Carlotta Claire de Bellis Trinity University Art and Architecture of City December 9, 2019

El Correo Mayor: a Symbol of Porfirian Modernity

In the heart of , there is a very extravagant post office: El Correo Mayor (the Main Post Office), which is still in function today and attracts many tourists for its unique architectural beauty and significance. The edifice was built between 1902 and 1907 by the Italian architect Adamo Boari, and it was part of President Porfirio Diaz’s urbanization plans. Although it reflects an important social role, the ’s function cannot be immediately discerned. It falls under the “palace” tradition mimicking in construction adjacent historical like the Museo ​ Nacional de Arte, Palacio de Iturbide, Palacio de Los , and the Palacio de Mineria. El Palacio Postal [figure 1] has quite a prominent location as it is the main post office for the city of Mexico; it is situated on the Eje Central, in the Colonia Centro (center district), near the Alameda center, which indicates the importance that Diaz placed on it. The utilitarian function of ​ the building is in stark contrast to its elaborate and seemingly unnecessary ornamentation. Its palazzo-like structure is influenced by the Spanish Colonial architecture which was formed after the Italian Renaissance, while its mestizaje, or racial and cultural mixing, components make it ​ ​ ​ ​ undoubtedly Mexican. The Correo Mayor clearly emulates European— particularly Italian— ideas of prestige and power, but it also presents hints of a variety of different and more revolutionary styles such as , a secessionist movement that breaks with traditional art movements. From the vantage point of western European architecture, this building appears to be a bizarre combination of conflicting styles. However, this is not the case for the Correo Mayor. To fully understand this building one has to elide their European assumptions and understand it under the context of 20th century Mexican Architecture. Its eclecticism must be interpreted in the context of the architect’s thoughtful . El Correo Mayor as it quotes from multiple historical sources is truly a modern building for the novel institution of the postal system. Thus, the Correo Mayor, Mexico City’s Main Post Office, reflects the Porfirian regime’s aspirations for modernity in an unconventional way because it synthesizes colonial-era styles, such as the , with the latest technological innovations. Mexico City’s Main Post Office was part of the larger plan of urban development of the city of Mexico at the turn of the twentieth century. The country under the 34 years of the Porfiriato tried to create a historic synthesis “harmonizing” native past and modern cosmopolitan aspects. Porfirio Diaz’s goal was to legitimize the power and authority of the new country. He tried to invent a new historia patria in order to modernize the country by attracting foreign capital, so that Mexico could be ​ 1 up to European standards. He advanced his plan in part through architecture, and specifically by ​ commissioning public buildings in a “neo-gothic revival style.” As Mariscal underlines in his book La Patria y la Arquitectura Nacional, Mexican national architecture developed from colonial ​ architecture combining with modern Mexico by mixing in the Indigenous and modern with the Spanish during the Colonial period. Therefore, national is nothing more than the most balanced melange of different historical quotations from the most disparate parts of the world. The Porfiriato was able to consolidate the central power of the state, strengthen the capital sector and promote foreign investments. Painting and architecture during this time were better funded than any time since independence, and served to affirm the centralized authority and the cosmopolitan sophistication of the upper class and society at large. The regime’s motto was “orden y ​ progreso” which went hand in hand with producing a centralized postal system. Positivism was the ​ philosophical movement that operated during the early 1890s during the Porfirio Díaz’s regime, and ​ ​ its members were called Científicos. They were influenced by Positivism, the philosophy of the ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Frenchman Auguste Comte, advocated what they considered to be the practical application of ​ ​ scientific methods, specifically those of the social sciences, to problems of finance, industrialization, 2 and education. The regime was trying to assemble through buildings like the Correo Mayor an ​ imagined community.3 The building's purpose in fact was to legitimize Mexico’s power, though an assembly of cultural elements that were inclusive and understood only by the commanding oligarchy that dressed itself under the “democratic” regime. The influential figure who helped with the crafting of Mexico’s aspirational identity under the Porfiriato was the Italian architect Adamo Boari. This very eclectic and worldly architect fit perfectly with the Porfriato’s desire of the modernization of Mexico. This mission of modernization and legitimization was sought by cultural elites, like the Cientificos and the leaders of the regime, so ​ ​ they could transform Mexico’s image into one as unique and prestigious as any country in the world. This was thought to be important for both Mexican citizens and for Mexico’s place in the world in general. Boari was an Italian railway engineer, from , who after completing his education 4 moved to for work in 1887. As Boari stated “ today, more than ever, each country must take 5 pride in its architectural forms, by modernizing them.” Boari after taking part in the construction

