Inside Yucatán: Hidden Mérida and Beyond

Capturing both history and design, debut author/journalist Ordovás (contributing editor, Cabana) explores Mexico’s Yucatán state through sample haciendas. Each is introduced in a page of descriptive text and then illustrated through Taroni’s (Inside Tangier) photographs. Crafted to offer readers glimpses of locale and interior/exterior design, the book skims across Mayan, Spanish, and early 20th-century history to arrive at contemporary reclamations of historic spaces: houses formed around the foundations of older buildings, historic restoration efforts, modern updates to country estates and city homes. Taroni captures colors—from earth tones of ochre, soot, and stone—to bright pops of tiles, pools, and cascading light. Everywhere there is the eclectic (Catholic iconography mixed with neoclassical lighting), the whimsical (a tin windmill), and the strikingly transposed (a colonial stone pavilion lined with white veranda curtains).