Source: Photographs by WTL© (2016) on site in Coyoacán, México.
Image: The façade of Coyoacán's Municipal House, also known as the Casa de Cortés. The building you see here was constructed in the late 18th century: the architecture is typical of the Mexican Enlightenment style.
Comments: Before Hernán Cortés and his Spanish conquistadors conquered Mexico City (1519-21), Coyoacán (Aztec => “place of coyotes”) was a small Aztec town on the south side of Lake Texcoco and seven miles south of the zócalo (central plaza) of Mexicdo City. Nowadays Coyoacán one of the sixteen boroughs (Spanish => (delegaciones) of Mexico City. In itself, Coyoacán is a lovely middle class town of artists and tourists with a population of about 700,000 people. It is is also famous for the homes there of Diego Rivera, Frida Kahla, and Leon Trotsky. Cortés established his battle headquarters in Coyoacán. In 1521 the town’s Tepanec people welcomed Cortés and helped him overthrow Moctezuma’s oppressive control over them. Cortés made Coyoacán New Spain’s first capital, and, in 1521-1522, he lived in the residence of the town's Tepanec leader, Juan de Guzmán Iztolinque (his name upon conversion). Furthermore, he constructed various Spanish colonial government buildings here. Shortly, thereafter, when he the king of Spain gave him the noble title of Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca, he built the administrative center for his vast land holdings, part of which was the Tepanec area of Coyoacán. A popular belief is that Cuauhtémoc, the Aztec’s last--and most heroic--emperor, was tortured here; although it is more likely that he was tortured and killed in Guatemala. For the plaques hidden by the two middle pillars, see: => Coyoacán #5 and Coyoacán #6.
Humanities Question: Describe the style of the façade of this historic building as a Latin American humanities artifact.