I awoke this morning in the world’s most comfortable bed, took a shower with HOT water and strong water pressure and then met mom and dad at the concierge breakfast buffet, that was the best one we’ve ever had. I was excited to have a bagel and cream cheese, not too common in Mexico. Then, we went to the lobby where I handed my parents off to Martha, one of Elisa’s good friends here in D.F. Martha acted as their tour guide and Elisa’s brother, Luis, was their driver.
Martha gave them a tour of the historical downtown area – El Centro Histórico has as its center the main plaza, (El Zócalo - the second-largest public plaza in the world after Red Square in Moscow), and the Templo Mayor (the holiest shrine in Tenochtitlán – now Mexico City - where the Aztecs did their ritual sacrifices) and the national palace (El Palacio Nacional – originally one of Hernán Cortés’ many residences, the bell that was rung in Guanajuato in 1810 by Father Miguel Hidalgo as he uttered his shout for Mexican independence from Spain, now hangs in the main entrance here).
My mom, an art major and lifelong student and fan of art, was excited to see the Diego Rivera murals in the government building. Between 1929 and 1935 Rivera painted one of his best-known murals on the walls above the palace’s central staircase. Divided into three parts, the mural is Rivera’s vision of Mexican history: Aztec life before the conquest, brutal conquest and colonial era, independence from Spain and the bloody revolution in 1910-20. In the second-floor hallway, the walls are painted with eight mural panels that Rivera worked on these from 1941 to 1952 to illustrate idealized aspects of Mexico’s life before the arrival of Cortés.
Luis then drove them south across town to Coyoacán to see the “ofrendas” on display at the National Cultural Museum. The “ofrendas”, altars for Day of the Dead, are representative of many of the states throughout the country. After school we met in one of my favorite restaurants in the quiet Santa Catarina Plaza in Coyoacán, Mesón Plaza Catarina Antigua. I love their chicken fajitas and after my school day, a nice, cool cerveza was the just the thing.
After lunch Luis took Martha to work, she’s the assistant principal at a secondary school in Coyoacán. Her school is “vespertino” an afternoon one, from 4 – 10 PM. The students’ age range is colossal, from teenagers to grandmothers. Some of these older students finally have the chance to go to school now that they are done raising their families and working to support them. Now they work by day and attend school at night.
After lunch, mom, dad and I squeezed into a bright green beetle taxi and, as the backseat seems to be nothing but cloth over springs, we bounced our way across Coyoacán to the Frida Kahlo museum. The museum is in her family’s famous blue house and now there is a temporary exhibit on Frida’s medical struggles. On display was all of the medicine she took each day – more than an arms’ full – and her crutches and even prosthetic leg.
From there, we walked a couple of blocks to the Coyoacán market, where products for Day of the Dead abounded. There were paper flowers that looked like cempasuchil ones, decorated sugar and chocolate ones and others coated with sesame seeds. There were miniature skeletal figurines dressed to represent people from all walks of life like teachers, doctors, and athletes; there was even one White Sox player.
For the display shelves in my Wilmette classroom, I bought a giant sugar skull, paper flowers, two papier machie figurines and also some popular Mexican dishes like chicken covered with mole sauce. One of the figurines is a puppeteer with his puppet that is also a skeleten, and the other is wearing a black dress and has a black umbrella, like the famous Day of the Dead symbol, La Catrina. José Guadalupe Posada created the Catrina to show that in the end, we all meet the same fate, even the wealthy. You can learn more about Posada at: http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/history/posada.html
Finally, we visited my apartment and then took a taxi all the way back to Polanco. Our driver, Florencio, was very friendly and pointed out the cempasuchil flowers being planted all along Reforma. He said that in December they will be taken out and replaced with poinsettias.
The long day came to a perfect end as mom, dad and I watched the White Sox WIN the World Series!
