All Stories: 183
Not Ready to Play Ball: Mexico's Muted Embrace of the Greater Texas and Pan-American Exposition of 1937
“An international celebration of peace and good will in the Americas,” reads an advertisement announcing the harmonious theme of the Greater Texas and Pan-American Exposition of 1937 (“Exposition”).[1] The 1937 Exposition was a creature of its time.…
A True Confluence of Civilizations?: The Involvement of Latin Americans in HemisFair ‘68
HemisFair, held in San Antonio, Texas in 1968, was the first and only world’s fair to be held in the American Southwest. Jerome K. Harris (a local San Antonio business owner) originally proposed the idea of a “HemisFair” that would focus on Latin…
From Chains to Freedom: The evolution of slavery in the Yucatan
When discussing the transatlantic slave trade and the effects of the involuntary forced migration of Africans, places such as The United States, Jamaica, and Brazil are commonly the focal point of conversations. Interestingly, the Black enslaved…
The Miracles of Izamal
The streets of Izamal, a small town about 70 kilometers south of the capital Mérida on the Yucatán Peninsula, are filled with tourists and natives alike to see a tradition that dates back decades. The statue of Our Lady of Izamal is processed…
A Syncretic Religion: Maya and Catholic Practice at Izamal and in the Northern Yucatán
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Maya people in the northern Yucatán Peninsula, especially around the region of Izamal, experienced a process of conversion to Christian Catholicism led by a limited number of Spanish friars and…
Echoes of Pyramid B: Understanding Toltec Inspiration at Chichén Itzá
Along the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, there was once a mighty city described by Father Diego de Landa as “as great as gold and silver”[1]. It was a center of trade and religion for the Mayas of Northern Yucatán and was a jewel in the crown of those…
Midwifery: An Art of Maya Women
In Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, midwifery has traditionally been a thriving practice amongst the Maya peoples. Midwives have had an important place in rural indigenous communities because they primarily have been the ones to deliver babies.[1]…
Life in the Fast Lane: The Rise and Untimely Death of Mexico's Greatest Driver
Pedro Rodriguez was born to go fast. Indeed, his early life involved two things that all great race drivers understand; change and competition. To succeed in auto racing, a driver must adapt to change. Track conditions, weather, tire conditions,…
Leopoldo Méndez’s Revolution: Social Activism through Graphic Art
Born on June 30, 1902, in Mexico City, Leopoldo Méndez would become one of Mexico’s most significant and beloved graphic artists of the twentieth century. Méndez was one of eight children in a poor household. At a young age, Méndez used art as a…
Impacts of Milk Consumption on Child Development in 1960s Mexico
Though milk consumption is vital to child development, it was not always easy to access in Mexico during the 1960s, which caused negative health impacts for children. During this period, mothers had options for giving their child proper nutrition,…
Ballet Folklórico: A Dance of Identity
The lights begin to dim, silent whispers rumble through the excited crowd around me. Lights flood the stage, smoke quickly cascades and ripples through the space. Percussions and woodwinds creep in crescendo, calling to centuries of culture,…
Legacy and Lexicon: A Look into Operation Wetback's Impact on Immigration
In the summer of 1954 the United States government carried out a mass deportation of over one million people. [1] This was Operation Wetback. In recent years there has been increased concern surrounding immigrants entering the United States via the…
El Idolo y El Hombre: Understanding the Life and Legacy of Pedro Infante
Unfamiliar to a large portion of US culture, it is crucial to understand the impact that the actor Pedro Infante has on Mexican cinema. Viewed by many as one of the quintessential stars of La época del cine de oro de Mexicano (The Golden Age of…
Mesoamerica and the Big Apple: Mexican Nationalism at the 1964 World’s Fair
For twelve months between 1964 and 1965, Mexican and Mesoamerican culture invaded the economic heart of the western world, New York City. Grand displays of Mesoamerican art steeped in the mystic symbolism of this ancient culture stood in contrast to…
White Slavery in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands
