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.

Mexico City’s Zócalo

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

Get Book Here

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.

Constructing Mexico City

Constructing Mexico City PDF Author: S. Glasco
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230109616
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
Constructing Mexico City: Colonial Conflicts over Culture, Space, and Authority examines the spatial, material, and cultural dimensions of life in eighteenth-century Mexico City, through programs that colonial leaders created to renovate and reshape urban environments.

Performance in the Zócalo

Performance in the Zócalo PDF Author: Ana Martínez
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472132091
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
For more than five centuries, the Plaza Mayor (or Zócalo) in Mexico City has been the site of performances for a public spectatorship. During the period of colonial rule, performances designed to ensure loyalty to the Spanish monarchy were staged there, but over time, these displays gave way to staged demonstrations of resistance. Today, the Zócalo is a site for both official government-sponsored celebrations and performances that challenge the state. Performance in the Zócalo examines the ways that this city square has achieved symbolic significance over the centuries, and how national, ethnic, and racial identity has been performed there. A saying in Mexico City is “quien domina el centro, domina el país” (whoever dominates the center, dominates the country) as the Zócalo continues to act as the performative embodiment of Mexican society. This book highlights how particular performances build upon each other by recycling past architectures and performative practices for new purposes. Ana Martínez discusses the singular role of collective memory in creating meaning through space and landmarks, providing a new perspective and further insight into the problem of Mexico’s relationship with its own past. Rather than merely describe the commemorations, she traces the relationship between space and the invention of a Mexican imaginary. She also explores how indigenous communities, Mexico’s alienated subalterns, performed as exploited objects, exotic characters, and subjects with agency. The book’s dual purposes are to examine the Zócalo as Mexico’s central site of performance and to unmask, without homogenizing, the official discourse regarding Mexico’s natives. This book will be of interest for students and scholars in theater studies, Mexican Studies, Cultural Geography, Latinx and Latin American Studies.

Mexico City

Mexico City PDF Author: Sarah Zahradnik
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783869227627
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Mexico City has withstood enormous changes throughout its history. Once the capital of the Aztec Empire, it has continuously evolved over the centuries to become one of the largest megalopolises in the world. The exuberant metropolis of the present day can be seen as a patchwork of Aztec, Hispanic, and contemporary Western cultures. Both local and internationally renowned artists and architects have brought their talents to this capital, which has also been the site of large-scale urban projects such as the construction of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). The city has also been placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, thanks to its wealth of artworks and innovative designs. The Architectural Guide Mexico City takes readers on a tour of 100 buildings and monuments from across the city. The entries are illustrated with 230 photographs, drawings, and maps. This updated second-edition of the guide includes two new essays presenting the legacy of the architect Luis Barragan and contemporary architecture in Mexico.

Architecture in Mexico, 1900-2010

Architecture in Mexico, 1900-2010 PDF Author: Fernanda Canales
Publisher: Arquine
ISBN: 9786077612735
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 597

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Book Description
Published on the occasion of the exhibition "Arquitectura en Maexico 1900-2010: La Construcciaon de la Modernidad: Obras, Diseano, Arte y Pensamiento [Architecture in Mexico 19002010: The Construction of Modernity: Works, Design, Art, and Thought]," held December 2013 to June 2014 at the Museo Antiguo Palacio de Iturbide in Mexico City.

Dwelling Urbanism

Dwelling Urbanism PDF Author: Christian von Wissel
Publisher: Birkhäuser
ISBN: 3035618313
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
City dwellers are direct agents in the making of cities; yet how do they actually constitute and sustain the urban and its forms? How do they practice the urban and through this practice shape the city-in-the-making that emerges along with them on the backs of their working bodies? Dwelling Urbanism re-thinks the urban from this perspective of corporeal making and with regard to the cityness that it bears. It delves into the thick of life in the periphery of Mexico City, uncovering the everyday actions and efforts that practitioners of space accomplish when building houses, creating jobs and putting themselves to work as infrastructure. How are consequential conjunctions, how is access to, and presence in the city actively grown? And what does such thinking the city as a verb, as citying, imply for urban planning?

