| The Plaza of the Three Cultures in Mexico City, known as La Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Spanish, symbolizes Mexico’s unique cultural heritage. Once the center of some of the most powerful Native American empires, represented by the ruins of an Aztec temple shown here in the foreground, Mexico became a flourishing Spanish colony in the 16th century, represented by the shell of a Spanish church shown in the center of the photograph. Today, most Mexicans are mestizos, or persons with mixed European and Native American ancestry. The modern housing project in the background represents this mixture of cultures. |