By Debra Sandidge
Calakmul is situated in Campeche, Mexico on the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. It is now an isolated archaeological site on the largest bioreserve in Mexico, but it was once the seat of one of the most…

By Ruben Alejandro Vazquez
Merida is known for its rich history in Maya culture and tradition. The Yucatan capital was found on January 6, 1542 by Francisco de Montejo, but the history of Merida goes back to the ancient Maya…

By Amy Townley
The stories of the subjugation of the Maya are traditionally told through the infamous “Black Legend” and the horrors of Spanish Conquest. However, it is during the colonial era of the Yucatán that…

By Itzel Almaguer
The Yaxche, as the Maya referred to it, was the representation of what is known in vast ancient civilizations as the tree of life. In the Maya civilization the Yaxche is represented by the Ceiba…

By Michael Segura
In December 2015, the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City recuperated the Bas-relief known as Xoc. An Olmec sculpture, just over 2 meters tall, once sat in the Lacandon jungle of Chiapas…

By Roberto Venegas
Calakmul and Tikal were two rival kingdoms who fought each other multiple times for supremacy during the Classic period from the sixth century to 900 A.D.. The Kaanul or Snakes orchestrated a plan…

By Eli Addams
In the midst of downtown Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, there is an Aztec site lying in ruin known as Templo Mayor. This site is home to the House of Eagles, which was a sort of barracks for the…

By Chloe Henze
The second largest Volkswagen factory is located in Puebla, Mexico. Volkswagen de Mexico was established in 1964 and construction of the Puebla plant began in January of 1965. In October of 1970,…

By Andrew Eckhoff
Uxmal is the most heavily decorated and unique site in the Yucatan. It is located in the region of Puuc, which means small hill. The surrounding terrain did not possess any naturally occurring bodies…

By Kasandra M. Garza
Many years later following the end of his presidency, Ulysses S. Grant decided to venture on a trip to Cuba and Mexico in December of 1879. Grant’s colleagues, such as Whitelaw Reid, asserted that…

By Eli Addams
In the midst of the ruins of Chichén Itzá, there is a wall covered entirely in skull carvings known as a tzompantli (or skull rack, wall of skulls, skull banner, etc.). However this is just one…

By Savanah Nicole Burns
The capital of the Aztec Empire, Tenochtitlan, was razed and rebuilt by the Spanish during their colonization. Templo Mayor was one of the buildings that was devastated. Archeologists fully uncovered…

By Dylan John Leach
The second largest reef in the world is located in the Caribbean Sea. The Mesoamerican Reef borders the countries of Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico. “Stretching nearly 700 miles from the…

By Michelle N. Balliet
Resting beautifully on a cliff overlooking the turquoise blue waters of the Caribbean Sea is El Castillo of Tulúm, its castle. Originally presumed to be a temple El Castillo reflects the glory of Maya…

By Savanah Nicole Burns
Monté Albán is an archaeological site dating back to the Late Classic Period from 650 to 800 A.D (World Monument Fund). Monté Albán means “White Mountain” (“Visit Mexico”). Many tourists flock from…

By Ashlee Ziegenbein
In the heart of Mexico City, the historical site of Tlatelolco tells a portion of the history the Aztec Empire left behind. Tlatelolco is known as The Plaza of Three Cultures due to this location…

By Jennifer E. Berry
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Laredo, Texas native, Thomas C. Mann, as the first U.S. Ambassador to Mexico from Texas. Long a proponent of settling a fractious border dispute involving…

By Shirley Mejia
San Lorenzo Zinacantan is a municipality in the southern part of Chiapas, Mexico. The population consist of Tzotzil Maya who have ties to other highland Maya people. The name Zinacantan means “land of…

By Tyler Pointer
The eyes of the world were on Mexico when they became the first country in Latin America to host the Olympics in 1968. However, beneath the surface and attention of the five rings, a much larger…

By Jordan Gregory
When one enters the Aztec exhibit at the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City there is an immediate sense of ancient power radiating from the artifacts in the room. To the left a beautiful…

By Andrew Eckhoff
Teotihuacan, located in the modern day State of Mexico, was originally an empty site prior to the first century AD, but the eruption of the Xitle volcano at the end of century caused a massive…

By Anna Barker
In early December of 1959, Anastas Mikoyan, the Soviet Union’s first deputy premier and one of its most formidable political figures, shouted "Viva México!" to a group of oil workers in the small…

By Mackenzie Henderson
Although it has now been eradicated, smallpox, named for the pus-filled blisters that often rendered the disease-ridden individual unrecognizable, left a devastating and indelible mark on the New…

By R. Miles Block
On a hot, June day of 1963, a large flatbed truck drives through the metropolitan area of Houston, Texas carrying cargo in a steel cage. Within the unbreakable enclosure resides not a living creature,…

By Heather Howsmon
After touring many opulent cathedrals in Mexico, the Church and Hospital of Jesús Nazareno seemed unusually plain. There were no frescos covering the walls, no grand carved marble alters, or organ…

By Lyndsey Holloway Hernandez
During the Classic period, Palenque was one of the most important Maya cities. Archeologists have uncovered some of Palenque’s greatest secrets, including two sarcophagi, that contribute to Palenque's…

By Janie M. Stewart
We arrived in the morning and there is a strange kind of quiet in the plaza. The sounds of the modern world do not dwell here. The sun is shining and beating down on the unprepared in the quiet of the…