Download Latin America?” - Nanjing International School

Primate Cities: Case Study
of Mexico City
Positive and Negative Impacts on a
Country’s Economy
Magnitude: Disproportionately large
population; Over 2 times larger than
next largest city in country
Significance: Cultural and political
center; Hub for national economics
and development
MODEL OF THE LATIN AMERICAN CITY
Colonial Castle in Urban Park
Upscale Hotels
Palace of Fine Arts
Stock Market
Main Cathedral/Plaza
Western Sector-Public Spaces
Western Sector-Residential
North and Eastern Sections
High Altitude Basin
Public
Transportation
Federally Subsidized
1985 Earthquake
2010-Bicentennial
National Archives
National Museum of Art
Palace of Fine Arts
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Xochimilco
(Chinampas)
Catholic
“The Earth you walk on pilgrim is
sacred…on this mountain springs
two streams, symbols of the
valiant Aztec race and the Spanish
Missionaries, that submissively
were united at the feet of MARY,
mother and forger of the Mexican
patria.”
Tenochtitlán-Interior Drainage 1631-1635
Import water, export waste
NAFTA
Chiapas--high % indigenous
1872 Railroad
National project
Later connections
to USA
Centennial Celebration
“[the majority of Mexicans are]
individuals of the white race, Europeans
and some mixed with European and
indigenous blood; the Indians are now
very few in number…”
Conclusions
• Primate cities are seen as “too big to fail”
• Primate cities solve about as many problems
as they create
• Mixed bag as a national economic strategy