Gayle Brennan Spencer – sending random thoughts to and from South Austin
Been dreading this day. The blog has been lagging way behind our last trip before Covid lockdown. But here they are – the final photographic scraps of our month-long stay in Merida earlier this year.
Continue reading “Postcard from Merida, Yucatan: Past time to fly back home”
Above: Crumbling stucco lends a painterly appearance to a row of balconied apartments off Paseo de Montejo.
The wide boulevard of Paseo de Montejo invites ambling with its row of elegant residences, in varying condition, built during Merida’s henequen boom (see earlier post on La Quinta Montes Molina). The street really comes to life when it is closed to automobile traffic on some weekends to allow what seems like all the families in Merida to safely hop upon their bicycles.
Palacio Canton was completed more than a century ago for General Francisco Canton Rosado (1833-1917), a governor of Yucatan who owned profitable henequen haciendas and railroads during the Porfiriato period. Now the building houses the Regional Museum of Anthropology, showcasing a collection of Mayan artifacts, including some from Mayapan (earlier post).
continue reading and see more photos
Texas farmers’ need for a digestible binding material for bales of hay tossed to cattle gave rise to incredible wealth in the Yucatan, a boom that lasted from 1880 to 1915. Operating under the favorable conditions for the wealthy to further enrich themselves, aristocrats in Mexico were able to take advantage of a native plant – henequen – and cheap native labor to bankroll a lavish lifestyle built upon production of the requisite fiber. In 1914, more than one-million bales of henequen were exported from the Yucatan.
CLICK HERE TO Read more AND VIEW PHOTOGRAPHS
Postcards from Barton Springs 