{"id":1218,"date":"2015-10-09T21:17:30","date_gmt":"2015-10-09T21:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.gsd.harvard.edu\/mci\/?page_id=1218"},"modified":"2026-09-02T12:33:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T12:33:42","slug":"blog","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/research.gsd.harvard.edu\/mci\/blog\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

RECENT POSTS<\/h1>\n\n\n
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Thesis: ENTRE FUTUROS: M\u00e1s all\u00e1 de las Fronteras y las Cicatrices del R\u00edo Bravo \/ In-Between Futures: Beyond Frontiers and Scars in the Rio Bravo<\/a><\/h2> <\/header>\n
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Miriam Hern\u00e1ndez Medina’s (MLA II) Thesis: \u201cEntre futuros\u201d reimagines the fixed border on the R\u00edo Bravo between Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez, Chihuahua, and El Paso, Texas. As the river shifted course, land disputes led to its channelization, leaving, since the 1930s, hundreds of cut-off meanders as \u201chydroghosts\u201d\u2014scars in both landscape and lived experience. These traces become a lens to argue that violent and rigid border-making fix an inherently fluctuating river landscape while erasing centuries of shared histories, memories, and identities.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n More<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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Lo Que Sabe el Barro: From Clay to Fire<\/a><\/h2> <\/header>\n
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This research by MCI Fellow Andrea Martinez traces extraction, craft, labor, and reuse across Oaxaca, Saltillo, and Mexico City. Rather than locating rupture between artisanal and industrial practice, it proposes a material continuum, a framework for understanding how ancestral knowledge is not lost but translated through landscapes, labor, and economies.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n More<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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Clay as Living Archive<\/a><\/h2> <\/header>\n
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What can a planner learn from a pot? MCI Fellow Lys Ot\u00e1rola (MUP \u201926) presents her 2025 research arguing that the pottery practice of Oaxaca\u2019s red clay communities constitutes a living archive of design intelligence, a system in which social infrastructure, embodied knowledge, communal governance, and ecological reciprocity are not separate concerns but a single, integrated practice. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n More<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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De la Porqueria al P\u00fablico \/ From Pigsty to Publics<\/a><\/h2> <\/header>\n
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MCI \u201925 Summer Fellows\u00a0Gemrisha Anantham and Miriam Hernandez Medina’s\u00a0research investigates the contamination of the Yucat\u00e1n Peninsula’s karst aquifer by the region’s pork industry, a project that shifted in direction after repeated access to pig farms, from small operations to major producers like Kek\u00e9n, was denied due to biosecurity protocols and producer wariness stemming from recent regulatory crackdowns.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n More<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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The Soft Infrastructure: How Textiles Define Mexico’s Spatial Memory and Identity<\/a><\/h2> <\/header>\n
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MCI ’25 Summer Fellows Savalee Jayendra Tikle and Romina Cordova Grados’s research centers on textiles as “soft infrastructure,” the cultural, spatial, and economic systems that quietly shape urban and rural life across Mexico. What began as an inquiry into supply chains and material culture shifted, through fieldwork, toward a deeper focus on the social role of textiles, particularly how embroidery and weaving passed through mother-daughter lineages structure women’s autonomy, livelihoods, and intergenerational power.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n More<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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Laura Janka Reflects on Urban Indexing and ABCDMXYZ<\/a><\/h2> <\/header>\n
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Laura Janka Reflects on Urban Indexing and ABCDMXYZ Laura Janka Zires is a former GSD student and member of the […]<\/p>\n <\/div>\n More<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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Avocado Urbanisms<\/a><\/h2> <\/header>\n
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Avocado Urbanisms Gerardo Corona is pursuing a Master of Architecture in Urban Design at Harvard GSD. He is an architect […]<\/p>\n <\/div>\n More<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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Aron Lesser Chats with Lorenzo Rocha about Public Spaces and Urban Planning Trends in Mexico City<\/a><\/h2> <\/header>\n
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Aron Lesser Chats with Lorenzo Rocha about Public Spaces and Urban Planning Trends in Mexico City Lorenzo Rocha is an […]<\/p>\n <\/div>\n More<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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A Social Infrastructural Node in Mexico\u2019s City Eastern Periphery<\/a><\/h2> <\/header>\n
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\u2018MCI\u2019 has served as the point of departure, to acquire a new understanding of the complex urban metabolisms related to […]<\/p>\n <\/div>\n More<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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2018 Fellows<\/a><\/h2> <\/header>\n
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2018 Fellows<\/p>\n <\/div>\n More<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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2017 Fellows<\/a><\/h2> <\/header>\n
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2017 Fellows<\/p>\n <\/div>\n More<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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2015 Fellows<\/a><\/h2> <\/header>\n
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2015 Fellows EN BICI: Hyperlocalized explorations of biking as a tool for urban resilience in Mexico City Carlos Hernandez-Tellez\u00a0|\u00a0Master in […]<\/p>\n <\/div>\n More<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/article>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RECENT POSTS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1218","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBlog - Mexican Cities Initiative<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/research.gsd.harvard.edu\/mci\/blog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blog - Mexican Cities Initiative\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"RECENT POSTS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/research.gsd.harvard.edu\/mci\/blog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mexican Cities Initiative\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-02T12:33:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/research.gsd.harvard.edu\\\/mci\\\/blog\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/research.gsd.harvard.edu\\\/mci\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Blog - 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