mexico as i remember it

8/3/2019 Mexico as I remember it.

1/184


2/184


3/184


4/184


5/184


6/184


7/184

Somewhere between the blood from the news and the sand on the beaches lies aplace where life actually happens, a space where people develop theirexistences through the good, the bad and the boring. That is the place I used tolive in, that is the Mexico I remember and that is what Ill show here.The images youre about to see have been taking without many formal considerations,

they were shot while doing something else. These images have a sense of urge and animpression of movement; these pictures are not trying to hide or to sell anything.

However, it would be wrong to say that this work intends to have a universal approach;it is definitively biased for it is a partial view; this is my view of the events, this is whatwent through my eyes, and if some of the images have not been captured by me, itchanges nothing. Ive chosen pictures for moments when I was there, made by peoplewho shared thoughts and space with me, by the ones who shared the same vision andconcept with me.

So go carefully through this pages as this is not a showcase of technical brilliance; this isan attempt to display a different vision of Mexico: the vision of the Mexican.


8/184


9/184


10/184


11/184

It is only logical to start by the beginning. By an old city where you may find the firstlibrary and the first theatre in the Americas, lets start by the city I was born. Its namewas originally Puebla de los ngeles which stands for city of angels; after the centuriesthe name got shortened and it remained just as the city although for many it is still theAngelopolis.


12/184

The traditional design for the first square on Mexican cities is followed here by thebook. Theres a park in the middle of the city right between the cathedral and thepalace of the municipality. In times of old this was the place to see and to be seen;

now it is often visited by families on weekend and by tourists all year round.


13/184

Often the central streets are closed to motorised traffic for the pedestrians to enjoythe place freely and also as a mean to diminish the air pollution.


14/184

The old street names are preserved along the current ones as a token of authenticity,despite the fact that the movement in the city has changed. The old houses are nowcommercial spaces. You can now buy shoes where three hundred years ago it used tobe a rich living room.


15/184

Through the tight streets flanked by heavy centennial structures one can always findthe projects of optimistic entrepreneurs that attempt to have a slice of the touristsmoney.


16/184

Much of the centre is made out of recycled spaces, houses that became shops, hallsturned into museums and even factories turned into restaurants.


17/184

There are also examples of longevity through adaptation. This is Plaza Dorada, itwas the first massive shopping centre in the city and it should be around forty yearsnow, surviving by mutations that have happened according to the needs of its market.


18/184

Although the city has grown to every direction, there are still very conservativegroups and furthermore, people who believe theyre free minds in a city with morethan four hundred catholic churches.


19/184

Puebla is a place with genius, where an old industrial building, such as waterpurifying facilities, can overcome their poor beginning and become a worldrenowned luxury hotel.


20/184

Away from the centre the city keeps on growing. The land keeps on getting expensiveand the people never stop to feel alienated.


21/184

One of the good things that come with new zones is that they have no need topretend. Here there are commercial spaces which are far from the regular shoppingcentres where the people spend their time watching things theyre not going to buy.The new owners have learned that they can make a better business offering a widechoice of restaurants and places that will actually attract customers every day.


22/184

There are commercial centres of every shape and size as everywhere. There, thebiggest one is one that attempted to portray a miniature city, a small collection ofparadigms of its contemporary architecture. Even the name guides us to this concept,its called Angelpolis.


23/184

On the megalomaniac race the retailers arent exactly second. Many fashion storesare big enough to swallow airliners; and no, theyre not outlet stores. Theyre the realdeal.


24/184

Inside the malls is the same old story, the rent law is followed and the retail space ismaximised until it leaves nothing but these narrow walkways for the potentialshoppers to find how theyre going to lose their hardly earned money next.


25/184

The public space is sprayed with monuments; it is easy to spot fountains, towers andstatues everywhere. Many of them were gifts from friendly governments, but the mostare making reference to the city symbols and legends as in this case the ChinaPoblana fountain.


26/184

In the city of angels some of them look forward to the future, to the city that is notthere yet.


27/184

There are also others which provide a contemporary view in the middle of centennialplaces.


28/184


29/184


30/184


31/184

When, in June 2011, thousands of Spanish speakers worldwide chose the word thatthey considered to be the most beautiful in their language something unexpectedhappened. The word chosen was not part of everyones life or reality, furthermore, itwas not even a Spanish word; the chosen one was Queretaro.

