The pictures I looked at were of different houses across Yucatan. Most of them seemed to be taken by professional photographers; the houses were very extravagant, and the architecture was intricate and exuded wealth. They reminded me of a museum I went to called Museo Casa Montejo, where there were rooms from colonial times, and they had objects that real families used at the time. Looking at the pictures made me think of the concept behind taxidermy and preserving the past. These rooms and the photos that were part of the archive became history, even though they were lived in. It reminded me a lot of the Merida we see today and how that could be part of history that future generations could only visualize through a photo. Technology has improved our ability to see the past clearly, but parts of history can no longer be experienced. For example, many young Merida locals will only remember Plaza Grande for what it will be after the renovation, not before. Years later, individuals will see how Plaza Grande looked in the past only through photos. While the visual aspect is captured, the experience itself is not. That is how I felt when I looked at the pictures of the houses and compared them with my visit to the museum. I was certainly looking at how they lived and where they lived, but I can never understand what it was like.
