Review Of the City Of Mexico In The Age Of Diaz Essays -- essays res

The Great burstUniversity of California-Berkley geographer and author Michael Johns argues in his novel, The metropolis of Mexico in the Age of Diaz, that the central Zocalo of Mexico City does more than geographically segregate the East from the West, unless Mexicos home(a) mentality as well. During the years of Diazs democratic faade, the upper straighten outes thrived upon woodlet exports, feudalist economics and the iron fist of Diazs rurales fleck struggling to swear atomic number 63an social likeness. East of the Zocalo, shantytowns housed thousands of poor pelados that served as societal blemishes of a suburbanites experience. In Johnss work, the penniless(prenominal) and indigenous serve as the scapegoats for the privi leadged 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 a nd the United 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 run by a people who were looking to create their own culture while entirely dependent on the industry and ideas of Europe and America (22). The similar construction that the elite felt was a celebration of a new dignity in the Mexican people was criticized, by visitors and locals alike, as impressive 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 baseness and lack of authority of the peasants on the Eastside created mesones, or as Johns described them, a little more than a bare fleck to lie down in, a grass mat, company with (the) ver min that squalor breeds (48). Politics on the Westside of the Zocalo were concerned little with the living conditions of the majority. No one would undertake the unglamorous task of assisting the poor, but rather they essay to veil the masses in the shadow of their refined buildings and recent boldness of culture. Another shield of the upper classes was t... ...rural hamlets, many in the big city drowned their sorrows in pulque it accounted for over 90 percent of all the alcohol drunk in the capital The suggestive power of a bright mental picture or an exotic name painted on the faade was at times enhanced by a slogan like alcoholism Pulque, Be Happy (50-51). The little solace the masses gained from their wages was ordinarily happily wasted in one night after the payroll check had arrived. Aspiring to drown their social inferiority, pulque crippled the east sides population. In essence, both rich and poor yearned to gain acceptance, at informed or subconscious levels. Me xico City in the Age of Diaz is a literary illustration of one countrys struggle to define itself as a modern, cultured nation. Written mainly in the upper class point of view, the poor masses are defamed as lesser, indigenous beings. This trouble of the Westside population and President Diaz lead not to reform but to exploitation and ignorance of social dilemmas. Europe and the United States served as a moulding for these citizens who craved status and acceptance due to the inherent inferiority colonial gained by a historically conquered people.