According to some un-witty Spaniard the meaning of Queretaro is The blue salamanderisland but through the years I lived there I knew no one who was aware of thatmeaning. There are no salamanders and the place is far (very far) from being anisland. The word actually comes from the Tarascan K'erendarhu, which means place ofbig boulders a fact that can be proven by the nearby Bernals Boulder, as it is the third-tallest monolith in the world, just to start with.

The city is a nice place to live if you can stand the dry weather and the unforgivingly hotspring season. Its a place known for its cultural opportunities and for its old aqueduct.


32/184

Queretaro City is the head of the homonymous municipality and the capital of thestate with the same name. It is a very conservative place according to Mexicanstandards; here the life is heavily attached to the past and traditions, there are stillstrong family links and other such things. It is also a city which attracts people from

all the country and there are also foreigners who find it like a nice place to settle.According to some, this is the best place to live in Mexico.


33/184

Here the centuries are overlapped and they cross everywhere. Recently this processhas been stopped when a whole district of the city got protected by the UNESCO onthe grounds that it is of huge cultural interest and therefore it should belong toeveryone.


34/184

Theres a little known fact about Mexico and immigrants. The difference betweenregions inside the country is sometimes so big that it looks like if they were differentcountries. While I was living in Queretaro I got to know some groups of migrantworkers that had travel from the south of the country. They were there to earn money

making roads and other public works. They liked to go there because the salaries aremuch higher and the living conditions are better as well.


35/184

There is another group of migrants there. The quietness and the loveliness of thehistoric places around Queretaro make the zone attractive for retired foreigners whoare looking for a place to spend their recently reacquired freedom.


36/184

The senior citizens in Queretaro tend to be lively, maybe due to the weather I dontknow. But dont let that confuse you; theyre still part from an older generation whichfrowns upon the everyday activities of our days.


37/184

This city is also a place full of university students from all around the globe. Thenightlife is a never-ending party, it is an everyday festivity for everyone; and if theclubs, bars, cantinas and everything is starting to close (very late or very early in themorning) theres always someone giving place for an after-party and an after-after-

party and so on.


38/184

Such a lifestyle has a good side for the non-involved ones as well. The fact thatevery place is full with people only wanting to party makes the centre to be a saferplace that one might think. Yes, is not a saints place so I wouldnt recommend you togo out without caution but it is a place where you can part safely all night.


39/184

To this point I may have to clear-up something. In Mexico, alcohol consumption isrelated to social events and festivities. It is normal to have a beer in company but todrink it alone is frowned upon. Other aspect of this behaviour is that alcoholconsumption is not often related to ones house or even to drink while eating. Of

course you can have something while youre dining but its almost limited to wine,which is not very common either. In short: despite its popularity, alcohol there carries aheavy social stigma.


40/184

Several cities have a feeling that can be interpreted by a colour, some feel blue,black, white, gray... for me Queretaro is a very yellow city, and one doesnt need tohave synaesthesia to understand my point.


41/184

This yellow city suffers one of the most typical urban problems in Mexico: rents are ashigh as the sky for the central spaces. One, very ugly, way to solve it is to break thebuilding into smaller spaces and then to rent them separately. Although far fromideal this is normal since almost nobody would rent such buildings as theyre huge and

impractical. They were designed as houses, not as retail spaces.


42/184

One can only wonder how rich were the people who lived in a space which nowhouses a shoe store, a coffee shop, two restaurants, a hotel and something else in thefar corner.


43/184

This transformation is normal in the whole district. The best houses are now used forcommercial purposes. Many can rent a huge viceregal palace there, but few wouldactually live it.


44/184

By now I believe that youve noticed a fact. Almost all of these images have beentaken in the same district. Theres a reason for that; I was living there, I used to buybread nearby the place where this photo was taken, I met with friends there as well,often I went to a caf that is in the same square of this picture. This was the last

place I got to live there in Queretaro, and by far, this is the one I liked the most.


45/184

This place has public works going almost all the time. One of the most conspicuous isthe hiding of the electricity cables from the view. Theres still a lot to do on thataspect.


46/184

Queretaro is a strange city which gives even the natives an opportunity to be touristsin it.


47/184

Queretaro is a strange city where lots of look-a-like zombies may parade andgather in front of the municipality building leaving the rest of the population towonder about their reasons.


