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(3 objects, created 1/26/2012)

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Before the Spanish arrived with guns and measles, Merida was a large Mayan city called T'ho. The Spaniards conquered the city, dismantled its buildings and pyramids, and used the stones to build the Cathedral of San Idelfonso (1556-1599), the oldest cathedral on the American continent, pictured here. It stands on the east side of the Main Plaza, over the location of the original city. Merida, the capital of the state of Yucatan, has about one million inhabitants. It rose to a powerful position in the twentieth century when the hennequin boom made plantations in the Yucatan extremely profitable. The plant was referred to as "green gold." Many plantation owners, who had simply seized the land and instituted a system of forced indian labor, became millionares almost overnight, when one particular variety of this plant used for its fibers won a comparative advantage in world markets. Bringing about fundamental changes in Spanish land tenure and a new need to convert the native population into a ready labor pool, the social and environmental upheaval caused by this development can not be understated. Gilbert Joseph, revolutionary historian, reflects on the role of the hennequin boom on the fate of Yucatan in "Revolution from Without": “Yucatan’s revolutionary experience and at least the last hundred years of the region’s historical development have been shaped by the erratic fortunes of a single species of cactus plant, indigenous to the peninsula. One of Mexico's poorest states in the mid-nineteenth century, Yucatan rode the crest of a late-century fiber export boom to become, arguably, the Republic's richest state by 1915. Six decades later, the region's fortunes are stil tied to --- or, as many Yucatecos perceive it, impaled upon --- the fibrous spines of the hard cactus that the ancient Maya revered as 'Ki.'" (Image Credit: Jim Spadaccini, Ideum)

Before the Spani...

Carnaval in Merida is no small occasion. It is an entire week of music, dance, food, drink, and general festivities. The streets of the Yucatecan capital are packed with families out enjoying the celebrations on the main plaza. (Image Credit: Jim Spadaccini, Ideum)

Carnaval in Meri...

A vendor, who's cart announces "corn on the cob," sells fresh juice. (Image Credit: Jim Spadaccini, Ideum)

A vendor, who's ...

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