No. 12 Gral. Francisco Ramírez is a pine door set in a ruthlessly plain cement wall on a pinched cul-de-sac in Mexico City, teetering on the edge of a freeway. The dark, narrow hallway leads visitors to a set of volcanic stone steps atop which another door, kept fastidiously shut, opens to a high-ceilinged entry flooded with soaring natural light. This commanding effect caused by the blink-inducing forced contrast of light and space is a signature flourish of the home’s visionary and former occupant, Pritzker prize–winning Mexican architect Luis Barragán.

Decolonization is now the buzzword in Brazil, and it will be over in a year probably, and then, I guess, we can take it for granted that we are decolonized, although genocide of indigenous peoples continues and usurpation of their lands too. Recently we had a conference about decolonization organized in a museum where local indigenous peoples were not invited to the first meeting.