Editing Izamal (section)

==Modern history==
The town of Izamal was first granted the status of city by the government of Yucatán on 4 December 1841. On 13 August 1923 it was demoted to town status. It regained its status as a city on 1 December 1981.<ref name=encyclopedia>{{cite web |url=http://www.inafed.gob.mx/work/enciclopedia/EMM31yucatan/municipios/31040a.html |title=Izamal |language=es |website=Enciclopedia de los Municipios y Delegaciones de México |publisher=[[INAFED]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220710031952/http://www.inafed.gob.mx/work/enciclopedia/EMM31yucatan/municipios/31040a.html |archive-date=10 July 2022}}</ref>

For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, the [[henequen]] industry formed the basis of Izamal's economy. When that industry declined in the 1960s, the municipal and state government began efforts to turn Izamal into a tourist destination, transforming the city's appearance in the process.<ref name=estrella>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Izamal, Yucatán. ¿Tradición o invención? |encyclopedia=Pueblos mágicos: Una visión interdisciplinaria |year=2015 |language=es |last=Estrella Pozo |first=Juan Antonio |pages=45–62 |publisher=[[Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana|UAM]] Xochimilco, [[National Autonomous University of Mexico|UNAM]] |location=Mexico |isbn=9786070275869}}</ref> Izamal's buildings owe their distinctive color scheme to Jorge Carlos González Rodríguez, mayor of Izamal from 1959 to 1961,<ref name=encyclopedia/> who ordered the removal of the commercial signs that blighted the facades and rooftops of many buildings at the time, and the painting of those buildings in yellow and white.<ref name=estrella/><ref>{{cite news |date=13 January 2020 |url=https://www.yucatan.com.mx/editorial/2020/1/13/izamal-la-ciudad-amarilla-yucateca-161459.html |title=Izamal, la ciudad amarilla yucateca |language=es |newspaper=[[Diario de Yucatán]] |access-date=29 May 2023}}</ref> In 1965, [[Governor of Yucatán]] [[Luis Torres Mesías]] ordered the demolition of several buildings surrounding the San Antonio de Padua convent. He and his successor [[Carlos Loret de Mola Mediz]] also oversaw the conversion of Plaza Zamná from a public market into a park.<ref name=estrella/>

[[Pope John Paul II]] visited Izamal in August 1993, where he performed a mass and presented the statue of the Virgin with a silver crown.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.yucatanliving.com/news/yucatan-news-izamals-favorite-pope|title=Yucatan News: Izamal's Favorite Pope|website=Yucatanliving.com|access-date=14 October 2017}}</ref>