48/184

The city offers the expected amount of kitsch places filled-up with the Mexicanclichs and stereotypes that the foreign tourist is looking for.


49/184

...but it is usual that the actual inhabitants will be able to find the cheapest placesavailable to fulfil their alimentary needs.


50/184

It is said around the globe that a lot of people in Mexico is very good-looking.Which is not false entirely, the situation is that in the country there are a lot ofinhabitants, so it is easy to look anywhere and find people that could easily belongto the pages of a fashion magazine. But this makes the rest of the normal

population to look rather unattractive.


51/184

Theres another idea about Mexicans which is true, at least in Queretaro. People arenice and friendly, or thats at least my experience there.


52/184

Maybe everyone has a certain sense of pride about the place they were born orwere grown. Nevertheless it sometimes feels artificial, in Queretaro it is believable.There are people actually taking care of their city and feeling part of it. It doesnthappen everywhere. Perhaps it is motivated by the immigration which marks some

people as the originals.


53/184

The organic growth of the early city gave place to lots of alleys and crooked streetswhere the new wanderers may get lost.


54/184

It happened this way. I was having a coffee on a balcony when out of nowhere thesepeople starting to cross by the street; they were dancing and doing things. After thatI asked what was happening but nobody was entirely sure of the reason.


55/184

Here we are outside the largest library in the city (not pictured) waiting to the startof a parade that was organized and managed in such a way that it appeared as avery successful impromptu.


56/184

Not everything in Mexico is colourful; as a matter of fact, most of things tend to bemonochromatic. Here we see an average house for the not-so-well-off middle classes.The housing there is limited by the wish to have a garden and a parking space;which creates terrible urban problems when the developers try to give the potential

customers everything they want.


57/184

Most of the countrys cities are using a larger amount of land than they should. All thetime new zones appear in the middle of nowhere to cover the need for furtherhousing. This is obviously giving everyone a headache because nobody can cope withthis kind of growth. But it will never change if the people do not understand that the

single-family housing is not intrinsically better than an apartment in a residentialtower.


58/184

I know it is hard to find an apartment there because thats what I wanted when Iarrived to Queretaro. Nevertheless I ended up living in this neighbourhood which,although was not bad, was very far from everything else.


59/184

At the beginning it didnt matter much since I was travelling a lot all the time, but Ifinally got tired of not having a chance to live the city I was living in.


60/184

Queretaro is a good place to have friends, is a good city to socialize. Its got its badpoints when it comes to the conservatism but overall is a more than pleasant place tobe in.


61/184

This is a place which, at least within the foreseeable future, will never let its past todrift behind. It will always be proud of what its been. Not even its brilliant present isable to change this fact. The aeronautical companies installed there are not even inthe way to shadow the ancient legends and the stone monuments for which the city is

renowned.


62/184

This is a city which was born baroque and will stretch the style until its strangestconsequences.


63/184

This is a city that you must live to start to understand.


64/184


65/184


66/184


67/184

One thing I have to say: this was the first in a series of unexpected changes. When I

moved to this region I wasnt expecting anything. I was going from one of the mostimportant cities in the country to the fourth poorest state.

Pachuca is its capital, a small town by the Mexican perspective. But it doesnt escapefrom the tourism, which in this case is attracted by the so-called natural beauties, givingseveral alternatives for sports and eco-tourism. Besides that, theres nothing else to do inthe region. This is the state which loses population faster due to emigration and that isone of the reasons why people from all around the country are summoned to fill thespaces needed for the region to be productive.


68/184

Its going to be hard to write about this place, the thoughts will always be floatingand trying to find something better, nicer places to wander around. But Ill make mybest trying to describe the experience of the place where I spend my teenage yearsand a bit more.


69/184

Lets start with the nice things. This is a clean place on the mountains; there are lots ofvehicles but not enough to make the sky change its tones. The weather is gentle; itnever gets to hot in summer and despite the fact that in winter one must wake upearlier to clean up the ice from the cars windscreen there will always be sun bymidday.


70/184

The birth and disease of the city come from the same source. The adjacent mountainsand the city itself have silver in their veins. For the last five centuries its extraction hasbeen the main income source for the region. One might think that this should havemade the region a rich place. The problem is that it is too close to Mexico City, soclose that in fact the town was more like the workers city and the management wasoccurring elsewhere; not to mention the time that the mines were worked by slavesand the resources where stolen and carried overseas.