1 Vaughan, Mary K., and Stephen E. Lewis. 2006. The Eagle and the Virgin : Nation and Cultural ​ Revolution in Mexico, 1920-1940: 6 ​ 2 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Porfiriato.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia ​ ​ ​ Britannica, Inc., 9 Aug. 2019, www.britannica.com/topic/Porfiriato. 3 Anderson, Benedict R. O'G. 2016. Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. ​ ​ ​ 4 Toselli, Alessandra Farinelli. 1995 Adamo e Sesto Boari: Architetti Ferraresi del Primo Novecento, Ferrara: ​ ​ ​ Liberty House: p9 5 ​Moyssen, Xavier. 1995. “The Italo-Aztec Theatre” p 96-97 6 of two new railway infrastructure projects left South America and returned to . In​ 1893 Boari returned to the American continent but in its northern part, he joined Daniel’s Burnham's architectural studio as a technician, and he began his architectural studies at the University of . The Italian architect was eager to showcase his understanding of acquired American knowledge, he participated with his drawings in the World’s Colombian Exposition. In 1883 he became part of Luis Sullivan’s office where he met architects like Frank Lloyd Wright and Walter 7 Burley Griffin. ​ These architects would soon become part of the Steinway Hall Group and start working and experimenting on the world’s first “skyscrapers” by using internal metal structures. ​ Boari was also very invested in and influenced by this modern and stimulating ambiance, during his stay in Chicago he submitted his drawings for many building competitions both nationally and internationally. According to Neumann his designs entries for the “Luxfer Prism” competition were ​ 8 even more radical than Wright’s proposal. In​ 1897 he moved to Mexico City after winning the “Legislative Palace competition”, he was then sent by the regime all over Europe in order to take inspiration from the great works of European architecture. Unfortunately, this trip created so much scandal because of its excessive expenses that Boari was removed from the lead of the building’s construction, and the project was awarded to Emilie Bernard. Although his first building for the city of Mexico was never constructed, Boari found an alliance with dictator Porfirio Diaz, after proposing a Monument to Diaz that would have been positioned as one of the glorietas on the Paseo de la Reforma. This road was envisioned as an urban ​ ​ 9 extension that would work as a blank slate where the Regime could recast Mexican history. The knowledge that Boari acquired in Chicago worked synergistically with the one he later learned in Mexico City, by proposing to incorporate concepts that he would have learned in Chicago like the Garden City in his proposal for renovating the Alameda Park. In that same area he was commissioned both the Teatro National and the Palacio de Correos which would help the country enter “the league of modern nations.”10 Boari sought Modernism not only in the forms of European Revival, but his innovations were rooted in Pan-American discourse, this was able to give a topographical specificity to his modernism. The Italian architect in fact was incredibly interested in Mayan and Aztec architecture as he subtly incorporates their elements into his designs giving them

