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First Stop in the New World
The subtitle is Mexico City, The Capital of the 21st Century. If you are familiar with this charming metropolis, it is a superb book. Excerpt:
Apart from the obvious problems of traffic and transportation, the growth created other confusing complications. Today, out of the city's eighty-five thousand streets, there are about eight hundred fifty called Juárez, seven hundred fifty named Hidalgo, and seven hundred known as Morelos. Two hundred are called 16 de Septiembre, while a hundred more are called 16 de Septiembre Avenue, Alley, Mews, or Extension. Nine separate neighborhoods are called La Palma, four are called Las Palmas, and there are numerous mutations: La Palmita, Las Palmitas, Palmas Inn, La Palmas Condominio, Palmas Avenida, La Palma I y Palma I-II Unidad Habitacional.
Here is the Amazon link. Here is the author's home page and blog, which has an excellent Raymond Chandler quotation.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on June 21, 2008 at 07:46 AM in Books | Permalink
Comments
I'm always a little confused when I hear smart people speak of Mexico City becoming a world class city in the 21st century.
Isn't Mexico struggling to modernize more than Brazil? Shouldn't the honor go to Sao Paulo or Rio?
Geographically, what makes Mexico City's future so bright?
Posted by: thehova at Jun 21, 2008 9:18:18 AM
Mexico City is the intellectual capital of Latin America, for one thing. Mexico City is what we would have if we had made New York the capital. They have access to and understanding of North America, but bring their own unique artistic and cultural heritage and a public transport system that doesn't suck too badly. Plus, unlike other capital cities I could name, they're more or less in the center of the country and equally accessible to all. It is a city with an actual history, not an artificial creation built to satisfy various political factions and to be within convenient riding distance for the first president.
Posted by: Eric H at Jun 21, 2008 10:45:57 AM
That makes sense Eric H.
Kind of like London (which is the capital of Britain in a historical, economical, and political sense. Also has connections to North America and Europe, like Mexico City has connections to North American and South America).
Posted by: thehova at Jun 21, 2008 11:05:56 AM
Best of all, it's not hot. Weatherwise, I mean.
Posted by: Richard Davis at Jun 21, 2008 11:34:24 AM
So which Juárez street do you find if you look it up on a street or map index? When I tried it in Google, I seemed to come up with something on the western edge of Mexico City.
Posted by: EclectEcon at Jun 21, 2008 1:22:21 PM
I had heard about this street name problem in a report in the NY Times awhile back, but the Raymond Chandler quote was new to me. What a great quote. My first extended trip abroad on my own back in 1989 was to cuernavaca and mexico city. I really fell in love with both places and the people and their beautiful culture. I have been wanting to go back, but everyone (even Gary Becker) says it's so dangerous now. Is that true, or is that just hyperbole?
Posted by: enrique at Jun 21, 2008 1:54:04 PM
The meter in a cab I rode in when I was in Mexico City a month ago was serviced by a company located on Calle Jose Stalin. Maybe they should stick to 16 Septiembre.
Posted by: Josh at Jun 21, 2008 2:16:20 PM
Mexico City is the intellectual capital of Latin America, for one thing.
Because Mexico was the destiny of most Spanish intellectuals fleeing from Francos dictatorship. And also for most southamericans exiles.There was more freedom in Mexico than in almost ecvery country south of Rio Grande. They also enjoyed the work of people like Vascomcelos who had tjhe idea of the Fondo de Cultura economica , the publisher of works ranging from the Federalist to Marx and from Keynes to North or Becker, before they won the Nobel Prize.I have more books from FCE than from any publishing house.They were good, available and cheap. While in Spain they were not translted or the selling was forbidden.They also have the best University in was LA, best ranked than most spanish universities
Posted by: karl at Jun 21, 2008 3:52:08 PM
"Mexico City is what we would have if we had made New York the capital."
Thank the flying spaghetti monster for DC in that case...
Posted by: Affe at Jun 21, 2008 3:52:20 PM
Mexico City, The Capital of the 21st Century
This is a dystopian novel, right, like "1984"?
Posted by: Steve Sailer at Jun 21, 2008 9:19:54 PM
Mexico City, The Capital of the 21st Century
This is a dystopian novel, right, like "1984"?
Posted by: Steve Sailer at Jun 21, 2008 9:20:10 PM
"Mexico City, The Capital of the 21st Century"
Too bad the only place Mexicans can emigrate is to, drugs-hungry, drugs-obsessed, war-mongering, imperialistic, consumerist, racist, USA.
HC
Posted by: Happy Camper at Jun 21, 2008 11:06:41 PM
I love the subtitle of a New York times article today on Berlin:
"Great opera, food and galleries have made the city the world’s cultural capital."
First, I'm willing to bet that most Europeans and Americans travel to London for their cultural fix.
I think it's time we stop using the term "capital".
Posted by: thehova at Jun 22, 2008 8:57:35 AM
@ElectEcon: the most important Juárez street is the one on the outskirts of the Centro Histórico; see http://tinyurl.com/59ng3k.
As to this place becoming a world class city, I'd like to see it, but I have my doubts. I don't think it'll ever happen until immigrants (that is, immigrants from all over the world, not just the Mexican countryside) start moving in.
Posted by: Michael Wolf at Jun 23, 2008 8:48:38 AM
Does anyone know where the quote comes from exactly?
My Googling couldn't come up with anything. I love MX and love me some Chandler, curious what his thoughts are.
Posted by: m at Jun 23, 2008 12:35:01 PM
@Enrique, who asked about how dangerous it is: I visited Mexico City last year for one week, and loved it, and did not think it was any more dangerous than any city in the USA. Just be well informed and take precautions and you'll be fine. There are many really nice neighborhoods there, but I think the real problem is poor air quality throughout the city. As for public transportation, I live in L.A., and the system in Mexico City puts us to serious shame. But Capital of 21st century? I doubt it, but it is a fun, vibrant and totally charming city.
Posted by: ncnla at Jun 23, 2008 3:06:00 PM
M: It's from The Long Goodbye, Chandler's greatest work. Possibly the best detective novel of the 20th century. Sorry to disappoint you, but you won't find much about Mexico in there (some peripheral scenes take place south of the border, and one of the characters is a Mexican houseboy).
Posted by: Julia at Jun 24, 2008 11:29:09 PM
