SOMBRERO BOOKS
BLUE LAKES AND SILVER CITIES
Book Description - Editorial Reviews - Reader Reviews
Blue Lakes and Silver Cities
By Richard D. Perry. (1997) ISBN 0-9620811-3-2
Softcover: 272 pages, over 200 line illustrations.
Price: $25.00
Book Description
West Mexico has it all. Tropical beaches, forested sierras, high plains dotted with lakes and colorful Tarascan craft villages.
But above all, it boasts an extraordinarily rich and varied artistic heritage from Spanish colonial times: sixteenth century missions and Indian hospitals with moorish doorways and painted ceilings, majestic monasteries with sculpted facades and colorful murals, historic silver cities full of baroque churches with magnificent gilded altarpieces, and everywhere, intriguing works of art, from 16th century carved stonecrosses and wooden cristos, to paintings and sculptures by Mexican masters. All this plus the legendary warmth and hospitality of the Mexican people.
Join artist and writer Richard Perry for a memorablejourney through Spanish colonial West Mexico. Starting in the colonial province of Michoacan, he explores the villages of the Tarascan highlands, continuing on to scenic Lake Patzcuaro and the city of Morelia. After colonial Guadalajara and the state of Jalisco, he visits the silver cities of Guanajuato state, including San Miguel de Allende. Finally, he takes the reader through the opulent viceregal city of Queretaro, with exciting side trips to the painted churches of the Sierra Gorda, and the unique Augustinian priory at Malinalco.
In addition to describing important monuments and works of art in the region in clear and telling detail, Blue Lakes and Silver Cities is a visual feast, with over 200 beautiful line drawings by the author. This large format guide is ideal for the traveler, both in the armchair and in the field - a handsome addition to his series of regional guides to Mexico's colonial artistic heritage. It is also an indispensable reference book, drawing on the latest information and discoveries. It includes a glossary, bibliography and index.
Editorial Reviews
"Covering Western Mexico from Michoacan to Queretaro, this (guidebook) is the best historical and descriptive guide available..." Choice."Well written with a readable style appropriate for the layman but with something of interest for those who may be more knowledgeable." Latin American Antiquity.
"Blue Lakes & Silver Cities is superb. Fine drawings and helpful maps." Professor James Early, SMU.
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Reader Reviews
As a frequent visitor to many of the towns and cities covered in this guide, I thought that I knew a good deal about their history. Not so. In "Blue Lakes & Silver Cities" we accompany the author on a winding journey across a broad swathe of west central Mexico that includes the states of Michoac n, Jalisco, Guanajuato, and Quer‚taro... Special attention is given to the major colonial centres such as P tzcuaro, Morelia, Guadalajara, Guanajuato, Quer‚taro and San Miguel de Allende, with observations that will enrich any walking tour... There is a welcome chapter on the missions of the Sierra Gorda in the state of Quer‚taro. The scope of this large format paperback is comprehensive, and the text is accessible, engaging and peppered with fascinating and sometimes surprising details. But what makes this guide special are the author's own precise line drawings that compliment the absorbing text - more than 200 of them in all. Thus not only does Richard Perry deliver us a fine piece of travel writing but his architectural drawings make their subjects far more vivid than the photos in most conventional guidebooks - in short he is the perfect guide and the book, an excellent companion to any journey to Mexico's colonial heartland... Thank you Richard Perry. Highly recommended." Steve Bridger, London, U.K.
"An excellent and lively synthesis. I was very impressed with the text and dazzled by the drawings." Jeanette Peterson, author of The Paradise Garden Murals of Malinalco.
Blue Lakes and Silver Cities is an engagingly-written, large-format account of the most outstanding colonial architecture and treasures in Western Mexico, illustrated with over 200 original line drawings by the author. This is Richard Perry's fourth book in a series capturing the unique quality of Mexico's colonial architecture and the best yet! I cannot believe that anyone is likely to improve substantially on his painstaking research and attention to detail in a very long time. There is virtually nothing else in English on this topic. A wonderful achievement and a fascinating read. Reader from British Columbia, Canada.
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