Abstract

Mexico City’s long twentieth century was structed by several yet ongoing revolutions, from the bloody and protracted wars over control of the capital and the country to waves of explosive urban expansion and demographic growth that transformed the ‘City of Palaces’ into one of the world’s largest and most unwieldy megacities. This presentation will provide an overview of this revolutionary century through a spatial historiography of the two great ‘monsters’ of the period, the city itself and the political party that sought to control and to govern it, the Partido Revolucionario Institutional. This historical geography will interrogate both the emergence and navigation of several major conflicts and crises as well as their enduring legacies and contemporary manifestations.

About the Speaker

Prof. Ben A. Gerlofs is Assistant Professor of Human Geography and Deputy Head of Department at the University of Hong Kong, where he also serves as a Research Fellow of the Urban Systems Institute and Inaugural Director of the Cartographica Laboratory and Library. Ben previously taught American and Latin American history at Queens College (City University of New York), human geography at Dartmouth College, and Latin American studies at Princeton University. His research interests include the dynamics of urban change, the politics of aesthetics, the commodification of nature, and comparative urbanism.