El Palacio de Hierro

This is the most beautiful department store I've ever seen! Unfortunately I don't know the history of the building, but it is in the Centro Histórico. The store itself seems to be pretty upscale, they have one in all the fancy areas of town and it carries the same expensive designers as a US department store, but this is pretty much the most beautiful Palacio de Hierro I've seen.

El Palacio de Hierro, Centro Histórico

El Zócalo & la Catedral Metropolitana

Zócaalo facing Cathedral

Zócalo facing Palacio Nacional

Building on the edge of the Zócalo

The first place you have to go when you visit Mexico City is always the Zócalo or the main square in the Centro Histórico of the city. It is the cultural and political center of the city, surrounded by the Catedral Metropolitana, the Palacio Nacional, and lots of other historical and governmental buildings. Any major events or protests take place in the Zócalo, and no photograph that I took could do justice to its enormity. It takes up an entire city block.

Catedral Metropolitana

One of the most fascinating things to me about this part of the city is that the Spaniards built their city center, Cathedral, etc. right over the Aztec's. So, just to the right of the Cathedral are the ruins of the Aztec's Templo Mayor. Also, just underneath the sidewalk in front of the cathedral they uncovered some old stairs. I wish I could tell you what they were from! Either the Spaniards or the Aztecs, but I didn't take a special tour that would have explained it. Sorry. Also, if you read the Wikipedia article that I linked to above, you can read about how the Cathedral was (and still is) sinking because—as you know—Mexico City was built on a lake. Apparently different parts were sinking at different rates which was obviously causing problems for those two towers you see in the picture. Apparently, they were able to stabilize it such that now the whole thing sinks at the same rate.

Stairs uncovered in front of Cathedral

Templo Mayor

Inside the Cathedral is impressive with marble and gold leaf decorations. Among the interesting things that I saw were the chapel for la Virgen de Guadalupe who one of the most important figures of the Mexican Catholic church. You can always tell it's her because she always has a blue-green mantle over her head and is surrounded by a yellow-golden halo. Also, there was a chapel to a saint of keeping secrets, and outside his chapel was a massive bundle of padlocks, just to seal the deal.

Central aisle

Main altar

Chapel to the Virgen de Guadalupe

Altar to the saint of keeping secrets! Lock it up!!

Mexico City is my archive

My first full day in Mexico City, I went with a new friend who is a historian to Mexico's national archives. The most fascinating thing to me about these archives is that they are housed in the Palacio Negro de Lecumberri which was formerly a Jeremy Bentham-style paniopticon. As you can see in the old photograph below, there were seven different wings that housed the prisoners, with the prison guards situated in the center such that the prisoners were always under surveillance. Online, I found a quote from a 1900 newspaper that said that "no ha faltado delincuente que declare preferir la pena de muerte, a la prisión en la Penitenciaria" (every single criminal [that was being transferred to the Palacio Negro] declared that they preferred the death penalty to the new penitentiary).  

Exterior of the Palacio Negro

Anyway, to me it's a fascinating and eerie place with a significant history (in many cases not flattering to those in power) that has now been—somewhat ironically—transformed into the national archives.

A lot of the people that I have met here work in this place all day long. Each wing of the former prison is a gallery in the archives where people spend hours and hours each day. One historian I met told me before she left town, "You just need to go down to the archives and hang out there." Sounds awesome, right? Aahh!! I can't think of anything worse! Archival research has its interesting elements, but who wants to sit in an archive all day when you are in Mexico City?

Old aerial photograph of the Palacio Negro

So, my job while I am here is to explore as much of the city as I can. Sometimes people say to me, "Why do you want to go there? There's nothing to see there." But that's not true! There is always something to see, and if it's not interesting, that's definitely something too. What is it about that place that isn't interesting? And why?

Anyway, in my next posts, I'm going to try to give you guys a glimpse at the different sections of the city that I have visited while I've been here.

Fondo de Cultura Económica

FCE's Rosario Castellanos bookstore

The Fondo de Cultura Económica is the biggest and most prestigious publisher in Mexico and they have several bookstores around the city. I have recently discovered that it is going to be a great place to get some reading done because it is free to sit there and read as long as you want (unless you want to buy some coffee...or books!) and relatively quiet. HOWEVER, this plan was foiled on my frist visit on Friday because it is a literature student's gold mine. I just could not sit still and read before I had explored the whole store! And as you can see, that's no small feat.

