Modernism, Cosmopolitanism and Catastrophism in Los Angeles and Mexico City

Abstract

This essay offers a reflection on the historical trajectories of two prototypical metropolises of the Western Modern world : Mexico was perceived during the 16th and 17th centuries as a laboratory for the New World urbanization and as a materialized model of a ideal city; Los Angeles has been represented since the beginning on the 20th century as featuring the future of urban civilization in the USA and abroad. But both had also suffered a negative imagery as examples of the failure of the progressive modernist project. The comparison between the two metropolises is analyzed through the relationship, unstable through time, that can be established between Modernism, cosmopolitanism and catastrophism.

Keywords

• Los Angeles
• urbanism
• urbanity
• catastrophism
• image
• Mexico City