Visions of the Emerald City: Modernity, Tradition, and the Formation of Porfirian Oaxaca, Mexico. MARK OVERMYER-VELÁZQUEZ, Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2006.

Abstract

This elegant book addresses a multitude of thorny issues related to Mexican urban history, visual culture, and modernity. The title is particularly apt: from the mental anticipations of Oaxaca's ruling class, through their physical efforts to recreate urban spaces as both legible and aesthetic sites, to the photographic registries of sex workers, the book uses "vision" as an aperture through which to analyze the making (and to a lesser degree the experience) of modernity in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth century Oaxaca City.