71/184

Throughout the city theres a sense of underachievement, almost nobody wants tomake things for their own region, the natives want to go out and forget about theirland. Despite so, there are people investing in the growth of the zone, mostly theycome from any other place. Theyre the ones who are accountable for the advance ofthe town.


72/184

Pachuca is a hard place to socialize. It is uncommon to form relevant links with theoriginals since theyre strange people; they are not even likely to recognise you bythe streets it doesnt matter if youve worked with them every day for the past tenyears. It would be foolish to generalise on any human-related aspect, but it is notunfair to say that people there is un-pretty on every sense.


73/184

This kind of behaviour has further consequences. This region is the one having thehighest alcoholism index in the country which also leads to many road accidents andother related misdemeanours.


74/184

Lets now talk about something nicer. The best-known business in the town is itsfootball club (which by nickname and mascot theyve got a gopher or tuzo inSpanish). This company has placed the town in the mind of all the Mexicans and hasbuilt several things around the city; most notoriously a university, a convention centreand the pictured hotel.


75/184

Its almost comic the fact that this capital hasnt got many relevant structures. As sit ofthe states government it should be a bit shinier; although thinking on the aspect of thegovernments building thats something very unlikely to happen. Nevertheless, and toput an accent into the comic, there are some houses, like this one, which echo adreadful Mexican style; one which is called in scorn Charrigueresco (a portmanteaubetween Churrigueresco, which is the denomination of an ultra-baroque style andcharro, a typical Mexican countryman) the trademark style of the new riches from thefirst half of the past century.


76/184

Although little, the town has everything for a normal living; its got everything fromrestaurants to coffee shops, theatres and other venues. Im not saying that it has atrue cultural life, actually is very far from that, because it doesnt try to have either.The centuries pass and its still a workers town.


77/184

The few commercial-focused streets in the town contain the basic services andfranchises that everyone knows.


78/184

Pachuca is not a town of nice views or important monuments. Here the basic mattersare the only ones that truly matter.


79/184

It wouldnt be completely unfair to say that it doesnt have a feel of proper identityas every part of its culture can be found as a piece of the surrounding ones.


80/184

The symbol of the city is a piece of architecture that it was outdated before it got tobe built. A clock tower that is now a little over a hundred years old; a monument thatwas built when the world was going through the modernist revolution, yet it is morelike a historicist cry.


81/184

One of the aftershocks from the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City was that many ofthe inhabitants who could move out from the capital did it; then again, being this avery close town, many went to live to Pachuca. During this period the city grew and itcan be noticed by the look of the buildings everywhere. Here you can see the mostpopular food market, a place where many independent retailers can sell their

production; although lately its more about intermediaries.


82/184

I might be hard on the town pointing all its problems, but this is not exactly a goodplace to settle. It is hard to do anything when youve got to build everything on aslope.


83/184


84/184

The feeling of emptiness flows through the streets and still it is able to fill all of thesepages.


85/184

But this same lack of density makes it an apt place for the un-motorised ones.


86/184

There are little commercial spots scattered all around, dating from any and everytime. Its not uncommon to find them nearby the residential zones where the smallentrepreneurs can start their business.


87/184

Another way for business there is the nomad one. There are people who go on sellingtheir production at fairs and regional shows. Also it is common to find them at thereligious celebrations just as this baker is doing in December.


88/184

Theres something typical in the centre of Mexico that maybe is only shared with thenearby regions although in different shapes; this something is the concept of nightfood. Although the translation would be dinner, it is something far from that; in factthe closest synonym is little cravings (from the Spanish antojitos) that again wouldbe badly translated everywhere as simply snacks.


89/184

After partying one can head to one of these establishments which are sellingtraditional food. Theyre called taqueras for its bestselling product are the tacos.So whats that? Is very simple to explain, a taco is not precisely a dish, but a way toeat. It is a tortilla rolled over whatever you want to put inside; you could make asugar taco, a pork taco, an avocado taco, or a taco out of some very sophisticated

dishes, it doesnt matter what it is as much as how you eat it.


90/184

There and everywhere the traditions and the uses are mixed, thats unavoidable insuch a multicultural country. You can see people celebrating their Christian gods withPrehispanic ways.


