Led by a PhD historian, this tour uncovers the forces of power, politics, and empire that shaped Mérida’s streets, plazas, and monuments. Architecture is never just decoration — it encodes meaning. Every arch, column, and doorway reflects a decision about who belongs in the city, whose stories are celebrated, and whose are erased.

On this tour, we walk Mérida as a living archive. We’ll explore:

• Colonial foundations — how Spanish conquest was cemented in stone and ritualized in the Cathedral and Plaza Grande.

• The Porfirian dream — how the wealth of the henequen boom produced grand boulevards and palaces along Paseo de Montejo, importing French styles to project power and cosmopolitan identity.

• Maya revivalism — how “neo-Maya” architecture attempted to claim Indigenous symbols while excluding Indigenous people from the spaces themselves.

• Everyday politics of space — how parks, monuments, and even ordinary houses reveal the struggles and aspirations of the people who lived here.

This is not a list of dates and trivia. It’s an invitation to see Mérida differently — to read its streets as texts, its facades as arguments, and its monuments as claims to power. By the end of our walk, you’ll leave with a new way of looking at cities, one that connects past to present and shows how the built environment shapes the lives we live today.