MEL Talks - Bob Temple

Join us at the Mérida English Library at 7:00 PM on Wednesday February 4 as historian and author Bob Temple reviews the Green Gold Era of Yucatán. Just a few generations ago, a plant in the asparagus family led to a transformation of this region. The poor, backwater state of Yucatán suddenly experienced a period of great upper-class wealth. Perhaps we are familiar with some of the surviving evidence — Mérida’s mansions, impressive public buildings, luxuriously restored haciendas in the countryside. But to understand much about Yucatán today, we have to know something about the henequen era.

This talk will explore the unexpected origins of the henequen boom, the technology and other factors that had to come together for it to happen, and the profound consequences for the region.

Bob Temple is the author of After the Meteor: Surprising History in Yucatán, the only general, popular history of Yucatán in English, now available in its third edition.

MEL Talks are free and open to the public. See the entire season lineup here.