Izamal, Mexico
	The town of Izamal, Yucatan, Mexico is representative of all that is characteristic of Latin America. Its ugliness is overwhelming. Scrub vegetation in the surrounding areas for miles have replaced the tropical forests. The huge mission and church built on a razed pyramid by the notorious Fray Diego de Landa in 1561 as a major Christian pilgrimage center is painted a lurid yellow. Not only are the church and mission painted this yellow but market, shop fronts and government buildings also. Filth and refuse is moved daily from one place to another by endless sweeping.        Cruelty is rife. Hundreds of dogs, no more than skin and bones, roam the streets. One, about to have puppies, tried to scrape up horse manure with her teeth where it was plastered to the street. Passersby were oblivious. Children, barely better off, in ever increasing numbers are left to beg or scrounge for whatever they can find. From both their ancestors, the indigenous Indians, the Maya, Aztec, Zapotec and other cultures and from the Spanish conquerors they are endowed with a propensity for cruelty.        Above it all hovers the shadow of devotion, whether it be to the Christian church with its shop for the sale of paraphernalia of "healing," forgiveness or fulfilling wishes or its pilgrims to be seen crawling up the steps on bare, bleeding knees or to the remaining Maya pyramid, which has so far escaped the yellow paint. The primary function of the church is to promote the creation of "souls" which it can control, with no regard for the body housing the soul. Superstition is the dominating force that determines the life and destiny of the inhabitants, oblivious to suffering, filth and ugliness, confident in the belief of a Utopian existence after death.