Spectacular Mexico

I've read a lot of books about Central America over the years, but for whatever reason I've read comparatively little about Mexico. So this month seemed as good a time as any to crack open Spectacular Mexico: Design, Propaganda, and the 1968 Olympics by Luis Castañeda, which I heard about on an episode of the always interesting 99% Invisible podcast.

Spectacular Mexico is a bit dense and I'm still working through it, but in these pages Castañeda gives us a fascinating look at Mexico's efforts to present itself to the world – on its own terms, sort of – half a century ago. I've always preferred the Summer Olympics to the Winter games, but on multiple occasions I had figure skating or half-pipe skiing on mute while reading this one.