91/184

Is not like it matters, I guess, the people there has a predisposition to worship withoutmuch consideration on the subject.


92/184

Ill continue with the town. Its well connected by every side except the north wherethere are only two roads going up the mountain range, one of which is actually on aneighbouring municipality. There used to be a rail service connecting the city, but nowthe country has given up the idea and the inland trips are covered by motorways,except for a thin 3% which is the portion covered by the airlines, speaking of which;

the city has only one airport that is mostly used by private flights and a flying school.


93/184

The town as it is now had its beginning as a monastic estate; a piece of landcultivated by a bunch of followers of St. Francis of Assisi, which among their pioustasks was to enslave the people living nearby and prosecute their culture untilextermination. They were lucky that by their time the terms crimes against humanityand genocide hadnt made their way into the penal codes and regulations of their

time.


94/184

After the years the monastic estate got fractioned, several pieces of it disappearedwith the time, most notably the ones dedicated to agriculture exploitation. Thesurviving ones were transformed and changed their uses. This one here was part ofthe military quarters by the beginning of the twentieth century, after that it becamethe regional museum and now is an art gallery.


95/184

Another piece of the first settlement is now the arts school which also includes adecent theatre.


96/184

Here we can see what sometimes happens with the past, theres people feelinguncomfortable with it, but they cant make it disappear. They try to disguise it, theygive it a new face; they turned a poor building where slavery happened andchanged the faade to make it reborn into an art building.


97/184

Now you can find around the place one of the most important collections ofphotography of the continent, a large archive containing samples from the very startof that art in Mexico to our days.


98/184

But not everything is old there. Few years ago the Jewish community finished (notquite finish as finish finish) a project which involved the construction of a library, atheatre, a museum and some sort of school, these last both are still unfinished. Theproject also included one of those megalomaniac caprices. They built a 32,000 m2mosaic floor which by the time they said it was the worlds largest. I dont know if to

believe or not.


99/184

They havent finished yet but the spaces built are quite good for... well, many thingsas theyre empty most of the time.


100/184

On historical terms is a very boring place, not a hero, not an uprising, it nevercradled ground-breaking ideas. Hidalgos name was given after one of the foundingfathers of the nation which was not born on the region; the statue pictured depictsthe president who decreed the foundation of the state who, then again, was from thesouth. Even the guy who manages their beloved football club is from Veracruz State.


101/184

Their religion and true hopes are based on a team of mostly illiterate males playinga ball through a green field. This region is intoxicated with the game; it is not rare tosee whole families dressed up with their team colours on any given day. Therestaurants flood with people shouting at a telly screen whenever theres a game.Furthermore, the streets are empty when the squad that leads their lives is playing. It

is almost obvious then that the average inhabitant would like to imitate their idols.Thats why many amateur leagues are happening at any time, many men dressed upwith their own team colours go to face another squad any day after work.


102/184

Living there has all the disadvantages of a little town with few of the good things ofbigger cities. Its hard to avoid gossip; it is impossible to have any privacy but it iseasy to find parking places, unless you try the centre since the one asked to trace thestreets may as well have suffered Parkinson and had never seen a car.


103/184

I wouldnt say that its a safe place; there are huge differences betweenneighbouring zones. You can walk from a safe one to a deadly one just by crossingthe street.


104/184

Going out from the city is a good idea, but you can also find some interesting piecesof unintended design. After several centuries of mining the processed earth thatcame out from the mines had to go somewhere, and so there are some areas ofprocessed sand around the town. Some are being removed to build new residentialareas, the stadium was carved in one of those. Still you can find these artificial

deserts and use them for recreation, although the growth is threatening these trulyweird and amazing places.


105/184

These places are strange, sometimes very empty, and sometimes full of peopleparagliding, doing motocross, practicing any sort of sports that the space allows.Apparently the people in the region make things better when theyre not trying to doanything at all.


106/184

Who would think that a dump could be so attractive?


107/184

There are even smaller towns in the state. This particular one, Tula, has an interruptedstory. It was home of an ancient culture which was famous for its artists, they left thearea due to environmental problems which back then were only related to farmingand weather. Thats the only thing that hasnt changed; although now theenvironmental problems are due to a refinery thats the only serious source of income

in the town.


108/184

As the refinery part might not be very interesting (since it is there only becausetheres a river passing by) Ill point towards the Toltec civilization.


