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Modernity and the of entered into an afterlife. edited by Edward R. Hunan. Both Poniatowska's text and Payne's foreword by Ricardo Legorreta. Austin: photographs capture the otherworldly University of Texas Press, 1997. 220 pp., aspect of (iuerrero Viejo's remains. These illus., $19.95. include a field ol bleached white rocks that presumably were tile building blocks Reviewed Iry Stephen h'ox of houses. Now the rocks make a kind of bonevard. In language reminiscent ol the Fascinated with the rich and distinctive great (if largely unknown in the U.S.) architecture documented in such classic Mexican writer Juan Rulfo, Poniatowska bonks as Esther Bom's The New writes, "Stone the memory, stone the Architecture in Mexico 11937}, I. E. hunger, stone the destiny, and stone the Myers* Mexico's end |of ]," {1952], and Max Cetto's Architecture in Payne's photographs capture a ceme- Mexico (1961), architect and Texas tery, now overgrown with shrubbery \c\ M mstriu tot ! dward It. Hiu lan edit and cactus, as well as signs of what cd this collection of eight essays and one use,I i.. hi life: workspaces, including interview to critically examine the devel- kitchens and a saddle shop, and the ten opment ol modern architecture in Mexico derly carved stones ol the houses thai during the first half of the 20th century. remain upright. In a way, the town that Burian uses the interview, a dialoguc I N T H E N E W W O R L D Payne's pictures record looks like any with contemporary historian and theorist other ghost town. Hut as Payne notes in \HK in> I'ere/ * lotnez, as his book's intm an introduction, Guerrero Viejo has this ductory chapter. It might better have analysis of the spatiahty and materiality massive Falcon Dam project on the Rio difference; it didn't die a natural death, served as its concluding entry. The place- of architect Enrique del Moral's house Grande lor Rio Bravo, as the river is but was murdered. And it's the knowl- edge that "a crime was committed" that ment ol the interview highlights one of (which is across the street from known in Mexico). The dam would bene- haunts Payne's photos. Modernity and the Architecture of Barragan's home). And fit nearly everyone m the area, controlling Mc.v/i'ii's major shortcomings: the appar Antonio I , Meiidcz-Vigata's overview ol Hooding and bringing power and tourism As evocative as Guerrero Viejo ently random sequencing of its essays. the modern scene in the first hall of the to the Rio Grande Valley. The only often is, if you don't bring some prior The order in which the essays are 20th century explicitly links shifts ol apparent downside was that the small knowledge of Guerrero's history, and of arranged con I uses rather than clarifies a emphasis and style to the administration Mexican town of Guerrero would lie the recent el forts to preserve us brn.id perspective on Mexican mod- nl successive Mexican presidents and flooded and destroyed by the new lake. remains, the book might finally be a hit ernism, especially for readers with no their cultural arbiters. But the loss was considered a reasonable obscure. Poniatowska is a talented prior exposure to the topic. Similarly noteworthy are Hunan's price to pay — for everyone who didn't writer, but her work here is somewhat One misses an essay contextualizing essay on the professional trajectory of live there. in the tradition of Latin American the career of I uis Barragan, the architect .Mexico's first important modernist, archi- bounded in 1750 (as Revilla) by set- magical realism. That can be fine if you now regarded as Mexico's greatest, tect and painter [nan O'Gorinan, and tlers lorging northward out of centra) don't need more basic information about Guerrero. But for those who do, because it might have more sharply illu Alberto Kalacb's essay on the Ist.uho Mexico, Guerrero was a beautiful exam another, more prosaic essay thai better initiated the cultural politics ol early and OHmpico at the Ciudad Universitaria. pie ol Mexican city planning and archi- explained the preservation efforts would mid-century Mexico t ."iry, something that These pieces, like those of Zambrano, tecture. In the early 19th century it have been welcome. As, for that matter, needs to he made explicit for non- (urtis, and Mendez-Vigata, historically became a prosperous outpost ol civiliza- a map would have been. Mexican readers. "Mexican" modern contextualize the architects and building tion and, in its carved stone buildings, of architecture is Mexico City modern archi- projects they examine. Less successful in simple refinement. Bypassed by railroads tecture; the capital totally dominated rep- this regard are Carlos (,. Mijarcs late in the I 800s, Guerrero's star faded. New and Notable: Houston Architectural resentations of Mexican modernism, mar- Bracho's essay on mtcrwar architect Hut it remained an elegant and much Guide, Second Edition (AIA/I louston and ginalizing the country's two other large Carlos Obregon Santicilia, Antonio Toca Imed town, one full of history and life. 1 leiiing Design, $20], by Stephen Eox, cities, Guadalajara and Monterrey. From Hernandez's examination ol the work ol All that apparently ended with the text, and Gerald Moorhead, photos. the late 1920s on, architectural culture in mterwar architect Jean Segura, and construction of the dam. It's been nearly a decade since the first the capital was dominated hy the 1'arlido I ciuise Niielle Merles' look ai PR] It was to document both what had edition ol tins book appeared, and years Revoludonario Institutional, the political favorite and leading postwar modernist happened at Guerrero, and what remains since a copy could be found in area party that produced the public officials Mario I'ani. ol the town, tli.it Mexican writer Elena bookstores. I'oi those who have searched who commissioned the most important Even though the title of liunan's book Ponitowska and Texan photographer in vain for this useful guidebook, the building projects, harragan was tainted promises more than the essays deliver. Richard Payne collaborated on Guerrero second edition — which has some 200 with political, religious, and personal more entries than the first — should be Modernity and the Architecture of Viejo (literally "(lid Guerrero," to distin- attributes ili.it consigned him to the mar- a godsend. The neighborhood-tour orga- Mexico constitutes a welcome series ol guish it from Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, a gins of Mexico City's official architectur- nization ol the tirst edition is maintained, texts. It challenges the insularity of new town built by the Mexican govern- al culture. I lis career occurred outside the and a special section on buildings losi to American architectural historiography ment to which the residents ol the old arena of state patronage, and the distinc- demolition, as well as a list ol buildings and provides M\ English language forum town ol Guerrero were relocated in tive style he developed in the late 1940s on the National Register ol Historic lor presentations In Mexican. U.S., and 1953). The general consensus lor what emphasized introversion, intimacy, and Places and the Texas i listorical Register, European historians, critics, and archi- would happen to the old town was discovery, in contrast to the boldly lias been added. tects. And it insists on the relevance of a voiced by Doctor Ruben Flores, a promi- exclamatory work of ollici.ilb favored body of extraordinary 20th-century archi- nent citizen quoted by Poniatowska. Texas I louses limit by the Hook architects. lecuire that, thanks to Hunan, may once "Within ten years," Flores said, [Texas AevM University Press, $39.95), i )ne of Modernity and the again have the chance to become known '"(iuerrero Viejo will be nothing more by Margaret Culbertson. This examina- than a pile ol stones." Architecture of Mexico's highlights is and critically appraised in the U.S. tion of mid-19th century to early 20th Ceha lister Arrcdondo Zamhrano's essay I le wasn't quite right. Guerrero century Texas homes based on designs on the planning and construction ol the Guerrero Viejo by Elena Poniatowska Viejo wasn't completely drowned; published in magazines, books, and (.audad Universitaria in Mexico City and Richard Payne, Anchorage Press, instead, depending on the rains, the lake catalogues ot the era began almost two between I 950 and I 9s2, which concisely i i|i/