22/3/13 – Goodbye Cuba Hello Mexico

Last night we arrived in Mexico City in good time and we were met by our driver, Diego. He took us on a miraculous (and sometimes hair-raising) ride through the streets of MC where it appeared that, although all the highways are twelve lanes wide, the traffic congestion on them is so intense that, at peak hours, the direction of flow in the lanes is altered so that only two go in bound and the other ten are outbound (or vice versa for the morning rush hour) – which is all well and good except that this change of direction is (as far as we could see) marked only by the occasional witches hat!

To add to the fun, in between the lanes of stationary cars at every set of red traffic lights, there were people (some of them children) selling useful items such as 2 litres of soft drink (or water), chewing gum, lollies, hardware items such as locks and chains and of course cigarettes! To us it all seemed utterly chaotic, so much so that we were amazed to discover that we had, eventually, made it to our hotel in the historic old centre of the city without being killed, or killing anyone else.

Our driver, on the other hand, took it all in his stride. Apparently this was just normal city driving as far as he was concerned. (So glad we didn’t hire a car and try to drive ourselves here!) It was early evening by the time we got to our hotel and since we had been travelling all day we were both pretty tired, so we decided to take it easy and just eat in the hotel dining room that night – which proved to be not a good decision - welcome to the home of the chilli and jalapeno peppers!!

After dinner, our lips and tongues still stung for the next 30 minutes, even though we thought we had scrapped all of the offending condiments before consuming our (very nice) steaks! We eventually managed to douse the fire in our mouths (me with water and Peter with lots of beers) and turned in early to bed as we knew that we had a big day of ‘guided’ sightseeing lined up for the next day.

In the morning, after an early and pleasant breakfast on the hotel terrace, we trooped down to the lobby to meet our tour guide, whom we first nicknamed ‘Speedy Gonzales’. Not very respectful I know but, despite us asking several times, we couldn’t catch his real name so we really had no choice but to make up a nickname for him. As we drove out to the pyramids we amused ourselves (and the other Aussie couple on the tour with us, from you guessed it, Padbury in Perth) by making up a series of alternative nicknames. In the end ‘the angry little Chihuahua’ was the preferred nickname that was chosen.

He welcomed us to his city – which he told us is very large (apparently it spreads over an area of 20 x 30kms and is home to 20 million people, some of whom live in houses while the others live in the ‘favelas’ or whatever term the slums are called here that stretch for miles up the many mountainsides). He also told us that ‘Mexico’ means ‘city in the middle of the moon’. The name relates back to the origins of what is now Mexico City.

The original Aztec city in this place was established on an island in the middle of a lake so that at night, with the reflection of the full moon showing on the surface of the lake, the place did indeed seem to be a city in ‘the middle of the moon’. The Aztecs (and the earlier, pre-Colombian, civilisations that settled here before them) built a wondrous canalled cities on this site.

Unfortunately the Spanish, in addition to their efforts in spreading life ending diseases like influenza and syphilis as part of their plan to destabilize Aztec civilisation, drained the lake and ever since the city has been sinking into the unstable bog that resulted from this ill-advised move. On our drive out to the pyramids we saw more than one church that was on a lean that would equal the bell tower at Pisa! It seems that most buildings in Mexico City, like those in Venice, have their foundations in a constant state of movement, which makes building difficult and restoration a constant task. 

Before heading out to the desert to visit the pyramids of Teotihuacan, we were taken to see a few of the city’s colonial and modern highlights. These included Garibaldi Square built in 1920 (apparently not named in honour of Giuseppe Garibaldi the famous ‘father of modern Italy’ but rather in honour of his adventurous nephew Lt Col Jose Garibaldi who played a leading role in the Mexican Revolution that lead to the overthrow of the Diaz dictatorship and the drafting of the still current Mexican Constitution of 1917)  and the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe where an iconic image of Mary (miraculously formed on cloth) is kept in the sanctuary.

 

The legend of that image is epic. Apparently, in December 1531, in Tenochtitlan (modern day Mexico City) the Virgin Mary appeared four times to the Indian peasant Juan Diego. Mary told Juan Diego "I wish that a temple be erected here quickly, so I may therein exhibit and give all my love, compassion, help, and protection."

As proof her divinity Mary ordered Juan Diego to go to the top of the nearby Tepeyac Hill and pick “Castilian garden flowers” from its normally barren summit. When he got to the summit she even helped him to collect the miraculous flowers by “taking them up in her own hands” and folded them into his simple peasant cloak woven of maguey plant fibres. 

Juan Diego took the flowers to bishop Zumarraga’s palace, as a sure sign and proof of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe’s identity. As he unwrapped his cloak to show the flowers to the bishop, the flowers tumbled out at the churchman’s feet, and “suddenly, upon that cloak, there flashed a Portrait, where sallied into view a Sacred Image of that Ever Virgin Holy Mary, Mother of God.” It is (so the legend goes) this 500 year old image of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, the “Miraculous Portrait” as it is often called, that hangs today in the Basilica of Guadalupe.

The tricky thing for tourists wanting to view this portrait is to find it. This is tricky because are actually three distinct basilicas on the site. A small church was constructed on the very spot at which Mary first appeared to Juan Diego in the late 16th-century. This church was then extended in 1709 to form what is known today as the ‘Old Basilica’. When the Old Basilica became dangerously unstable due to the sinking of its foundations, a modern structure (called the New Basilica) was built next to it. The famous image of the Virgin of Guadalupe is now housed in this New Basilica.

