Arts of Colonial Mexico. The Guidebooks: Yucatán

Our aim in this blog is to make Mexico's colonial artistic heritage come alive for the English speaking reader. 
   With the same focus, over several years your author, writer and illustrator Richard Perry, has published a series of informative, pictorial guidebooks to those regions of Mexico that claim the richest colonial artistic heritage.    
   For each region we outline in a clear descriptive style the local history, folklore, and artistic context for each building or work of art of note. In each case the text is supplemented by numerous graphics, maps and plans.
   In addition, all the guides are illustrated by original line drawings by the author which render the architectural and sculptural detail with a clarity unobtainable in any other medium.

Here we showcase our two companion guides to Yucatán:

Yucatán

Best known for its ancient Maya cities, the Yucatán peninsula is also dotted with dozens of Spanish colonial churches and chapels, the majority of which are virtually unknown to the visitor.  Created with the traveler in mind, Maya Missions fills this information gap and remains the only guide in English to the special artistic heritage of Yucatán. 
  In our second edition we suggest six itineraries, each accompanied with detailed maps, plans and directions.
   Starting from the old fortified port of Campeche, we continue to the provincial capital of Mérida, where we review such notable buildings as Mérida Cathedral, the first cathedral in Mexico and La Casa de Montejo, the finest Plateresque palace in the Americas. We also visit historic Valladolid, the second city of Yucatán, also home to a cathedral and a grand 16th century monastery.
   The heart of the guide is its route exploring the 16th century missions, ornate baroque churches and rustic Indian chapels that are to be found in small towns and villages across the peninsula.
   Prominent monuments include Izamal, a vast monastery built atop a former Maya pyramid, and Maní, a former royal Maya city famous for its mission and open chapel.

Travelers to the peninsula may also be interested in Exploring Yucatan, our companion guide to Maya Missions.
   For centuries, explorers, adventurers, artists, naturalists and archeologists have recorded their experiences of work and travel in Yucatan: Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Bishop Diego de Landa and John Lloyd Stephens among many others. Their vivid memoirs give us historic insights into the attitudes of the past, document how conditions have changed over time, and help to illuminate the present in this exotic tropical region of Mayan Mexico.
  We selected and edited a broad selection of excerpts from these classic writings and collected them in one portable volume to entertain and enlighten today's traveler to Yucatán. 
   Selections are organized geographically around the major Mayan sites and regions of the Yucatán peninsula, from Campeche on the Gulf coast to the Caribbean coast of Quintana Roo and its Maya hinterland. 
   The narratives are accompanied by numerous historical and new illustrations, including some by Richard Perry, who also selected the readings and edited the anthology. 
   With maps, glossary, bibliography and full index, Exploring Yucatán is essential reading for the armchair and active traveler along the Ruta Maya.

These guidebooks may be ordered through Amazon.com 

from our preferred distributor Practical Patchwork. 

Readable... Portable... Affordable...