But, back to what happened in DF, we arrived at the hotels and dropped off our stuff in the rooms. I shared a room with Christian (a girl from LA), Jennie (goes to college with Christian in LA but is from Seattle, Washington) and Sarah (goes to college in Chicago but went to the same high school as Jennie)… a bit complicated but also interesting… After we dropped off our stuff we got a quick tour of the zocalo and surrounding area (so we wouldn’t get lost when we explored on our own). Then we split off into groups for the remainder of our day.
My group went to the museum for the ruins of the Templo Mayor the large temple of the Aztecs that was destroyed by the conquistadors. It was really cool to see what archeologists had discovered in the mid 1900s. When the Spanish first arrived at Tenochtitlan (the original Aztec name of what we now know to be Mexico City), they were amazed by how advanced and beautiful the city was.
- "There are, in all districts of this great city, many temples or houses for their idols. They are all very beautiful buildings .... Amongst these temples there is one , the principal one , whose great size and magnificence no human tongue could describe, for it is so large that within the precincts, which are surrounded by very high wall, a town of some five hundred inhabitants could easily be built. All round inside this wall there are very elegant quarters with very large rooms and corridors where their priests live. There are as many as forty towers, all of which are so high that in the case of the largest there are fifty steps leading up to the main part of it and the most important of these towers is higher than that of the cathedral of Seville" ... Hernán Cortés
The Aztecs welcomed the Spanish into their city (partly because they thought Cortez was Quetzalcoatl a god that was supposed to be returning). Over the next few months, the Spanish conspired with all the surrounding nations that were tired of the Aztec Empire. With the help of the diseases the Spanish brought to Mexico and the large force they had organized, they attacked Tenochtitlan and brought down the Aztec Empire. After they had control of the city, they began destroying the buildings and constructing colonial style buildings. The religious temple was destroyed and with the rocks of the old building, the Spanish constructed a cathedral that is still in the center today. They began to use the site of the Templo Mayor as a big landfill, and over the years it was buried under the streets of Mexico City.
In the mid 1900s, a project began to dig up the Templo Mayor and preserve it as a part of important culture for Mexico. So, today in the middle of the center square of Mexico City, there is a huge hole where the bases of the temples have been uncovered. We walked around the ruins and then checked out the museum at the end of the pathway. The museum was pretty cool, especially the full scale model of the Aztec City right before the Conquistadors came. It’s incredible to imagine what the city would have looked like if the conquistadors hadn’t destroyed everything.
Another thing we noticed about the temple bases was that they were relatively level to the ground. Many of the buildings the Spanish built were much heavier than the Aztec buildings (made out of volcanic rock). Because Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) used to be a city build on top of a huge lake, the ground is not very sturdy. For this reason, many of the older Spanish buildings are starting to sink and tilt. I took a picture of a cathedral that is clearly tilting and sinking into the ground.
Because it was the 2nd of October (the 40th anniversary of the massacre at Tres Culturas) there was a huge demonstration/protest in the middle of the zocalo. Our director Jonathan told us that we couldn’t be anywhere that made us look like we were participating in the protest, but we could watch from far away if we wanted. A group of five of us decided to watch the protest from a restaurant on the top of a hotel (about 5 or 6 stories). Of course, the restaurant wanted us to spend at least 100 pesos (10 dollars) on food and drinks. At first we thought that would be hard…but we definitely each spent about 200 pesos after 3 hours of watching the protest.
The view on the balcony (where we were sitting) was amazing. We could see the different student groups marching into the square and we could still see and hear the main meeting. The protest was very well organized. There was a parade of many different student groups marching. Each group had their own signs and some groups had special cheers or coordinated clothing. There were some groups that had drummers and others clapped and chanted while they were entering the plaza. We saw a few buses with big speakers on top, either playing music or just projecting the voices of the protesters. I took tons of pictures so you can see the scope of the protest and how many people were there (tens of thousands). Also, you will be able to see how many armed police officers were there in full anti-riot suits.
As the night went on, it was interesting to watch the development of the protest. About 5/6 of the people were all in the center square listening to the speakers and band. They were peacefully protesting against the oppressive government that had murdered over 200 students in 1968. However, there was also a group of people off in one corner throwing pop bottles and pushing the police. After a few skirmishes between the police and the small group, the leader/speaker of the protest started urging the violent protesters to stop and go home. He was concerned that a few angry people would ruin the purpose of their nonviolent protest. Although the aggressive protesters didn’t immediately turn and go home, the skirmishes died down and everyone (including us) headed home by 10:30.