Inside the FCE

During my explorations, I found a bunch of novels about Mexico City—from some of my favorite authors as well as some new ones—that I hope will be valuable as I write my prospectus and begin to work on my dissertation.

 

Reading List!!

Here is look at the books that I have bought. Each of these were about $10 cheaper than what I would have been able to buy them for in the US (if they are even available), so it looks like this trip is paying off! (Can you find all the guns hidden in this picture?)

Edificios Condesa

Looking east on Calle Pachuca (toward apt)

Front door to apartment D7

The building that I am staying in is called "Edificios Condesa" and consists of 3 separate buildings that occupy a city block. I have been told that these were the first apartment buildings in the city plus they managed to survive the 1985 earthquake without a scratch. One of my favorite parts of the building and the area in general are all of the beautiful, old trees.
                                                                   

Down from the front door

I am staying with a woman from the United States who has lived in Mexico for about 50 years and in this building for something around 20-25 years. We are up on the third floor which is only a problem because Mexico City is situated over 7,000 feet above sea level (2,000 feet higher than Denver). But the good part about being on the top floor, of course, is the view! My bedroom looks out over the tops of the trees so that I get sunshine and greenery. The bonus is a view of the Castillo de Chapultepec in Chapultepec Park / Forest, which is the castle where the Emperor Maximiliano and his wife Carlota—Mexico's only monarch—lived during the 1860s.

View from my window, looking north-ish

Castillo de Chapultepec in the distance

I feel really lucky to have a big sunny window and a great view! I have not spent a lot of time in Chapultepec Park yet, but am hoping to walk around and visit the Castillo tomorrow!


My room is almost exactly opposite the sterile empty apartment that I stayed in when I was in Mendoza two summers ago. There are lots of personal touches, beautiful old fixtures (like doors and molding), and wifi!! The bed is a little hard on my back (it's really just a foam pad on a wooden platform) but it could be worse!

My desk

Desk, window, bed

Bed

Arrival - Mexico City, the Distrito Federal

Well, here I am! For those of you who have been wondering why it's taken so long for me to let everyone know how I'm doing, my apologies! Mexico City is certainly a force to be reckoned with and it's taken me several days to get my bearings. For those of you who didn't know I was gone, I'm in Mexico City and will be here until July 24. I hope that I can share some interesting information with y'all about the city and my adventures.

I arrived last Tuesday, a day later than planned because the Volcano Popocatépetl was letting off a little steam, canceling all flights to the city on Monday night. The exciting thing about arriving on Tuesday was that a weekly market that takes place right outside my apartment building! It was a bit of an obstacle course to get all my luggage past the various vendors and their stalls, but after I had settled in, I went down to check it out.

Unfortunately, photos will never do it justice because to me the most striking thing about this market are the smells of fruits, vegetables, and spices: plátanos, apples, guanábana, papaya, cherries, cantaloupe, tomatoes, avocados, broccoli, cilantro, lettuce, tortillas, and all sorts of spices... I could go on and on. There is also a lot of stuff that I don't even know what it is. I don't have pictures of the market yet, but will post when I do. For now, you can see that the google satellite view of my street was taken on market day! All the red tents are vendor stalls. My apartment is in the middle of the block on the right-hand side.  

One of the fun things to me about walking through the market is the way they market their goods to you. Every vendor that you walk past will shout out ¡güera incredible green beans for sale! or ¡güerita have some fresh, amazing potatoes! I am never sure if I should politely acknowledge each one and say "no, thank you," or if I should just ignore them given the impracticalities of saying no to everyone. They also walk around with samples for you to try and I have to say that I have never tasted a better banana or cantaloupe than I did at the market downstairs. Their marketing worked, because I bought some right away.

The cool thing about these markets is that they are called tianguis and they are the traditional markets that have been held in Mexico for centuries, since the time of the Aztecs when Mexico City was Tenochtitlán and constructed in the center of a lake.

  

Walk to school

So here's a glimpse of my walk to school each morning. Since my class starts at 8:30am it's usually dark when I leave so these pictures were taken in the afternoon.

