All Stories: 187
Stories
Sort by:
The Kennedys’ 1962 Visit to Mexico
At the northern end of Mexico City, the streets Avenida John F. Kennedy and Adolfo López Mateos sit parallel with each other. The proximity of these two streets highlight the close relationship…
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,…
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…
Chichen Itza: The Tollan of the Yucatan
Chichen Itza’s timeline from the classical and post-classical period is shrouded in mystery from the surrounding Mayan civilization. The city-state of Chichen Itza itself has many features in…
The Blue House: Frida Kahlo
In Mexico City lay a bright blue house that physically displays the colorful life Frida Kahlo left behind. The blue color of the house was later known to represent her admiration for the indigenous…
Hero Twins at Maya World Museum
Within the El Gran Museo del Mundo Maya de Mérida that recently opened in 2012, there is an extensive exhibit of local Maya history and anthropology. Not only does the outer architecture symbolize…
Ball Court of Chichén Itzá
The Maya ruins of Chichén Itzá (late-classic), located in the Yucatán Peninsula, hold the largest ball court in Mesoamerica. The Ball Court symbolized the underworld in the Maya cosmovision and…
Children of the Maya
The children of the Maya came up in two different social classes. Either they were of nobility or they were commoners. Regardless of what social class three things that all children had in common was…
Statute of Bartholomew de las Casas
Bartholomew de las Casas was born in Seville, Spain in 1474. He was the son of a merchant. He came from a farming and mercantilist background. This would prove crucial in his later years, while…
Cranial Deformation
Cranial Deformation, head flattening, head binding is a form of body alteration in which the skull of a human being is deformed intentionally. It is seen in ancient civilizations across the…
Church of Santiago Tlatelolco
The Church of Santiago Tlatelolco was built as a symbol of the Spanish conquest in 1521. This was the first cathedral built during the period of the Spanish trying to establish a new-found…
Tlatelolco Ruins
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…
St. IIdephonsus Cathedral of Merida
Churches and cathedrals hold much more meaning than just their well known purpose as a place of worship. The enormous size and strategic location of theses cathedrals in a colonial city made strength…
The Soviet Advance on Mexico
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…
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…
The Temple of the Sun
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…
Manuel Alvarez Bravo
There are few Mexican photographers more influential and well known than Manuel Alvarez Bravo. He was an artist, not just of photography, that focused on the principles of the Mexican people and its…
Uxmal: Quadrangle of the Nuns
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…
Monte Albán: Batres and Caso
Monte Albán has existed for thousands of years. It was known to the natives as Danibaan, or “Sacred Mountain.” It received its new alias from being named after 17th century Spanish nobleman Don…
Diccionario Maya Cordemex
While walking in El Gran Museo Del Mundo Maya de Mérida, my attention was caught by a very large book. It was much larger than others I had seen in museums, and newer. It was the “Cordemex Maya…
Becán Archaeological Site
A major center for religion, politics, and economics of the Rio Bec region, Becán is a fascinating city of the ancient Maya during the Classic Period. It depicts the Rio Bec style, and has…
Maize God
The origins of the Maize God was born from a Mayan myth that goes back to the Classic Period of Mesoamerican history. The story of the reincarnation of the Baby Jaguar as the Maize God shows the…
"The History of Mexico" - Diego Rivera
Celebrated Mexican painter Diego Rivera transcribed the history of Mexico in a mural in his own style of painting on the main staircase of the National Palace of Mexico City. The staircase leads to…
Churrería El Moro
Who can deny “the drink of the gods” and the delicious sweetness of churros? The oldest churrería in Mexico can be found in Mexico City in an important historical center, just a few blocks away from…
Secretariat of Public Education
The Mexican Secretariat of Public Education (SEP) building is located near the center of Mexico City. It is rich with public history, including a series of murals from the famous Diego Rivera such as…
Institute of Public Education
The Institute of Public Education of Oaxaca (IEEPO) serves as the center of education located in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico. It has currently been in the news as a result of the ongoing teachers’…
Yaxcopoil
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…
Mexico on Display at the World’s Fairs
This paper examines how Mexico put their national identity on display while undergoing many changes in leadership from 1876-1939.
Frederick Catherwood At Palenque
A middle aged man drenched in sweat and overcome by exhaustion stands amidst the heat of the jungle. Swatting at mosquitos and never losing focus, he is determined to finish what he started. With the…
The Great Goddess of Teotihuacan
Arms open wide, reaching down to her people below, she is adorned with a beautiful headdress and jewelry. Her purpose is unclear, but her beauty is apparent. Appearing in multiple murals throughout…