Located in the middle of the Western Hemisphere and having a history that dates back to the early fourteenth century, Mexico City is perhaps the place where the collision between the European colonizers and Native American peoples was most violent and where the legacy of this encounter has been the most pronounced. Over the past 500 years, Mexico City has navigated the complexities and issues of this civilizational clash in ways that have made the city a vanguard. This book looks at the rich, complex, and often troubled history of this city with the express purpose of highlighting the creative political, economic, cultural, and artistic contributions that this dynamic place has afforded the world.

Narrative chapters discuss such topics as Mexico City’s history, politics, economy, culture and lifestyle, and more. "Life in the City" sidebars provide readers with interviews with people who lived in, traveled to, or were born in Mexico City. This volume is ideal for students and general readers interested in learning about the city in greater detail than may be found in travel guides.

Features

• Provides readers with an understanding of the rich complexity of one of the world's largest, most populous, and most interesting places, where European and native American indigenous cultures produced a society and culture unlike those of any other place across the world
• Raises the possibilities of what the nexus of modernity and traditional blending in the realm of economic and political life as well as cultural expression might look like as the world continues to globalize and as borders become increasingly tenuous
• Offers an example of how revolutionary and social movements can not only be processes that enrich the world but that also can transcend the violence that often accompanies such movements
• Provides a succinct, at-a-glance timeline of events in the history of the city in a Timeline
• Helps readers to gain a better understanding of what life is like in the city, told from the viewpoint of city inhabitants and visitors, in "Life in the City" inset boxes
• Reveals fun facts about the city, such as interesting laws and cultural taboos, in sidebars