A Trip Through Mexico’s Exotic Architecture

The other exhibit is photographs of major infrastructure in ten Mexican cities from Zacatecas in the north to the capital, Mexico City, to Campeche in the south. These are the ten cities established as World Heritage Cities because of their architectural development, a mix of Spanish, Maya, Aztec and similar influences. Like Belize, Mexico faces a fight to preserve these important historical structures as symbols of an ancient past of which it can be both proud and wary. Hugo Juarez Carrillo told us that the debate is as important as the buildings themselves.

Hugo Juarez Carrillo

Hugo Juarez Carrillo, Press and Consular Officer, Mexican Embassy

“I would not say that Mexicans are that different than Belizeans, trying to get to modernity. But at the same time, you cannot dream of your future if you are not very aware of your past. In Mexico, we could not understand what we are now without the architecture, not only of these ten cities, but the architecture of different ethnic groups like the Aztecs and Maya and Olmecs, that provided us the basics in order to re-create our own culture and evolve. Having different types of cultural influences from Europe, from the United States right now, and from other countries that contributed to the new architecture in Mexico. At the same time, what we think is that we have to keep and to preserve for future generations the architecture that we have right now in our country.”