The City of Mexico in the Age of Díaz

Nonfiction, History, Americas, Mexico
Cover of the book The City of Mexico in the Age of Díaz by Michael Johns, University of Texas Press
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Author: Michael Johns ISBN: 9780292788572
Publisher: University of Texas Press Publication: May 18, 2011
Imprint: University of Texas Press Language: English
Author: Michael Johns
ISBN: 9780292788572
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Publication: May 18, 2011
Imprint: University of Texas Press
Language: English
Mexico City assumed its current character around the turn of the twentieth century, during the dictatorship of Porfirio Daz (1876-1911). In those years, wealthy Mexicans moved away from the Zcalo, the city's traditional center, to western suburbs where they sought to imitate European and American ways of life. At the same time, poorer Mexicans, many of whom were peasants, crowded into eastern suburbs that lacked such basic amenities as schools, potable water, and adequate sewerage. These slums looked and felt more like rural villages than city neighborhoods. A century—and some twenty million more inhabitants—later, Mexico City retains its divided, robust, and almost labyrinthine character.In this provocative and beautifully written book, Michael Johns proposes to fathom the character of Mexico City and, through it, the Mexican national character that shaped and was shaped by the capital city. Drawing on sources from government documents to newspapers to literary works, he looks at such things as work, taste, violence, architecture, and political power during the formative Daz era. From this portrait of daily life in Mexico City, he shows us the qualities that "make a Mexican a Mexican" and have created a culture in which, as the Mexican saying goes, "everything changes so that everything remains the same."
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Mexico City assumed its current character around the turn of the twentieth century, during the dictatorship of Porfirio Daz (1876-1911). In those years, wealthy Mexicans moved away from the Zcalo, the city's traditional center, to western suburbs where they sought to imitate European and American ways of life. At the same time, poorer Mexicans, many of whom were peasants, crowded into eastern suburbs that lacked such basic amenities as schools, potable water, and adequate sewerage. These slums looked and felt more like rural villages than city neighborhoods. A century—and some twenty million more inhabitants—later, Mexico City retains its divided, robust, and almost labyrinthine character.In this provocative and beautifully written book, Michael Johns proposes to fathom the character of Mexico City and, through it, the Mexican national character that shaped and was shaped by the capital city. Drawing on sources from government documents to newspapers to literary works, he looks at such things as work, taste, violence, architecture, and political power during the formative Daz era. From this portrait of daily life in Mexico City, he shows us the qualities that "make a Mexican a Mexican" and have created a culture in which, as the Mexican saying goes, "everything changes so that everything remains the same."

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