Cultural Diversity through the Latin American Landscape

ASLA 2019 Professional General Design Honor Award. Sundance Square Plaza, Fort Worth, Texas. Michael Vergason Landscape Architects. / image: Sundance Square

ASLA’s celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month continues today with the second event in a free, four-part webinar series led by Latin American landscape architects:

The Spectacular Nature of the Ancient Mexico
Thursday, October 1, 2020, 3:00 p.m. (Eastern)
Recording now available

The series continues with On Social Urbanism and Reframing Spatial Design in Latin America on October 8 and Climate Change, Landscape, Cultural and Natural Heritage on October 15.

For more information on these webinars and our presenters and moderators—Ricardo Austrich, ASLA, María Bellalta, ASLA, Lina Escobar, Dr. Saúl Alcántara Onofre, and Ricardo Riveros—please visit ASLA’s Hispanic Heritage Month webpage.

Clockwise from top left: Ricardo Austrich, ASLA, Lina Maria Escobar Ocampo, Ricardo Riveros, Dr. Saúl Alcántara Onofre, María Bellalta, ASLA

For today’s webinar, Dr. Saúl Alcántara Onofre, Professor, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, and President, International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), México, will present the rich aspects of the Mesoamerican Pre-Hispanic people and their thoughts regarding the sacred vision of nature and the living souls of trees. In Ancient Mexico, trees held many religious connotations within indigenous cultures: the tree was a protector-being, a father, and the cosmos. Pre-Hispanic codices, created long before before the Spanish invasion in 1521, demonstrate the connection among humanity and nature and describe trees and birds as deities deserving respect and veneration.

Presentations are recorded and added to ASLA’s Vimeo library. See all recorded Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) and Heritage Month webinars here, including Latin American Landscapes, presented by Gabriel Díaz Montemayor, ASLA, for Hispanic Heritage Month last year.

For more Hispanic Heritage Month content and member highlights, follow ASLA on social media:

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