos to Jewish ‘deli-Mex’ to Southern-drawl ‘Sur-Mex’ tacos to American-Indian-inspired fry bread tacos to chef-driven ‘moderno’ tacos, Ralat lays out a captivating landscape.”—Houston Chronicle “You’ll learn an enormous and entertaining amount about [tacos] in . . . American Tacos. . . . The book literally covers the map of American tacos, from Texas and the South to New York, Chicago, Kansas City and California.”—Forbes “An impressively reported new book . . . a fast-paced cultural survey and travel guide . . . American Tacos is an exceptional book.”—Taste

Karen Brown's Mexico

Karen Brown's Mexico PDF Author: Clare Brown
Publisher: Karen Brown's Guides
ISBN: 9781933810102
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
The perfect book for the well-heeled, independent traveler. Everything you need to know to plan a successful trip: drive your car, rent a car, travel by luxury bus. What to see and where to stay. Mexico is a dream destination: beautiful beaches, archaeological treasures, fascinating Colonial towns, colorful markets, breathtaking whale watching, butterfly reserves, fine golf courses, outstanding museums, delicious food, glorious cathedrals, and cosmopolitan cities. Beyond all these attractions Mexico offers a dazzling variety of accommodations from elegant city hotels to thatched-roof cottages on deserted beaches.

Sabino's Map

Sabino's Map PDF Author: Don J Usner
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780890136874
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Chimayó is renowned for its Hispano master weaving families, lowriders, and its storied church, El Santurio de Chimayó. The old Plaza del Cerro had once been the village's center place, where locals gathered to pick up mail, socialize and celebrate religious and family events. Over the years after WWII, the plaza was neglected, but the memory of the once-vibrant place remained vivid in the stories of village elders. The first edition of Sabino's Map, published in 1995, documented oral histories of these elders. It would prove to be a critical turning point for many Chimayosos. At the Chimayó book launch, Usner recalls locals embraced the book, one cousin of his even declaring, "For the first time in my life I feel like I can be proud to be from Chimayó." In the past thirty years since its publication, the community and its people have been revitalized with the help of the Chimayó Cultural Preservation Association and the establishment of a museum on the old plaza--in the home of Usner's ancestors. This landmark publication, read and passed on through generations, is considered a classic of New Mexico literature, alongside other treasured books including John Nichols's Milagro Beanfield War, Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me Ultima, and Ruben Cobos's Dictionary of New Mexico and Northern New Mexico Spanish.