Aztec Land
Aztec Land
In the 19th-century U.S., American journalist and the first editor of the Boston Globe, Maturin M. Ballou, decided to visit Mexico in search of the real feel and flavour of the country. Like many Americans of the period, Ballou was more familiar with European countries such as France and Italy than he was with a country that was quite literally on his doorstep.
Resolving to visit the historic and deeply picturesque land, Ballou made up his mind to immerse himself in its culture and write a detailed account of his travels through the land of the Aztecs. Even a cursory reading of the observations and accounts within these pictures is enough to convince the readers that what Ballou found there had a huge impact on him.
Introducing the country as misunderstood and misrepresented, with a civilization as old as Egypt, Ballou’s love for Mexico jumps off every page. Ballou was an extremely well-travelled writer. He had circumnavigated the globe in an attempt to discover as much as he could about the world he lived in. Acclaimed universally as a culturally important work, Aztec Land remains a vivid account of the journey of a stranger through a strange land. To read it is to travel back in time and visit a unique country untouched by the crass hands of modernism.