Aztec to Zacatecas: Mesoamerican & Spanish Colonial Arch of Mexico & Guatemala

Catalog description

This architectural history course surveys the built environment of Mexico and Guatemala during the Mesoamerican and Spanish Colonial eras. In 1519 when the Spanish conquistador Cort and #233;s landed in what is now Mexico, he encountered one of the world's largest and most spectacular civilizations. The Aztec empire, however, was only the latest urban civilization in a Mesoamerican tradition that stretched back over 2,000 years. Mesoamerica was one of the cradles of civilization that arose autonomously and developed into a network of shared (but not identical) cultural and architectural traits across time and space. While the ensuing Spanish architectural and urban imprints can be seen as a superimposition of colonialism's political, social, and architectural ideals on top of Maya and other Pre-Columbian traditions, the architecture of the colonial era is also characterized by resistance, fusion, and invention between European and indigenous practices. Non-majors are welcome.