Yucatán’s First Highway
February 29, 1933. After a long day of walking, Alfonso Villa Rojas arrived at the remote archeological site called Yaxuná. The 35-year-old schoolteacher had been working as an assistant on the Carnegie Institution’s restoration project at Chichén Itzá. Deeply interested in local oral traditions, Villa Rojas had heard tales about an actual More...
Yucatan’s Greatest Hit
This is the last of the monthly “Surprising History” articles, concluding the series after two and a half years. The occasional piece may appear in the future, and the series maybe published as a book. The author More...
First Spark and Revolution
[Link to “Surprising History in Yucatán” — Introduction to the Series] November 20 is Revolution Day in Mexico, an important public holiday. Yucatecans would change the date to June 4. History books say More...
A Potemkin Village for Porfirio Díaz
[Link to “Surprising History in Yucatán” — Introduction to the Series] President Porfirio Díaz came to Yucatán with a short list of things he needed to do. The announced purpose for the visit in More...
The Remarkable O’Horáns
[Link to “Surprising History in Yucatán” — Introduction to the Series] Governor, president, senator, general, judge, hero, traitor, conservative, liberal, doctor, lawyer, scholar…. The O’Horán family More...
497 years ago today, Hernán Cortes arrived in Mexico (for better or worse)
If you were around 497 years ago today (March 4, 1519), you would have witnessed a truly historic event that forever altered life in what eventually would become the modern nation of Mexico. Here is a commentary More...
Campeche enthralls with Mexico’s rich history
Campeche takes your breath away. In the center of this colonial city on the Gulf of Mexico, brightly painted homes, cobblestone streets and well-preserved fortresses remind a visitor of better-known Caribbean tourist More...
When Did the Caste War End? Part 2 — The Power of General May
[Link to “Surprising History in Yucatán” — Introduction to the Series] Continued from The Yucatan Times last month — The forces of General Bravo had surrounded the independent Maya nation… [Link to Part More...
New book offers chance to “take a ride” with conquistadors
If all you know about the conquistadors is what you learned in school, or if you’re the type who finds an excursion into their times irresistible, then a new book entitled Conquistador Voices (Spruce Tree Press, More...
When Did the Caste War End? Part 1 — The Power of General Bravo
[“Surprising History in Yucatán” — Introduction to the Series] The Caste War of Yucatán officially ended, after fifty-four years of horror, when a Mexican army occupied the Maya capital on May 4, More...
