The City of Mexico in the Age of Díaz

by Michael Johns

Mexico City assumed its current character around the turn of the twentieth century, during the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz (1876-1911). In those years, wealthy Mexicans moved away from the Zócalo, the city's traditional center, to western suburbs where they sought to imitate European and American ways of life. At the same time, poorer Mexicans, many of whom were peasants, crowded into eastern suburbs that lacked such basic amenities as schools, potable water, and adequate sewerage. These slums looked and felt more like rural villages than city neighborhoods. A century—and some twenty million more inhabitants—later, Mexico City retains its divided, robust, and almost labyrinthine character. In this provocative and beautifully written book, Michael Johns proposes to fathom the character of Mexico City and, through it, the Mexican national character that shaped and was shaped by the capital city. Drawing on sources from government documents to newspapers to literary works, he looks at such things as work, taste, violence, architecture, and political power during the formative Díaz era. From this portrait of daily life in Mexico City, he shows us the qualities that "make a Mexican a Mexican" and have created a culture in which, as the Mexican saying goes, "everything changes so that everything remains the same."

Genres: Nonfiction, History

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Ava · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you have to read this for a class, don't freak. It accomplishes what it's trying to say in a neat length and has some pretty interesting facts in there. I would recommend reading this more if you were interested in Mexico at this time period rather than interested specifically in Porfirio Diaz.

[Alex Peltz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in one sitting for class

[David Groves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many history books cover only the official things. They tell you who took power, how many troops it took to take power, who the threats were to power, what the prominent citizens did, when the prominent buildings were built, & etc. What is lacking, and what I was looking for with regard to Mexico, was a portrait of what it felt like to live everyday life in the Diaz regime. I found it here.

Here, I learned about the westside salons of Mexico City and the eastside slums. Not only that, but what the slums looked like, felt like, and even smelled like. Johns talks about the daily crime, the prostitution, the open sewers, the sanitation. He talks about the three different levels of poverty in the city, because the lower classes are not homogeneous.

The later chapters become so eloquent that they're outright poetic. He talks about how Mexicans talk to each other, and the difference between the outward mask and the inward truth. He talks about what Mexicans never say, the shame, the feelings of inferiority, the sense that they will never be as good as Europe, and France in particular. And then he points to the deleterious effects that that has on everyday life in Mexico City.

I didn't come to this book wanting to know about Mexico City, but about Mexico in general, and in particular, Chihuahua and Guanajuato. However, Johns gave me a deep glimpse into the Porfirian Mexican soul, which applied to everybody in that country, and indeed, has ramifications even today, with the Mexicans to whom I speak every day. I now look into their eyes with a little different perspective. Great book, although not long enough.

[I'm now reading this book again. It's good enough to read again. There are things that I want to remember from it, so I'm flagging it as I read. Exciting book!]

[Kamakana · Rating 2 out of 5]

not as interesting as the other john's book (moment of grace: the american city in 1950's), but engaging intro to mexico city, mexico, politics and economics, with some reference to the aztec history of mestizo population. place to start, not end reading on mexico city.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short, but interesting history of Mexico City during the 35 year dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz. It was during this period that the center of wealth moved from the original colonial city centered around the Zocalo to the newer areas along the Reforma.