109/184

It is hard to picture, but this people belonged to a very old moment, so ancient thateven for the Mayans and the Aztecs the Toltecs were very much like a legend. One ofthe most notorious aspects of their history is that they, arguably, built one of thebiggest surviving urban centres of the old Mesoamerican civilizations: Teotihuacan.But in their first stage they inhabited this little city which is better known for the

remaining columns of this temple which after the loss of its roof left them like statuesof ancient warriors.


110/184

Mineral del Monte is another little town very close to Pachuca. Its a village markedby the mining as it was the focus of the production.


111/184

This town is up the mountains, with foggy nights and winding streets. It is a popularplace for its old constructions and its simple but colourful style.


112/184

Strange for such a tiny population (just over 10,000) theyve got some traditionaldishes, or bakery, that is well known; although part of it debts its existence to theEnglish pastries.


113/184

This is a nice little town that doesnt know the meaning of a straight street.


114/184


115/184


116/184


117/184

The great Tenochtitlan has gone through several transformations and changes duringits almost seven centuries of existence. The legend says that the wandering Aztecswere looking for a sign to build their city; they were looking for the symbols that,according to their cosmovision, indicated the centre of the universe. After long years theyfound them in the middle of a lake on an island; they saw an eagle eating a snake or afish (it depends on whos telling the story) and it was standing over a prickly pears cactus.

Currently it is the fifth largest urban agglomeration, the eighth wealthiest metropolis andan alpha global city. Not so bad for a place where the richest man in the world sharesspace with thousands of homeless people, where some Nobel laureates and manyilliterates feel at home. This is one of those cities who claim to have it all, just that this

one may be a little bit closer from telling the truth.


118/184

Theres a reason behind the anachronism that is present on all the monuments fromthe beginning of the twentieth century and it is a dictatorship. Some guy, whose namewas Porfirio Diaz, was a fancy president that stayed in the power around 30 years,pretty much like in the Arab countries, and he loved so much the neoclassic style thathe made his best efforts to fill the country with it.


119/184

Thankfully a revolution stopped him from making his nouvelle riche dreams to cometrue. He was deposed after a long and painful social revolution leaving many of hisworks unfinished, just like this one. The palace of fine arts was completed after therevolution which makes it an awkward structure; with an old exterior and a moderninterior. This building houses several museums as well as the most important operastage in the country.


120/184

There are some vices present everywhere in Mexico; one of them is the distortion ofthe past, making the original settlers the subject of the most romantic legends andusing their aesthetics as a symbol of communion with the past.


121/184

This place holds a large permanent collection of mural paintings from the mostimportant Mexican artists implied in the genre; also on the upper floors theres thenational architecture museum and all around the front part of it there are galleryspaces for temporary exhibitions. It also houses a library, some souvenir stores and acaf.


122/184

This zone comprised between the park known as Alameda and the main square(officially named Constitutions Square, but known as everyone Zocalo) is marked bythe contrast of the centuries, many palaces from the viceroyalty are still standingwhile some others have been giving place to newer and newer constructions. It wouldnot be exaggerated to say that Mexico City is one of the few places where you canwitness the pass of the centuries at a glance.


123/184

But not only the progress endangers the ancient icons, theyre also put at risk by thelack of knowledge that ruled the time they were built. Many of these structures arecrumbling because of the nature of the soil. Not everywhere of the modern city isover a lake, but the original places certainly are; the soil is soft and muddy and isswallowing the buildings little by little.


124/184

First and second of November are marked by a festivity which is perhaps the mostimportant syncretised celebration in the country, the day of the death ones.Nevertheless, it is stronger in the place where the original ideas came from, wherethey were actually celebrating death in times of old. And guess what, that placesincluded the then called Tenochtitlan.


125/184

The Mexicas, the founders of the city and often called also Aztecs (a point whichneeds a long explanation), created an empire through war and agriculture, anobvious but often overlooked fact. The most important temple of their city wasdedicated to a couple of deities which were related with this pair of aspects and intheir downtown they had a tzompantli. This is a monument made by skulls racked andforming an oblong block. It sounds gory but thinking on ancient Rome and theirblood for fun I believe that the old civilizations were not as sensitive over thesematters as we are now.