Modernity and the Architecture of Mexico

Modernity and the Architecture of Mexico PDF Author: Edward R. Burian
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292791666
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
Since the mid 1970s, there has been an extraordinary renewal of interest in early modern architecture, both as a way of gaining insight into contemporary architectural culture and as a reaction to neoconservative postmodernism. This book undertakes a critical reappraisal of the notion of modernity in Mexican architecture and its influence on a generation of Mexican architects whose works spanned the 1920s through the 1960s. Nine essays by noted architects and architectural historians cover a range of topics from broad-based critical commentaries to discussions of individual architects and buildings. Among the latter are the architects Enrique del Moral, Juan O'Gorman, Carlos Obregón Santacilia, Juan Segura, Mario Pani, and the campus and stadium of the Ciudad Universitaria in Mexico City. Relatively little has been published in English regarding this era in Mexican architecture. Thus, Modernity and the Architecture of Mexico will play a groundbreaking role in making the underlying assumptions, ideological and political constructs, and specific architect's agendas known to a wide audience in the humanities. Likewise, it should inspire greater appreciation for this undervalued body of works as an important contribution to the modern movement.

The Death of Aztec Tenochtitlan, the Life of Mexico City

The Death of Aztec Tenochtitlan, the Life of Mexico City PDF Author: Barbara E. Mundy
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 1477317139
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Winner, Book Prize in Latin American Studies, Colonial Section of Latin American Studies Association (LASA), 2016 ALAA Book Award, Association for Latin American Art/Arvey Foundation, 2016 The capital of the Aztec empire, Tenochtitlan, was, in its era, one of the largest cities in the world. Built on an island in the middle of a shallow lake, its population numbered perhaps 150,000, with another 350,000 people in the urban network clustered around the lake shores. In 1521, at the height of Tenochtitlan's power, which extended over much of Central Mexico, Hernando Cortés and his followers conquered the city. Cortés boasted to King Charles V of Spain that Tenochtitlan was "destroyed and razed to the ground." But was it? Drawing on period representations of the city in sculptures, texts, and maps, The Death of Aztec Tenochtitlan, the Life of Mexico City builds a convincing case that this global capital remained, through the sixteenth century, very much an Amerindian city. Barbara E. Mundy foregrounds the role the city's indigenous peoples, the Nahua, played in shaping Mexico City through the construction of permanent architecture and engagement in ceremonial actions. She demonstrates that the Aztec ruling elites, who retained power even after the conquest, were instrumental in building and then rebuilding the city. Mundy shows how the Nahua entered into mutually advantageous alliances with the Franciscans to maintain the city's sacred nodes. She also focuses on the practical and symbolic role of the city's extraordinary waterworks—the product of a massive ecological manipulation begun in the fifteenth century—to reveal how the Nahua struggled to maintain control of water resources in early Mexico City.

Mexico City

Mexico City PDF Author: Alejandro Rosas
Publisher: Tinta Books
ISBN: 9781595342829
Category : Young Adult Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A playfully illustrated history of Mexico City since 1521 While the history of Mexico dates back thousands of years, the story of Mexico City, the country's capital, only dates to pre-Columbian times, with the founding of Tenochtitlan by the Mexica people in 1325. Tenochtitlan quickly became the most powerful city-state in the region, with a population of about two hundred thousand at its peak, and was known for its architectural and engineering feats. Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés arrived in 1521 and began a brutal campaign of colonial conquest. The city fell to Spanish rule, and much of it was destroyed alongside rich indigenous heritage. Cortés rebuilt the city, renaming it and making it the capital of New Spain. Under Spanish rule, Mexico City became one of the wealthiest and most important cities in the Americas and was a center of trade, culture, and political power. Many of its iconic buildings were constructed during this time, including the Cathedral of Mexico City and the National Palace. During the Mexican War of Independence, the city was captured in 1810 by rebel forces under Miguel Hidalgo but soon recaptured by the Spanish. After years of fighting, Mexico finally gained independence from Spain in 1821, and Mexico City became the capital of the new republic. In the decades that followed the city underwent rapid growth and modernization, with new neighborhoods, parks, and public buildings constructed. Mexico City, a playfully illustrated history of the city since 1521, highlights the complex cultural and economic forces and conflicts that shaped this international metropolis, which today is home to more than 20 million people, as well as visitors and expats from around the world.

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).