Photo Credit: Roberto Cardenas - 1999

A lot of people criticized the building of the new Olimpo (a cultural center next to the municipal hall downtown) calling it a 'waste of money', during the administration of Patricio Patron Laviada. This building, which has won it's lighting designers international recognition, replaces a parking lot which was the previous use of the property after a misguided former mayor tore down the colonial building that had been there before. People say that the money could have been better spent on fixing streets and installing water mains; they're probably right, but since the money for those projects would have been squandered by a long and corrupt chain of command, and the reparations and installations would have been made of such dubious quality that they would have lasted 6 months at the most, my personal opinion is that this was a much better idea. It's been a long time since any administration did anything visible to make the city more attractive to visitors and locals; the new Olimpo is definitely a worthy investment in Merida's future...

Photo Credit: Yours Truly - 1999

You will find this impressive building at the Sam's glorieta on Prolongacion Montejo. It houses a bank, or maybe nothing at all - no one is really sure. But it dwarfs the statue in honor of Guerrero, the Spanish sailor who took a Mayan wife and fought against his former countrymen in their bloody and Christian battle to "civilize" an entire continent.

Photo Credit: Yours Truly - 1999

In front of what is now known as the Convention Center Siglo XXI, there stands this statue of the tall, educated (look at those glasses-he must be smart) and fatherly European technocrat leading the short, dressed in loincloth native into what must be a brighter future. The Mayan is carrying (as usual the Mayan is doing all the work) the penca or leaf of the henequen plant, which was the green gold upon which many fortunes were based during the last century, none of which made it to the Mayans themselves thank you very much. Why is this statue here? This is where the henequen processing plants were. Now functioning at probably 10% of their capacity, the market a mess, the fields overgrown with weeds and companies actually importing henequen from Brazil, the henequen industry is in a state of decomposition like most of the agricultural sector. So now a modern (more on that later!) Convention Center stands where part of the processing plant was, to be followed soon by another huge tower, this time disguised as a hotel. We'll just have to wait and see.