Lunch with Alfonso, Mts, Comics, etc

Last Sunday Alfonso said, "let's go for casadillas this afternoon."  From my experience last year, I knew that "going out for casadillas", was no simple outing in the neighbourhood for fast food. It was about a 45min drive across town, through the ultra-upscale Santa Fe neighbourhood where all the big corporate offices are, Microsoft and the like. Along the way we stopped to pick up Alfonso`s old friend, Irving who also accompanied us last year on this same outing and his daughter, Danielle.  

Alfonso, Irving, Danielle

Irving is German/Mexican, his parents having immigrated from Germany.  Our destination, the Leones de Desierto, Lions of the Desert, is a 1,867 hectare national park and is between 2,600 and 3,700 meters in altitude so considerably cooler up there. The area was used as a retreat for a religious group, thus the name Desierto (desert) means not "arid place", but not populated.  The "Leones" part of the name does not refer to the animals, but rather to the original landlord's last name. The park is considered to be the oldest protected biospheres in Mexico. It was originally declared a forest reserve in 1876 with the intent of conserving its fresh water springs to supply Mexico City. It was later declared a national park on 27 November 1917.  Crowds of people throng up there to picnic, tour the ex-monastery 

and eat casadillas in the big open air restaurant. 

The aftermath

The physical environment is very different from the city up there, alpine and cool, but it's a quintessentially Mexican family Sunday scene.  On the way back home, I happened to glance over to the east and, oh my gosh!  there were the iconic mountains,

 Popocatépetl 5,426m

 and Iztaccihuatl 5230m

It's not very often that the air is clear enough to see them, this was a rare treat.

A few days ago Harry and I went to Coyoacan, a lovely, genteel old neighbourhood.  Harry had never been there and wanted to see Frida Kahlo's Blue House and the neighbourhood where she and Diego Rivera and Leon Trotsky lived.  Frida's house is a very popular tourist attraction but, it being a week day, I thought it wouldn't be too crowded.  Wrong.  Tour buses were parked all over and the lineup was dauntingly long so we walked to the mercado and had ceviche tostadas followed by a beer on the plaza.  Returning to Frida's we were again put off by the line and went to the Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares, Museum of Popular Culture where there was an exhibit featuring the work of the cartoonist, Gabriel Vargas whose comic strip, La Familia Burrón, was created in 1937. This cartoon has been described as one of the most important in Mexican popular culture.  These are some of his whimsical characters:

 

Returning back to Frida's once more we were relieved to see that there wasn't a lineup and, though it was still crowded inside, Harry had a chance to see the exhibits and admire that beautiful home and get a rather intimate perspective on her life.

Sunset reflection

Surreal day in Ciudad de Mexico

I had the most terrible nightmare last night.  Paralyzing surges of electrical-like energy coursing through my body.  It was happening to everyone.  General panic set in and people became hostile towards one another.  It was dark and there was a malign, threatening presence in the air.  Alfonso and I tried to flee the city.  Very sci-fi.  Just when it couldn't get any worse, I woke up. Oh, relief.  But it took a while to shake it off.

This morning I woke up to the sound of crowds of people yelling and an unusual din of car horns, more than the normal din.  Weird. I had breakfast and went out to get my clothes laundered.  There were police everywhere, many more than the usual high numbers of them.  

Big police buses parked all over.  Wondered what that was all about.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqFk8hkpP_M&feature=youtu.be

I needed to do laundry today and was wearing my last clean clothes.  I knew there were water issues and restrictions in some parts of town I thought that surely that wouldn't be the case here in upscale Roma but when I when I went out to do laundry, the two laundry places in the neighborhood were closed and there were notifications that there was no water.  

No water?! What do you mean, no water? Mexico city has no water! You've got to be kidding. But no, no kidding, this whole megalopolis of umpteen millions of people has no water other than what there is in the tanks that they use here; big black tanks on the roof that are fed by the water system.  Yesterday there were water restrictions where my friend Harry is staying but I thought, nah, that's just a poor neighborhood.  But when I got back to the hotel, Alfonso reported that, yes we have no water except what's in the tank.  Apparently the government will be supplying poor neighbourhoods with water but we'll see how that goes.  They say the water will be back on next Tuesday.  Four days without water!  I'm wearing my last clean clothes.  Was thinking about getting them laundered yesterday but put it off. To my delight, though, my usual laundry place did open, just later than usual.  Whew!  They must have lots of storage.