The next day we went on a tour of the Templo Mayor and Santo Domingo (the cathedral that was built over the previous Aztec religious center). Our guide told us two interesting stories about the bells in the cathedral (they have been involved in many political incidents)
- A while back, the bells needed a ringer to climb up in the rafters and ring all of the bells. One day, on of the ringers was doing his job when one of the swinging bells hit him and he fell to his death. The head priest at the time condemned the bell and fixed its clapper so it would be forever mute. But don’t worry too much about the bell because years later another priest pardoned the bell and now it can continue ringing with all the other bells.
- The recently elected Mexican cardinal is a very politically conservative leader in the Catholic Church. One day there was a very liberal protest going on in the main square and the cardinal did not support its message. To make his lack of support more apparent, the cardinal rang all of the bells (and they are very loud). The bells were so loud that the meeting couldn’t continue and the protestors stormed the church in anger…
We spent the rest of the afternoon at two different discussions (the one at the NGO for female health and the other at a hotel with an author of one of our books…John Ross). That evening a few people went out, but I went to get ice cream with a group of girls who just wanted to chill a bit… The ice cream was great and I definitely needed a night of relaxing after such a busy week.
Good thing I had my relaxing night because Saturday was a day of lots of traveling and activity. We took a bus from the hotel to Tlataloco (or the plaza of Tres Culturas… the place of the student massacre of 1968). It was a strange experience to be there after we had just learned about the massacre and seen the protest two days before. There were still bullet holes in the ground from forty years ago. The plaza is called tres culturas (three cultures) because there are ruins from an ancient indigenous society, a catholic cathedral, and modern buildings from the university all in one plaza. We walked around exploring for a bit then headed out for our next destination.
Our next destination was the basilica of Guadalupe (a mestizo version of the Virgin Mary). The area with the basilica actually has three cathedrals from different periods of Mexican history. The original cathedral was very small and at the top of a hill. The walk up the hill was beautiful (very green with lots of flowers). It’s interesting because there are many places in Mexico where people don’t have enough water, but the church has enough to water their flowers a few times a day. At the top of the hill we could see the city and the heavy smog that coats the horizon. After our mini tour of the area surrounding the basilica, a friend Morgann and I went to buy some flowers for some friends who had recently passed away. I bought some flowers for Judy Weaver and it was the first time that I had an opportunity to say goodbye in a church setting. A friend of Morgann’s had also passed away and she and I spent our remaining time in the church saying goodbye.
After the church, we headed out to Teotihuacán (a place where the ancient pyramids and temples still had not been destroyed). We stopped and ate lunch before we headed into the area with the pyramids. I tried quesadillas filled with cheese and the fungus that grows on corn (suggested by our director). It was actually really good, kind of like mushrooms but with a stronger flavor. We never have this plant in the United States because our chemicals kill the fungus that grows on the corn. Once we were full, we headed out to the pyramids and explored the ancient city. The pyramids were pretty tall and the steps were steep but it was definitely very fun to climb them and see the view from the top.
When we got back to the hotel, we wanted to sleep and relax but a group of us decided to go to a mariachi restaurant. It was in a plaza with tons of mariachi bands waiting to play for tourists. We chose a restaurant with 3 or 4 bands circulating through the room and playing songs at tables for 80 pesos each. It was Morgann’s birthday so we bought a few songs to celebrate her birthday. Two of my friends (Jennie and Christian) play in a mariachi band at college so the band let Jennie play the guitarron (the big cello/base looking guitar).
Once the songs finished, a small group of us left the mariachi restaurant to go salsa dancing. The restaurant was called Mama Rumba and it had a live band and tons of people dancing salsa. The space was really open and people were dancing everywhere (even between the tables). I danced with a guy named Edson from UNAM (the big Mexican University). He wasn’t the best dancer… but neither am I and he was really patient and good at teaching me. After a few hours of dancing we went back to the hotel completely exhausted.
Well, I will keep trying to update the blog… I’m off to Chiapas in two hours so I have to finish packing… hope everything is going well :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment