Cinco de Mayo: Mexico, Margaritas, and Modernism :: Anulfo Baez

I’m sorry for bursting your fictitious “Mexican Independence Day” bubble (not the margarita bubble — we know we will indulge whether it’s Mexico’s independence day or not), but in actuality Cinco de Mayo celebrates Mexico’s defeat of a French Army at the Battle of Puebla in 1892.

While I’m not Mexican, and do not consider myself an authority on Mexican or Latino culture in general, I do take advantage of the opportunities I encounter along my path to aid in breaking stereotypes and fostering nurturing dialogues on cultural diversity. On Cinco de Mayo, many of us take part in a celebration that has very little to do with the development of the United States (most historians would disagree, after all “history” is their interpretation of events, not necessarily written from my experiences or those of my ancestors), yet we turn our back and treat the very same people whose history we celebrate on a day like today as second class citizens living here in the United States. However, this post is not about the current state of immigration politics or the history of Cinco de Mayo, but about Mexican modern architecture.

When one hears Latin America, most of us certainly do not think “Modern architecture.” But in 1955, Henry Russell Hitchcock shed much light on architecture in Latin America with the exhibition Modern Architecture in Latin America since 1945 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Hitchcock made it clear with this exhibition that Latin America was ahead of the U.S.A, in particular, in the areas of university campus design and public housing[1]. The exhibition proved to be a tremendous success in showcasing many groundbreaking modernist designs in Latin America. It encouraged scholarship on the subject which resulted in many publications by several Latin American authors and architects (most publications are in Spanish and some have been translated into other languages).

Architects in Latin America were very well aware of what architects in Europe and the United States were doing. They looked up to Loos, Gropius, Le Corbusier as well as the Russians and Italians for inspiration. New technologies and new materials resulted in new structural innovations and architectural forms, thereby creating buildings that communicated directly with the viewer and reflected the spirit of the times. These buildings were bold, inspiring, and forward-looking.

For the sake of clarity, length, and time, I’ve decided to include in this post a small selection of modernist buildings in Mexico, which were all designed by internationally renowned Mexican architects (or in the case of Felix Candela, a Spaniard who fled the Spanish Civil War and settled in Mexico) and have contributed substantially to the architectural history of Latin America.

*******

Juan O'Gorman, Rivera/Kahlo House, San Angel, Mexico City, 1931-1932. Image Credit: on the LEFT bcmng on Flickr and on the RIGHT omar omar also on Flickr. Both used under the Creative Commons License.

Jose Villagran Garcia, School of Architecture, Universidad Autonoma de Mexico. Image credit: MathiasLethola on Flickr. Used under the Creative Commons License.

Jorge Gonzalez Reyna and Felix Candela, Cosmic Ray Pavillion, Ciudad Universitaria (University City) of the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City, 1952. Image Credit: recluse26 on Flickr. Used under the Creative Commons License.

Roberto Alvarez Espinoza, Pedrio Ramirez Vasquez, Ramon Torres and Hector Velazquez., Faculty of Medicine, Ciudad Universitaria (University City) of the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City, 1962. Image Credit: omar omar on Flickr. Used under the Creative Commons License.

Mario Pani, Enrique del Moral and Salvador Ortega Flores, Rectorate, Ciudad Universitaria (University City) of the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City, 1952. Image Credit: Omar Omar on Flickr. Used under the Creative Commons License

Mathias Goeritz and Luis Barragan, Satellite Towers, Satellite City, State of Mexico, 1957. Image credit: Picacch on Flickr. Used under the Creative Commons License.

Luis Barragan, House of the Architect, 1947-1948. Image credit: GoreyC on Flickr. Used under the Creative Commons License.

Ricardo Legorreta, Hotel Camino Real, 1968. Image credit. on the LEFT Brenda M on Flickr and on the RIGHT Katrina Kalden also on Flickr. Used under the Creative Commons License.

[1] Henry Russell Hitchcock, Modern Architecture in Latin America since 1945, New York, 1955, p 13.

Note from the hosts: Anulfo is of Dominican decent, born in the Dominican Republic, but raised in the Boston area.  That said — imagine the awkwardness surrounding a conversation that started like this, “Hey, Anulfo.  Do you think you’d want to do a Cinco de Mayo post for me?  I mean — you’re the only one I know that is interested in Latin culture . . . .”

And now that I have (by now) fully retracted my foot from my mouth, I can step back and say — I would have done better if I had more than 140 characters to work with.  Plus it did just made sense, as you can hopefully see — and quite frankly, he was the only individual I could think to ask to go on this day.  Anulfo is not only a voice of all things culturally Boston, he is also (in my eyes) a bastion of/for Latino heritage.

While he can often be caught @EvolvingCritic on Twitter (I consider him a true conversationalist), today he will be spending much of it, in his words, “running all over the city trying to get set up for an event with the Society of Architectural Historians.”  He is also scheduled for a post (due today) with the Boston Cyberarts Festival.  For these reasons, I am extra grateful that he agreed to post with us.  He is a busy man.  And I thank him again; it was fun. ~jb