6 ​Condello, A. 2002. "An American Architect in Mexico City (1900-1910): Adamo Boari, the Steinway Hall Group and the Pan-American Identity". PLANNING HISTORY. 24: 9. ​ ​ 7 ​Checa-Artasu, Martín. De Ferrara a la Ciudad de México pasando por Chicago: la Trayectoria Arquitectónica de Adamo Boari (1863-1904). Biblio 3W. Revista Bibliográfica de Geografía y Ciencias Sociales. 20 de enero de 2015, Vol. XX, nº 1111, p5 8 ​Neumann, Dietrich, “The Century’s Triumph in Lighting: The Luxfer Prism Companies and their Competition to Early Modern Architecture” in JSAH, March 1995 (54): 33 9 Oles, James. 2013. Art and Architecture in Mexico. Thames & Hudson World of Art. Thames & ​ ​ ​ Hudson Ltd., p 199 10 Johns, Michael, 1997. The City of Mexico in the Age of Diaz. Austin: University of Texas, p5 ​ ​ ​ the importance they deserve. This interest for Meso-American Architecture will be later reflected also in North America in Wright’s Hollyhock House in 1922. The Correo Mayor is a great example of understanding Mexican modernity under the Porfiriato as it is one of the Boari’s only buildings that remains standing today and faithful to its original conception. Boari’s sketch Nuevo Proyecto de la Plaza del Teatro Nacional de México en Relación al ​ Grande Aumento de Tráfico [Image: 5] is indicative of the architects aspirations of urbanization for the ​ city. The city retained much of the ancient layout of , and its monumental causeways fit perfectly with the implementations of cars. In Boari’s drawing we see all three projects that the architect would have been working on at the time. El Teatro Nacional, today’s Palacio des Bellas Artes, became a symbol for corruption during the revolution as it remained unfinished after the 1911 Revolution- its unfinished carcass symbolized “the miscarriage of an ambitious and arrogant 11 dictator.” Although built by the same architect during the same period the two buildings had very different fame. To fully understand El Correo Mayor it is imperative to define modernity, and what it meant ​ ​ in the architectural community in Mexico City at the time. In Europe, modernism in the arts aimed ​ ​ to break all ties to the classical and traditional forms. From a social perspective, to participate in ​ modernity is to conceive of one's society as engaging in organizational and “enlightened ideals”that make one's immediate predecessors appear antiquated or, at least, surpassed. Instead what Porfirio was trying to achieve was not obtained solely by breaking and rejecting all tradition, but rather by crafting a new and nationally distinctive one that was formed through the careful manufacturing of nationally grounded modernity. Modernity in this building is achieved in many ways, for example through the implementation of many architectural advancements that were used for the first time in Mexico in this building. Porfirio had a double task to create a nation in its sense of history and to modernize it. European countries were already established and did not have to prove themselves at an international level. Diaz and Boari in order to accomplish this mission had to keep an eye towards the past while looking at the future. That is why this the Correo Mayor at first appears so odd when looking at it through a European perspective. Thus, Mexican Modernism at the time of the Porfiriato looked very differently from later European Modernism that solely privileged strip down functional shapes and aesthetics that we see between the 1930’s and 1960’s in Germany and France. Another grounding element of this building is its cladding autochthonous stone that comes from Puebla, Mexico, that in contrast with its interior are more ‘exotic’ marble floors from Carrara Italy. On the exterior, stone gives the building a dark beige hue that contrasts in texture and pattern with all the eclectic ornamentation around the door, windows, arcade and cornice. The north, east and west sides are very accessible to the city dweller as the building is coasted by sidewalks that are used constantly by pedestrians. The south side instead is more private, as it is blocked off by gates

11 Sanford, Trent Elwoo, 1947. The Story of Architecture in Mexico. New York: WW Norton & ​ ​ Company Inc., p 291 where a selected amount of motor vehicles can park between the post office and the adjacent building. When looking at the building from an aerial view it is evident that it has a very regular rectangular plan, it has a courtyard facing south and a solarium present at the very top of the main entrance. The north and west facades are most visually prominent for the passerby as they unite in a corner entrance. This recessed feature of the edifice gives more space to the sidewalk to transition into the entrance of the building. Additionally, the corner structure is a couple meters higher than the building’s sides, which makes it look like a tower. This ‘tower’ is mirrored without its recess from the street on the other three angles of the building. The “over ornamentation” of the facade in some ways also calls to mind the Plateresque, which Boari would have been certainly captivated by when visiting the city (e.g. the Sagrario Metropolitano). This style is an elaborately decorated Late Gothic ​ and early Renaissance style architecture of 16th-century Spain. Its characteristically florid decoration employs motifs derived from Gothic, Italian Renaissance and Islamic sources and tends to mask the structure it adorns. Once this style arrived to Mexico during the conquest it transformed itself in a more version called Curriguereque, which is an inherently Mexican , that ​ ​ the indigenous people helped in creating, this style is present in one of the most known altars of the 12 city, the Altar of the Kings. The altar’s characteristic estipite , shaped as an inverted and ​ segmented cone or obelisk, are visible in the facade’s ornamentation in an engaged and decorative form for the building's main entrance windows. Grand Solomonic columns are present on the loggia on the 4th floor, and in some other parts of the facade, where they are engaged merely for decorative purposes. These latter columns are recognizable elements used in , but trace back their origins to Constantinople. The imposing building was erected in response to the urgent need to create a central postal system for the country and for the City of Mexico. Its erection was preceded by and a drastically ​ improved postal service that distributed over 5 million pieces of mail in 1878. When the imposing ​ ​ construction opened its doors in 1907, the agency handled 134 million postal items a year; It currently delivers three million pieces of mail on average per day. At the beginning of the last century the mail was one of the main means of communication, uniting all the inhabitants of the country. That is why the decision was made to build a building that would allow efficient handling of high volumes of correspondence. The importance of the postal office is underlined in the architectural program of the atrium. Where the most important dates of the mail system are ​ incorporated as part of the ornamentation under the second floor baluster in a frieze-like decoration. The first date mentions the establishment of the Post Office in 1580 in New Spain, the dates ​ continue to 1884, when the Mexican Postal Code was implemented with its own national code. The ​ most important modification happened in 1901, and required offices and structures like the Correo Mayor to be built throughout the country. This date is also mentioned in the atrium frieze and recalls the time when the new directory for the Postal System was created. The Mexican postal