126/184

The original celebration was implying that some day of the year the spirits of theancestor returned to the world of the living for a night, so they had to preparesomething special. It was a moment of rejoice to be able to share again with theloved ones so their favourite dishes were prepared, they were offered the best ofthe treats; they were trying to give joy to those who were already in the land of thedeath.


127/184

Then when the Spaniards took over the place they noticed that it was a tradition toohard to erase. Therefore they decided to modify it and give it a more catholiccharacter.


128/184

After all this mixing the Mexicans grew with a distorted sense of death making it aparody, a part of a comedy as it had lost all of its religious and symbolic value.


129/184

That makes easy to overlook that background when watching Mexican expressionsbut this duality between life and death and the blurry value of them, makes themeasy material for many creations. We see here a garden made with used oil barrelsand discarded tyres, also of importance is to note that its placed on a space that hasnot been green for hundreds of years.


130/184

This city has always been a pioneer in its area when it comes to architecture. In thispicture we can see on the front the first attempt to build a skyscraper in Latin-American and behind it the Latin-American tower, which was the tallest structure inthe region many years after its construction.


131/184

It is often said that Mexico City is a city where you can watch the air yourebreathing; regrettably that same condition will not allow you to have a deep viewinto the horizon.


132/184

During the colony one of the ways to show financial power and wealth was bybuilding churches, this transformed all of the Mexican cities. After a while there weremore churches than the ones who were needed for the cult. Nowadays many of thesebuildings have been transformed into galleries and museums, such as this one.


133/184

It might be strange, but from certain angles, if you know how to find them, this hugecity may look like a cosy little town.


134/184

The streets are almost all the time full with people, although if you wake up earlyenough you can still walk by the place without anyone pushing you around.


135/184

The only other way to have the streets free for walking is when it rains. It may notsound like a good idea but it gets a bit more attractive when you see the chaos thatthe rain makes with the drivers.


136/184

Here as on some other big cities in the country, it is common to have sometimes thecentre closed for the motorised circulation; making it a better place to walk and toenjoy.


137/184

The stores in this area are everything but predictable. Theyre so different from oneanother and theyre so many that it is common to be advised, in case of not findingsomething you need, look for it in the centre.


138/184

An uncomfortable aspect about the centre is that it gets so full with people thattheres no possible way to move properly, the streets were not designed to work withcars so they get easily congested, but also the walkways being so full with peopleare a hard space to move by.


139/184

Arguably the most important square of the country is here. This place, although in avery different shape, is as old as the original Tenochtitlan and it hasnt lost much of itssymbolic importance.


140/184

The Zocalo, as it is popularly known is surrounded by the traditional powers. On oneof its sides is the presidential palace, another one is marked by the cathedral;crossing it from that point are the city authorities and the other side is relativelyopened with buildings dedicated to commerce.


141/184

This square is known as the heart of the nation everything which happens here hasthe power to move a country which gives nationality to more than a hundred millionhuman beings.


142/184

It might appear exaggerated to talk so much about a slab of concrete (which isactually what the word Zocalo means), but it certainly is not.


143/184

One could say that this, the second largest square in the world, is one of the biggeststars of the Mexican newspapers.


144/184

Mexico City was once called the city of palaces. May be is the need of markingtheir wealth that the old inhabitants had (and that due the new circumstances ismostly avoided) but there was a time when everything made had to be grandeur.Just as an example, this used to be the central post office, now transformed into amuseum of the same matter.


145/184

Now that the city has changed its focus you can find that humour is presenteverywhere, from the gravest places to the smallest items like these pieces of urbanfurniture.


146/184

This remark might seem out of place here but, thinking about the palaces and thecheerful bits of the centre I remembered that on Sunday, when the streets are closed,it is common to watch lots of people using bicycles, even those bicycle taxis whichmay remind their Far East counterparts.


147/184

Walking by the centre is impossible to watch every detail, even the locals arententirely aware of what surrounds them.


148/184

Walking by the centre you can have unique experiences, like having lunch or dinnerin an ancient palace.


149/184

And also, while walking by the centre of Mexico City you can have a taste of everyculture in the country, a bit of every place.


150/184

The centre offers the sign from a time when building a city was something so seriousthat even the space with this stairs belonged to the public works ministry.


151/184

This palace born for the bureaucracy now houses the national art museum.


152/184

But its not all ancient history there. You can also see the works that marked thecentury that just finished.


153/184

And the echoes of those works in shape of business class hotels.


