Review of "The City of Mexico in the Age of Diaz"

The Great Divide University of California-Berkley geographer and author Michael Johns argues in his novel, The City of Mexico in the era of Diaz, that the central Zocalo of Mexico City does much than geographically segregate the eastbound from the West, but Mexicos national mentality as well. During the years of Diazs representative façade, the upper householdes thrived upon plantation exports, feudalist economics and the iron fist of Diazs rurales charm struggling to maintain European social likeness. East of the Zocalo, shantyt throws housed thousands of unequal pelados that served as societal blemishes of a suburbanites experience. In Johnss work, the penniless(prenominal) and endemic serve as the scapegoats for the priviledged and their obsession with grooming Mexico City to be a little Europe. A growing affluent class called upon the Diaz regime and imported architects to construct buildings in the Zocalo to reflect a proper image that drew on influences from Europe and the fall in States.

Johns recognizes the architectural dependence of the influential Mexicans constructing Mexico City when he states, Mexican architecture, on the other hand, was an expression of a city start by a people who were looking to create their own culture while entirely dependent on the application and ideas of Europe and America (22). The same construction that the elite matte up was a celebration of a newfound dignity in the Mexican people was criticized, by visitors and locals alike, as grandiose and a futile effort to shield the native roots of a circle of imposters. Johnss argues that the Mexicans knew little of their adopted European tradition, had acquired even less of its taste, and enjoyed none of its tranquility (23). While the influence on the westside led to development, the squalor and lack of authority of the peasants on the eastside created mesones, or as Johns described them, ?a little more than ?a bare spot to lie down in, a grass mat, company with (the) vermin that squalor... If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay

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