12 Baxter, Sylvester, Henry G. Peabody, and Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue. 1901. Spanish-colonial ​ ​ architecture in Mexico. Boston: J.B. Millet. ​ system during the first years of the twentieth century underwent trying times. Summaries of the previous week were published in the Boletin Postal, a trade journal for the postal services that wrote in ​ ​ 13 both spanish and english “ en obsequios de nuestros lectores del extranjero.” Multiple bills were stipulated in favor of a facilitated correspondence between Mexico and the US, and Ireland and the United Kingdom, following the porfirian international aspirations. The General Post Office required ​ space and functionality that would help unify not only the country but the world. Mail for a country ​ is a unifying force, it had a centralized component that the regime aspired to consolidate. As Gojman states in his Historia del Correo en México this majestic building demonstrated the ​ ​ 14 technological advancements that were emerging in Mexican Society. Most of the technological advancements are present in the interior of the building, which is less historicizing thanks to the presence of fashionable Art Nouveau, which helped emulate with its iron extravaganza European progress. When entering the building through the main entrance portal on the North facade, the viewer is confronted with a monumental iron staircase, [figure 3 and 4] a symbol of modernity that also referenced Boari’s training in Chicago and studies in railroad engineering. The building with its big open space was clearly designed with in mind the multitude of customers that would use its services each day. The lower floor is set up to serve the citizens through registrar's where they can fulfil their functions such as paying bills and sending mail nationally and internationally. The customer and the worker are separated though a service window that is built with marble for its base and gilded iron for its top. Beautiful wooden and gold gilded elevators are still preserved and functional to this day. The upper levels contain offices meeting rooms for their employees. The staircase moves your eyes up to the domical shaped iron and glass ceiling, a clear symbol of technical advancement embellished with the sinuosity and gold leaf characteristic of Art Nouveau. This style is characterized by sinuous, asymmetrical lines based on ​ organic forms; in a broader sense it encompasses the geometrical and more abstract patterns and rhythms that were evolved as part of the general reaction to 19th-century historicism. There are wide variations in the style according to where it appeared and the materials that were employed. This ​ structure calls to mind the Rookery staircase located in the homonymous iconic architectural landmark in Chicago that Boari would have surely known. Between 1905 and 1907 his colleague Wright was working on the renovation of the building’s interior lobby. Another element of modernity in the Correo Mayor is the abundance of glass present in both the solarium and very large window openings inside the building. The structure of these large windows is supported by delicate iron frames that not only serves a functional role but also a decorative one. This building reflects the intermingling and stratifications of different cultures that happened over time in the American continent. Culture is a set of customs, values, aesthetic conditions that do not have the individual's personal touch but are handed down from geographical location but above

