This is a handsome volume dedicated to an always interesting subject that combines art, architecture, and history: the Mexican hacienda. But, as it happens on occasions, the authors’ initial objectives and ambitions do not always find a satisfactory final result.
From start, this book makes an implicit, daring promise: in a rapture of nationalism, authors assure that “the architecture of the hacienda has never been the focus of attention” and thus “we, as architects and Mexicans, decided to undertake this investigation.” (p. xi). In her foreword, Mexican writer Elena Poniatowska offers an extremely short text, overflowing an exalted yet bucolic vision, which overestimates the achievements of Nierman and Vallejo’s book. “Never in our country has an architectural study of the hacienda been made; never before was there a typological study of all the spaces” (p. x).
The authors’ attempt to uncover the fundamental architectural principles of haciendas and their historic...