 And all the police and hubbub in the neighborhood?  There's a big protest just a block away; farmers protesting something to do with politics in their Campesino organization.  As I write I'm being serenaded by strident marching band music, police whistles. 


And it's only 10:30am................

Imagen, dancers and a bikes

News flash!!  Mexico City has become the 32nd state of Mexico and has, just last week, changed its official name from 'Distrito Federal' to 'Ciudad de Mexico'.  States have more autonomy but, other than that, I don't really know what this means.

For the month of January, photography is the theme at the museums operated by the city.  This is particularly exciting for me in that I love to take photographs and love to look at the work of good photographers. I didn't take pictures of the photographs for the most part as it's not allowed at many of the exhibits and taking photos of photos seems somehow redundant to me.  But how it differs from taking photos of paintings, which I readily do, I'm not sure.  

My first photo viewing was at the Museo Archivo de la Fotografia.  This little museum houses revolving photography exhibits and is a regular stop for me when visiting DF.  On this visit were three exhibits, one of photos of the 1985 earthquake, black and white pics done by various photographers that graphically described that awful event.  On the second floor were aerial photos of Mexico City in the 1950s by a German photographer, Walter Reuter. Interesting to see what the city looked like then.  And on the third floor was the show "Jardines de Arena", Gardens of Sand, quite exquisite photos by a variety of photographers, middle eastern and European, taken in the middle east and north Africa between 1859 and 1904.  Amazing photo chronicles of Damascus, Cairo, Istanbul, Mecca and surroundings.  

One of the exhibits I liked best was a show at the Museum of Modern Art of photographs by Lee Miller, a American surrealist photographer whose personal story is as interesting as her art.  I suggest reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Miller

The Centro de Imagen is an institution dedicated to the study and diffusion of photography.  There are educational programs and exhibitions there and it is an interesting building.

After visiting the Centro de Imagen I popped over to the Parque de Ciudadela, Citadel Park, it being a Saturday afternoon when older folks get duded up and gather to dance to Cuban Son, thought to be the precursor to salsa music.  I've blogged about this before but, for those who don't remember, here are some photos and videos.

For something completely different, here are some bikes from car free Sunday:

 

The ultimate in comfort bikes

 

Complete with stereo

National Museum of Art

The museum was founded in 1982 as the Museo Nacional de Arte, and re-inaugurated in 2000, after reopening its doors to the public as MUNAL after intense remodeling and technical upgrades to the facility. It currently focuses on the exhibition, study and diffusion of Mexican and international art from the 16th century to the first half of the 20th century. Its permanent collection contains more than 3,000 pieces and has 5,500m2 of exhibition space. One of the many museums housed in beautiful colonial era buildings, MUNAL is a favourite of mine warranting a visit each time I return to DF.  

On this visit, the featured exhibit was called The Modernists, twentieth century art by many of the most well known Mexican and European artists including Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros, Picasso, Braque, Matisse, Vuillard, Bonnet, Murillo aka Dr Atl, etc.  What struck me most about the show were the pieces by the Mexican muralists that were very unrepresentative of the works they are best known for.  

Diego Rivera is best known for his huge, bold, complex murals with social/political/historical themes:
 






























One wouldn't usually associate him with these sort of works:

Likewise David Siquieros, best known for his big, violent murals:

 




































Not these lovely, sweet portraits:

Jose Clemente Orozco's murals were among the most bold and political:

 




























But he also did this:

And Gerardo Murillo, aka Dr Atl, from this:

To this:

Every Thursday a free film is shown after closing time in a lovely little theatre with big cushy seats.  On this visit, a Tim Robbins film was shown, "The Cradle Will Rock", a star filled kind of messy, hectic film based on a 1937 musical dealing with socialist/communist influences in the arts, and unionism and the rise of the McCarthy era.  An entertaining way to spend the afternoon. I'm looking forward to next week's Luis Buñuel films.