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Horizontal vertigo : a city called Mexico / Juan Villoro ; translated from the Spanish by Alfred MacAdam.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextLanguage: English Original language: Spanish Publisher: New York : Pantheon Books, [2021]Edition: First American editionDescription: xi, 346 pages ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781524748883
  • 1524748889
Uniform titles:
  • Vértigo horizontal. English
Subject(s):
Contents:
Prologue: Making an agglomeration look like a city / by Néstor García Canclini -- Entry into the labyrinth : chaos is not something you improvise -- Living in the city : "if you see Juan ..." -- City characters : el chilango -- Shocks : how many of us are there? -- Crossings : memory atlas -- Living in the city : the child heroes -- Ceremonies : the shout (el grito) -- La independencia, S.A. de C.V. -- Places : the back patio (La zotehuela) -- Living in the city : oblivion -- Ceremonies : coffee with the poets -- City characters : el merenguero -- Shocks : street children -- Places : the mausoleums of the heroes -- City characters : the manager -- Crossings : from eye candy to Moctezuma's revenge -- Ceremonies : "do good without staring at the blonde." Wrestling movies -- Places : public government ministry -- Living in the city : my grandmother's outing -- Places : Tepito, El Chopo, and other informalities -- City characters : Paquita la del Barrio -- Ceremonies : the virgin of transit -- Living in the city : the conscript -- City characters : the King of Coyoacán -- Ceremonies : the bureaucracy of Mexico City -- giving and receiving -- Places : fairs, theme parks, children city -- Places : a square meter of the nation -- Ceremonies : how does the city decorate itself? From the foundational image to garbage as ornament -- Crossings : extraterrestrials in the capital -- Shocks : a car on the pyramid -- Places : the meeting spot -- Living in the city : rain soup -- City characters : the tire repair man -- Ceremonies : the passion of Iztapalapa -- Shocks : the anxiety of influenza, diary of an epidemic -- City characters : the quack -- Places : Santo Domingo -- Shocks : the disappearance of the sky -- Crossings : the city is the sky of the metro -- City characters : the zombie -- Shocks : the new meat -- City living : the political illusion -- Ceremonies : the security book -- City characters : the sewer cleaner -- Shocks : the earthquake : "stones are not native to this land" -- Ceremonies : the aftershock, a postscript to fear.
Summary: "Horizontal Vertigo: the title refers to the fear of ever-impending earthquakes, which led Mexicans to build their capital city outward rather than upward. With the perspicacity of a keenly observant flâneur, Villoro wanders through the city seemingly without a plan, describing people, places, and things, while brilliantly drawing connections among them, the better to reveal, in all its multitudinous glory, the vicissitudes and triumphs of Mexico City's cultural, political, and social history: from indigenous antiquity to the Aztec period, from the Spanish conquest to Mexico City today, one of the world's leading cultural and financial centers. In his deeply iconoclastic book, Villoro organizes his text around a recurring series of chapter titles: "Living in the City," "City Characters," "Shocks, Crossings, and Ceremonies." What he achieves, miraculously, is a stunning, intriguingly coherent meditation on Mexico City's genius loci, its spirit of place"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 972.53 V759 Available 33111010499503
Adult Book Adult Book Northport Library NonFiction 972.53 V759 Available 33111009840105
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

At once intimate and wide-ranging, and as enthralling, surprising, and vivid as the place itself, this is a uniquely eye-opening tour of one of the great metropolises of the world, and its largest Spanish-speaking city.

Horizontal Vertigo- The title refers to the fear of ever-impending earthquakes that led Mexicans to build their capital city outward rather than upward. With the perspicacity of a keenly observant flaneur, Juan Villoro wanders through Mexico City seemingly without a plan, describing people, places, and things while brilliantly drawing connections among them. In so doing he reveals, in all its multitudinous glory, the vicissitudes and triumphs of the city 's cultural, political, and social history- from indigenous antiquity to the Aztec period, from the Spanish conquest to Mexico City today-one of the world's leading cultural and financial centers.

In this deeply iconoclastic book, Villoro organizes his text around a recurring series of topics- "Living in the City," "City Characters," "Shocks," "Crossings," and "Ceremonies." What he achieves, miraculously, is a stunning, intriguingly coherent meditation on Mexico City's genius loci, its spirit of place.

"Originally published in Mexico as El vértigo horizontal by Almadía Ediciones S.A.P.I. de C.V., Mexico City, in 2018."

Prologue: Making an agglomeration look like a city / by Néstor García Canclini -- Entry into the labyrinth : chaos is not something you improvise -- Living in the city : "if you see Juan ..." -- City characters : el chilango -- Shocks : how many of us are there? -- Crossings : memory atlas -- Living in the city : the child heroes -- Ceremonies : the shout (el grito) -- La independencia, S.A. de C.V. -- Places : the back patio (La zotehuela) -- Living in the city : oblivion -- Ceremonies : coffee with the poets -- City characters : el merenguero -- Shocks : street children -- Places : the mausoleums of the heroes -- City characters : the manager -- Crossings : from eye candy to Moctezuma's revenge -- Ceremonies : "do good without staring at the blonde." Wrestling movies -- Places : public government ministry -- Living in the city : my grandmother's outing -- Places : Tepito, El Chopo, and other informalities -- City characters : Paquita la del Barrio -- Ceremonies : the virgin of transit -- Living in the city : the conscript -- City characters : the King of Coyoacán -- Ceremonies : the bureaucracy of Mexico City -- giving and receiving -- Places : fairs, theme parks, children city -- Places : a square meter of the nation -- Ceremonies : how does the city decorate itself? From the foundational image to garbage as ornament -- Crossings : extraterrestrials in the capital -- Shocks : a car on the pyramid -- Places : the meeting spot -- Living in the city : rain soup -- City characters : the tire repair man -- Ceremonies : the passion of Iztapalapa -- Shocks : the anxiety of influenza, diary of an epidemic -- City characters : the quack -- Places : Santo Domingo -- Shocks : the disappearance of the sky -- Crossings : the city is the sky of the metro -- City characters : the zombie -- Shocks : the new meat -- City living : the political illusion -- Ceremonies : the security book -- City characters : the sewer cleaner -- Shocks : the earthquake : "stones are not native to this land" -- Ceremonies : the aftershock, a postscript to fear.

"Horizontal Vertigo: the title refers to the fear of ever-impending earthquakes, which led Mexicans to build their capital city outward rather than upward. With the perspicacity of a keenly observant flâneur, Villoro wanders through the city seemingly without a plan, describing people, places, and things, while brilliantly drawing connections among them, the better to reveal, in all its multitudinous glory, the vicissitudes and triumphs of Mexico City's cultural, political, and social history: from indigenous antiquity to the Aztec period, from the Spanish conquest to Mexico City today, one of the world's leading cultural and financial centers. In his deeply iconoclastic book, Villoro organizes his text around a recurring series of chapter titles: "Living in the City," "City Characters," "Shocks, Crossings, and Ceremonies." What he achieves, miraculously, is a stunning, intriguingly coherent meditation on Mexico City's genius loci, its spirit of place"-- Provided by publisher.

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