1) The apartment building. The balcony closest to the foreground is ours.

2) Out the gate at the bottom of the stairs and headed toward Calle San Juan.

3) As I turn onto San Juan, I always pass the same man sitting on this doorstep and every day he stares at me because I'm usually running to make it to class on time.

4) The furthest building away with the green facade is a dance club (boliche) called the Apeteco. It's the easiest way to tell people where I live because everyone seems to know it, whether they admit to going there or not. I went to check it out with Giselle last Saturday and when I asked for a margarita, they gave me a vodka on the rocks.

5) This store on the corner always confuses me because they have hung a gigantic temperature gauge outside to advertise their business---they sell auto parts of some sort. From a distance, I always think it's a clock that can tell me what time it is (and whether I'm going to be late). When I realize it's not a clock but a temperature gauge, I think that it might tell me what the current temperature is. But, it doesn't read the actual temperature so I am consistently frustrated by its uselessness. (Note: If I really need to know the time, I peek into stores along my route until I find one that has a clock on the wall that I can see from the street.)

6) Now we're just a couple blocks from school. On your right is a secondary school. Don't try to walk by around 6 or 7pm because you will get stuck trying to navigate through a mass of adolescents.

7) Every morning I stop at this panadería for a factura (except for the mornings when I am desperately late or going to the gym after class). If I don't get a factura in the morning, I stop by in the afternoon for an alfajor. They also have the best bread on the block.

8) The supermercado is one of the only things open late on Saturday or (at all) on Sunday. If you have not planned your food shopping well, you can make a desperate stop here for some basics. However, they do not sell fruits or veggies.

9) And here we are! This is the Intercultural where I have my classes each day.

Chanti

Last Tuesday, a friend invited me to go to a presentation by a local cartoonist named Chanti (Santi is short for Santiago, Chanti is how a young child would pronounce it). In preparation, I borrowed a couple of Chanti's books which include the Mayor y Menor series, Misión + Cota, and El Futre. They are pretty funny and quite creative. Tuesday's presentation launched the 4th book in the Mayor y Menor series about little boy and his baby brother.

What I didn't know was that the audience would be made up of about 85% kids, 14% parents, and a 1% minority that were unattached to children (which was really just me and the two other people I was with).

The artist drew some sample cartoons for us, talked about the inspiration for the characters in his story (nieces and nephews), and answered some astute questions from children in the audience (e.g. why does the little brother only think his comments, but never talk? do you ever get bored with drawing?).

For me, the most exciting part of the presentation was at the end when they held a drawing to give away posters and books to the kids (and maybe one adult)---and I won a poster! When I went up on stage to claim my prize, I was the only adult in line with a bunch of 10 year olds and towered above of everyone around me. Regardless, I got a poster signed by the author! Now I just need to clear a space in my office...

Challenge: can you find me in the crowd?

Día del Ambiente

Last Sunday (June 5th) I went to a concert in the Parque Central that was organized for the Día del Ambiente to protest the establishment of a big gold mining projects in the region. From what I have been told these projects, funded by North American capital, began in Peru and have been making their way south over the last several years (decades?). However, they are short-sighted in that they boost employment in a given town for about a decade until the mines have been depleted and then leave a ghost town behind. The other major problem is that the mining process requires a lot of water (which is already scarce in this part of the country) and presents serious environmental risks.

Given the population and agriculture in the region, there are already significant water distribution issues in Mendoza. The concert protested the big mining projects and emphasized their potentially devastating environmental impact. These are several signs and banners that protest the proyecto megaminero.

The concert featured a series of musical groups, bands, and singers.

This chorus of men dressed up like drops of water and sang a song that reminded the audience about their daily need for clean water and criticized the politicians that prioritize short-term economic growth over the long-term stability of the region.

Despite the fact that it was cold and dreary outside, it was an interesting way to spend my Sunday afternoon. The crowd included families, young people, and just like in the U.S., hippies. I saw lots of people drinking mate and even though it's not my favorite drink, I would have loved to have had some to keep me warm. By the time it started to get dark, I had to leave and unfortunately missed the band that I had initially wanted to see (Pucha che!), but the party was just getting started. Here is the scene as I began my walk home.