From the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico maintained a reputation as a vice capital. Americans flocked to the city for drinking, gambling, and prostitutes. Additionally, white women from the American…
Baja California Scheming
It was gold that caused the settlement of Alta California. History is repeating itself in Baja California, that New Italy, which is indeed the colophon (Kalifornia) of that great book—the world. The great Peninsula is too good a country to remain any…
¡Tocar Juntos!: The Evolution of Chicano Music and Expression Types in the Later 20th Century
Music, one can argue, is a necessary form of cultural expression regardless of how it is performed or practiced. In the Chicana/o movement, the music that has gradually evolved holds a substantial presence in America. While some scholars view the…
Empire of Oil
In 1900 using their paper the Regeneracion, the Magón brothers continually fanned the flames of revolution against the regime of then President of Mexico Porfirio Díaz.[1] Like steam from a teapot, growing problems within the Mexican economy under…
The Myth of the Caesar Salad: A Case Study in Mexican Tourism
It started as a makeshift July 4th meal. It came from someone’s mother’s recipe from the Old World. It was stolen from a line cook. Julius Caesar invented it himself. Okay, maybe not that last one, but the origin of the Caesar salad is decidedly a…
San Diego’s “Opportunity Exposition”
As visitors entered the gates of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego, they heard “the deep notes of the outdoor organ, the trill of the birds in the tall trees, the cooing of doves in the towers” saw “the splendor of the peacocks’…
I Heard it on the X: Radio and Revelation in the American Borderlands
When Dr. John Brinkley spoke, people listened. They couldn't help it, really. Everyone in America was listening to the radio, and Brinkley had the most powerful presence on that most popular platform. He built it himself to make sure everyone had the…
The Flores Magón Brothers and American Imperialism
The Mexican Revolution of 1910 has its roots in both long-term structural issues in Mexican government and society regarding land distribution and political participation, as well as foreign influence from Mexico’s neighbor to the North, the…
Amerindians and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The arid desert terrain vibrates as an incoming stampede approaches a Mexican town. Upon the horses, ride the mighty Comanche people. They gallop to pillage the resources of the Mexican settlers, who inhabit the land that once belonged to the…
The Mexican Revolution: The Anarchism of Ricardo Flores Magón
Ricardo Flores Magón lived during a time after the implementation of the Monroe Doctrine and the Mexican American War, which established the dominance of the United States as a world power in the Americas and over Mexico, the southern neighbor of the…
Religious Architecture in the Yucatán
It is a hot, sweltering day in Mani, a town that resides deep in the heart of the Yucatán. Crowds of indigenous Maya are entranced by the curious sounds of bells ringing as they proceed to their local Catholic church. Instead of proceeding inside the…
Chichen Itza: Archaeological Paradise
Chichen Itza or as the Yucatec Maya called it Ch’iich’en itzam,[1] is one of the most well-known ancient Maya cities in the world. Labeled as one of the 7 wonders of the world by UNESCO, Chichen Itza is one of the most visited tourist attractions in…
Environmental History of Howler Monkeys
Deep in the lush jungles of Central America lives an abundance of unique wildlife. The sounds of the jungle thrive and harmonize as the tropical birds, frogs, and insects call to one another. Within the blooming canopy, a loud howl breaks through the…
Chac: Deity on the Yucatán
In the summer of 1989, the residents of a Yucatán village near the ancient ruins of Yaxuná were in great distress. Due to a drought, two of that year’s crop plantings had failed and a third crop failure would spell disaster for the villagers.…
The Pirates of Campeche
You are awakened by the sound of gunfire. You stumble outside to a night sky filled with the suffocating smell of smoke. More gunshots ring out in the distance, as a harmony of pained, panicked screams swells all around. You look off towards the…
Mexican Socialist Thought
A socialist revolution is rarely succinct or adhesive to a single strict ideological interpretation. When Mexico experienced its 1910 revolution, the rule of President Porfirio Díaz, the man the revolution formed to depose, came to an end early on.…