13 Gojman de Backal, Alicia, and Laura Edith Bonilla. 2000. Historia del correo en México. [México]: ​ ​ [Servicio Postal Mexicano]: p 130 14 Gojman de Backal, Alicia, and Laura Edith Bonilla. 2000. [México]: ​ ​Historia del correo en México. ​ [Servicio Postal Mexicano]: p 130 “el majestuoso edificio mostraba el avance que había ensalzando.” ​ all from a social one. Its semantic roots come from the latin word colere which meaning pertains to ​ ​ land cultivation; therefore we can imply that culture is a process that takes time, consequently, contrary to nature, culture is all about nurture. In the Correo Mayor we see different kinds of cultures that are intertwined and comprise one, this stratification takes elements from the Spanish conquest and unites them with modern and native forms. Culture mainly pertains to a group of people, but it can also refer to a single individual. Culture is created through values, symbols, conceptions, beliefs, behavior patterns, and even material activities that characterize the way of being and thinking or even the lifestyle of a social group; these values are passed down from generation to generation. The world is not mere imitation of itself but rather emulation. In fact, humans are known to reworked information and implement these new ideals into their way of being and conceiving the world. Culture can be either individual or collective is a way in which humans can define themselves and have a greater sense in understanding their own identity. Like nature, culture is multifaceted and shifts overtime, incorporating the new and leaving behind into oblivion the old. Therefore historical quotations after centuries become so rarified that they become something else, something new. The sense of otherness also plays an important role, as culture can be very broad like western culture and also be very specific: like the culture, the set of costumes and traditions of a specific town. For example, when looking at the Correo Mayor, it is correct to say that the building has western influences, but the western side of the world includes both the American (North and South), African and European continent; therefore, it is more accurate to be more specific and say that it has influences that come from Spain, Italy, France and Meso-America. Boari’s eclecticism was paired with a Pan-American sensitivity, which recognized the cultural achievements and technological advancements that were created in the Americas. The eclecticism present in the building is not given only through the differing styles but also through the various materials used for the buildings construction, imported from all over the world. The structure of the building itself was imported from the United States (most presumably from the 15 Milken Brothers in New York). Created with a concrete grid of steel drowned in concrete, which ​ makes the structure very stable. This structure allowed the Correo Mayor to be only minimally ​ damaged in the terrible earthquake of 1985. It is a Chicago-type steel structure construction, which ​ was newly used in those years and that Boari would have learned about during his American sojourn. 16 The Coreo Major was also the first building in Mexico to use reinforced concrete in Mexico City. Another innovation was that the building was one of the first in the city to have an elevator. Much ​ of the metal work around the windows and other parts of the facade is highly polished brass, which was made in Italy. Inside, the marble floors and shelves combine with bronze and iron window frames manufactured by the Fornderia Pignone in Florence, Italy. The monumental clock present in ​ ​ the main tower was imported from Germany by the Dienner Brothers and assembled locally by a jewelry company called La Perla. If most of the materials of this building were imported one could ​ ​

15 ​Oles: 207 16 Escudero, Alejandrina, Juan Urquiaga, and Víctor Jiménez. 1995. La construcción del Palacio de Bellas ​ ​ Artes. México, D.F.: Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes. ​ argue that it is not very representative of Mexican Identity. Although his buildings seem to strangely imitate European models they do so much more, they are able to assimilate native forms and integrate them into classicizing european designs, with the addition of modern technologies. What makes this building a true product of Mexican innovation and reach for modernity is something called mestizaje, a process of cultural mixing and assimilation. Therefore, in the Correo ​ ​ Mayor this imported modernity given by all the technological innovations becomes inherently Mexican thanks to its assemblage. In fact one of the few elements of the building that is ​ autochthonous to the nation, other than the facade’s stonework, was the labour force that constructed it. Mexican constructors were masters of assimilation; they were able to transliterate imported styles in their own visual words, making the building not a mere European reproduction 17 but rather a true expression of Mexicanidad. This building, although it was created by an Italian architect, and many of its components were imported from countries all over the world, it is uniquely Mexican, and fits perfectly with Boari’s mission of transforming Mexico City so that it could exemplify its own national identity under the Porfiriato.

IMAGES:

Figure 1: Adamo Boari, 1902-07 El Correo Mayor, exterior Figure 2: main entrance

17 Santacilia, Carlos Obregón. 1954. México como Eje de las Antiguas Arquitecturas de América, México, ​ ​ ​ D.F.: INBA, 76.

Figure 3 Interior staircase Figure 4 interior atrium

Figure 5: Adamo Boari, sketch

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