154/184

The zone comprised here is not far from the Mexica ideal of their city centre as aminiature representation of the cosmos, the space replicating everything existing.


155/184

But it certainly wouldnt be in their plans to have their major temple destroyed. Thelast remaining parts of it are now enclosed behind this fence as a reminder of a hardtransition.


156/184

But lets forget and relax a while in this little museum-shop-restaurant that I found.


157/184

Chapultepec is the best known park in the city, and the biggest of its kind in Latin-America with its 800 hectares. In here you can find six museums, one of those is insidethe only royal castle in the continent; the main zoo park in the city, the NationalAuditorium and thats just in the first section (theyre three).


158/184

This place has been maintained as a park for a long time; here MoctezumaIlhuicamina created a botanic garden here from which can still be seen some treesknown as Moctezuma Cypresses or Ahuehuetes, and he also built the first zoo here,probably the first of the continent and certainly one of the firsts worldwide. But themain importance of this site was that in these hills they found fresh water springs.


159/184

One of the better known places in the park is the National Museum of Anthropologyand History. It contains many samples from the life before the colony, as well asexhibition space for temporary shows. It is also used for official receptions.


160/184

Inside the museography is arranged geographically. Every region has its hall andthen inside every culture has its place.


161/184

Among the original pieces is common to find reconstructions of ancient architecture,from a detail on a building to whole districts in a model.


162/184

Some of the originals may include original remains from the ancient inhabitants.


163/184

The pieces come from all around the country.


164/184

Around Chapultepec one can find interesting pieces of architecture, like this house atwhich I was only allowed to take pictures on the roof.


165/184

The Mexican stock exchange building shares picture with the tower on the number265 of the Reforma Avenue. It is a very well known landmark for its appearance asmuch as for its importance in the countrys economy.


166/184

This avenue was born as The Empress Walk during the second Mexican empire. Itwas meant to connect the national palace and the Chapultepec castle. After theyears many rich people started to build their houses on its sides. Today thosebuildings have practically disappeared.


167/184

But the change has been for good. This street counts with some of the finest examplesof Mexican contemporary architecture in the city. True pieces of art that can shadoweven the ones in the business district of the capital: Santa Fe.


168/184

Perhaps the reason behind the high quality of the projects on this avenue is directlyrelated to the cost of the land. Every effort made to create aggregated value whenbuilding shall be well appreciated by the developers.


169/184

The original part of the avenue is full with things to do and places to spend the timelike this commercial centre, part of a cluster on the number 222 of the avenue.


170/184

Of course, as part of the options palette offered by this avenue there are border-line kitsch experiences like to have dinner on a balcony suspended over an artificialriver.


171/184

But kitsch is fun as proved by the collection of benches going along the avenue. Therearent two alike.


172/184

Just before to end, I would like to draw some attention onto the most importanteducational centre in Mexico: the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAMby its initials in Spanish). It is a project sui generis. It is the largest university in theAmericas by number of alumni, and maybe as well by the land used in its maincampus which is a World Heritage site being designed by the best Mexicanarchitects and even decorated by the best Mexican artists available. It offers a hugeamount of possibilities to whoever goes there, either to study or just to visit.


173/184

Many important figures have studied here, several Mexican presidents have came outfrom there as well as some from other countries in Latin-America; this was also theuniversity of a MP of the USA, the leader of a Kosovar Party, many physicians andsurgeons scattered around the globe, scientists, one astronaut... but what theyrereally good at is forming writers, some of them have even been laureate with aNobel prize.


174/184

They say that everyone talks about the fair as it happened to them. Im showing hereonly the small parts of the country I know better. Here you havent seen the financialdistrict of Mexico City there arent images of the industrial developments in Queretaro


175/184

district of Mexico City; there arent images of the industrial developments in Queretaroor Puebla; these are just some marks I thought proper to make.

Besides, I never attempted to make a long work as it might have been boring. Theleitmotiv of these pages was to light up the curiosity, it was to make an invitation.There are lots of different Mexicos maybe as many as there are Mexicans so everyonewill have its view, everyone will tell the story a bit different.


176/184


177/184


178/184


179/184


180/184


181/184


182/184


183/184


184/184

Copyright - Sellek Daniel Martinez Valencia - 2011. All r ights reserved.

mexico as i remember it

Documents