Dear Thomas, I’m Writing from Utopía

Overview

The first edition of “Utopia” by Thomas Moore was published in 1516. The book describes an unknown island in which there is no private property, social class distinction, or any vices of the XVI century European society. Over time, the term utopia, deriving from Greek etymology meaning “no-place”- has been widely used to describe everything from perfect societies to unreachable values and idyllic places. For that matter, (and probably in a more superficial way) it has been used in the names of various hotels and lodgings around the world, in which the utopian concept is associated with a place where people can escape to find wellness and pleasure. Traveling through different locations in China, Thailand, the United States, and Greece, Méndez Blake has visited some of these places with the intention of writing a letter to Thomas Moore from a place that is actually called Utopia and to imagine a series of fictitious visits to the island.