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  • Speak, WorldMexico City Birthday
    1112
    Day 34

    Happy Birthday in Santa Maria la Ribera!

    November 12, 2022 in Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    For this year’s celebration of Enrique’s birthday, we decided to go to CDMX—Ciudad de México, Mexico City.

    We took the 7-hour bus ride to experience the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve, which stretches from the states of Oaxaca to Puebla. Although we obviously couldn’t jump out of the bus to explore, the views of the columnar cacti forest in the matorral and the Sierra Madre sub-ranges were stunning. The reserve was created in 2012, and it received UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 2018. Is it protected? Supposedly. Let’s hope so. For very interesting information, here is a link:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehuacán-C…

    We quickly set ourselves up in our minimalist AirBnb property on Calle Quetzalcóatl in the neighborhood of Tlaxpana, and almost immediately walked three blocks to Enrique’s neighborhood, Santa María la Ribera to eat “huaraches,” fried tortillas in the shape of a sandal, with anything you want on the top. We chose “carne del pastor,” which is a variety of grilled meats cut from a kebab rotisserie. There is much delicious rich food to be had at all times, but we restrain ourselves. Mostly.

    For the next two days, we explored parts of Santa María we couldn’t see on a previous visit, due to COVID. A note: Santa María la Ribera is a very old part of Mexico City, close to the Historic Center.
    Here you can get a bit more information:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonia_Santa_Mar…

    “El Chopo” is an architectural marvel, built in Germany in 1902 as a an exhibition hall. It was dismantled and rebuilt on “Poplar Street,” Calle Chopo, to also be an exhibition center. It was bought by UNAM, National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1975, and after much expansion and renovation, was set out as a modern art museum. We saw all of the three exhibits before meeting Enrique’s brother, Rafael, for lunch.
    More information!
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museo_Universitar…

    The following day, we inched through another UNAM-owned museum, the Museum of Geology. I particularly loved the display cases from 1905, along with the eclectic collections of minerals, gems, volcanic rocks, dinosaur bones, etc. Fascinating.

    And then the Big Day, November 12. Enrique’s niece and I coordinated to have a birthday lunch in “María138,” an Italian restaurant just south of the beautiful neighborhood “alameda.” It is one of my great treasures and joys to be a part of a Mexican family. And birthday celebrations are extremely important! So much fun and congeniality.

    Please enjoy the photos.    Read more

  • Speak, WorldMexico City Birthday
    1
    Day 35

    Two Museums I Love in Mexico City

    November 13, 2022 in Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    The National Museum of Anthropology is a place of pilgrimage for me. I visited it as a child just after its creation, then in my twenties, my forties, and now in my seventies. It is a world-class museum, but more importantly, a moving and eloquent homage to the incredible indigenous heritage of Mexico, from thousands of years before the conquest. And it goes much further: it also documents ethnologically the lives and traditions still alive in the indigenous towns of today.

    Enrique and I started off our tour in the Oaxaca section of the museum, where we had left off in April of our previous visit to Mexico City. The ethnology rooms are still under renovation, but the anthropology rooms are resplendent. Although there are 16 indigenous groups in the state of Oaxaca, the museum highlights the Zapotec and Mixtec cultures. We spent two hours there! And, Enrique’s mother being Mixteca, we examined each case with wonder and admiration for his ancestors.

    And then, we skipped many rooms to go to the very last rooms, the Western Desert. The marvelous cases there demand another visit, and soon!

    Here is a link to the museum’s site for your enjoyment:

    https://www.mna.inah.gob.mx

     After a rest and a snack outside, we went to the Museo Nacional de Historia in Chapultepec Castle, in Chapultepec Park. The historical importance of the Cerro del Chapulín, “The Hill of the Chapulín” (grasshopper) goes back thousands of years to the first peoples in the Valley of Mexico, and in many prominent ways, continues to this day. The Castle—originally a church in the 1500’s, briefly became the dwelling of Emperor Maximiliano, then a military college, and then home of Mexican presidents until it was decreed a museum in 1939 by Lázaro Cárdenas.

    Such museum staying power we had! The history of Mexico was presented in chronological order in many rooms, with neutral explanations throughout (or I suspect—they could have been quite radical for many—but what do I know at this point?) Anyway, along with the beautifully mounted historical artifacts, I think it’s an adequate introduction to a complicated subject, and I enjoyed it.

    Such a stimulating and unforgettable day!

    Please enjoy the photos.    Read more

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