Transplanted Architecture

Transplanted Architecture

 

     We land in Oaxaca, and it is not the infamous Mexico City; Oaxaca is clearly not one of the largest cities in the world, ergo the crowding isn't too bad, nor is the pollution.  It reminds me of British-built New Delhi, in India – minus 90% of the pollution and population. 

     We arrive at Bacari Language school, and the architecture evokes a different Eurasian influence: A Moorish one.  With the fountain in a rectangular roofless courtyard, the anteroom of Bacari reminds me a bit of the Alhambra, in Spain.  But the colonizing Peninsulares didn't get this architectural style from their Visigothic ancestors; it came from the Muslim invaders of the Iberian Peninsula.  The subtly-sloped canals of the fountains look quite a bit like the Persian garden & fountain architecture, spread far beyond Iran by their Muslim conquerors.  Such style was brought East, to the gardens of Delhi, and West to Iberia, where the eventually-victorious Spainards brought it to the New World.  East towards India, and west towards pseudo-India, across an ocean, this distinctive architectural style spanned the majority of the globe – and achieved this before the 17^th century.  It is a relic of one of the early hallmarks of globalization. 

     The architecture of this place is a constant reminder of Columbus' re-realization of the wisdom of Aristarchus of Alexandria: that the world is spherical.  Fortunately though, Columbus never arrived at the knowledge of Aristarchus' successor, Erastothenes; had Columbus correctly calculated the distances involved in going west from the Canary Islands to India, circumnavigating Africa would suddenly look like a shortcut.  A balance of enlightenment and ignorance has brought us the confluence that is Mexico.   And the elements of that balance stretched from classical Western culture, across Middle-Eastern civilization, and across the Atlantic Ocean; colonial Mexican architecture entails a globalized style that predates not only the internet, but also, industrialization.

- Justin -