Built between 1974 and 1976, the New Basilica has a circular floorplan so that the image of the Virgin can be seen from any point within the building. The circular structure is 100 meters (330 feet) in diameter, and can accommodate up to 50,000 people. The choir is located between the altar and the churchgoers to indicate that it, too, is part of the group of the faithful. To the sides are the chapels of the Santisimo and of Saint Joseph. It has 9 chapels on the upper floor.

Under the main floor are the Basilica's crypts, with 15,000 niches and 10 chapels. Its seven front doors are an allusion to the seven gates of Celestial Jerusalem referred to by Christ. In the Sanctuary grounds there are also many other small chapels where Masses and other sacraments of the Church are celebrated daily. It was clear, from the moment we entered the Sanctuary, that there are a lot of Catholics here in MC, for the Sanctuary is a centre of fervent religious activity around the clock, with at least 30 Masses celebrated there every day of the year.

In the New Basilica, under the gaze of the “Miraculous Portrait” at the main altar, there are Masses every hour on the hour, from 6am to 8pm, every day of the year. There are 8 masses also in its San Jose Chapel (8 a day, 5 on Sat and Sunday) and in the crypt. This is a seriously big and very busy church!

 

Interesting facts gleaned from ‘the Chihuahua’ on the ride out to the pyramids – (i) in addition to the unstable foundations, many of the heritage buildings are crumbling with concrete cancer as a result of the high pollution levels, but they have a beautiful view of the three volcanoes active that surround the city, (ii) as a result of the aforesaid volcanic activity, the city is powered by a combination of thermal heating, traditional coal fired power stations (35%), one nuclear plant and wind power (currently wind power contributes only 2 % of Mexico’s power generation but the plan is that it will contribute up to 25% within 10 years). 

(iii) Mexico currently produces 30% of the world’s silver. All silver mines are privately owned but by law they must sell all of the ore they produce to the Mexican Government, Mexico also produces a great deal of high grade gold (purity at 8-10 grams per ton which far outclasses ore from places like South Africa), (iv) as is also the case in Argentina, there is a strong Italian influence in Mexico with many Italian words are in common usage, but the influence cuts both ways, apparently Benito Mussolini was named after the first Mexican President

Benito Juárez.

The history of Meso-America stretches back some 10,000 years and the rise and fall of the Teotihuacan civilization from the Valley of Mexico is a significant chapter in that story. Unfortunately, Mesoamerica was ‘discovered’ by Spain in the 15th century and ‘conquered’ (a better word might be ‘ravaged’) by the Conquistadores. The coming of the Spanish was the start of the end of the Aztecs and all the other great Meso-American civilisations as Spain was intent on bleeding them all dry in its ruthless quest silver and gold (not to mention the ‘souls’ of native Christian converts) and nothing and no one was going to stand in their way. 

According to Wikipedia (to which we had to resort as ‘the Chihuahua’ provided no back ground information during our expedition) there was a Formative Period from (1800 BCE–200 CE) and a Classic Era (200–1000 CE). The Formative Period saw the rise of large-scale ceremonial architecture, writing, cities, and states. Many of the distinctive elements of Mesoamerican civilization can be traced back to this period, including the dominance of corn, the building of pyramids, human sacrifice, jaguar-worship, the development of a complex calendar and the emergence of several distinctive strands of religious practice.

But of all the products of Meso-American civilization the great city at Teotihuacan was surely the greatest.

By the middle of the Classic Era (in the early 6th century) Teotihuacan was a massive, densely populated, and well organized city, with a population more than 125,000. This made it the 6th largest city in the world at that time, after Constantinople, Changan, Loyang, Ctesiphon, and Alexandria. The city dominated the Valley of Mexico until the early 8th century, but we know little of the political structure of the region because the Teotihuacaners left no written records. For reasons still unknown, the city fell from dominance by the end of the 8^th century and the full details of its place names and much of its history and culture was lost to legend.

As a result, in the absence of a written Teotihuacan language, it was the Aztecs (who only came onto the scene in the 15^th century) who gave us many of the names that are used today to describe the main buildings and avenues of the city.

As mentioned in the previous paragraph Aztec civilisation emerged in northern Mexico in the early 15th century and, as their empire grew, they drifted south and came upon the ancient city of Teotihuacan.

Despite being in a 700 year old state of disrepair and decline, the city was still such an awesome sight that the Aztecs felt it must have been built by the Gods. The Aztecs for strategic reasons, eventually settled at the site of modern day Mexico City on the lake, but they incorporated Teotihuacan into their religious practices as the place where the Gods sacrificed themselves so that that the Sun and the Moon and all of the ‘known world’ could be re-created for the use of mortals (just like in the Greek legends).

Thus the Aztecs believed that the current world began from Teotihuacan. The Aztecs were thus responsible for the name Teotihuacan (‘Meeting Place of the Gods’) and for the dedication of the two great pyramids, the ‘Temple of the Sun’ (at 65m, the pyramid of the sun is the 3rd largest in the world) for the God Tlaloc who was the god of fertility and rain, and the ‘Temple of the Moon’ (42m) for the God Chalchihuitlicue who was the goddess of lakes and streams. 

We had a great time investigating the pyramids and the surrounding buildings – Peter climbed to the top of the Temple of the Sun and I climbed the top of the Temple of the Moon and we took photos of each other! Meanwhile ‘the Chihuahua’ sat in his air conditioned car – claimed he had bad knees – and like most Mexicans spent a large part of his day drinking Coke.  

We were then taken to a dodgy stone carving place and given three shots of tequila and some cactus liqueur (quite nice actually!) before being let loose in the gift shop to purchase souvenirs – we bought nothing. Then we were packed into a tourist restaurant for lunch. We had soup while being entertained by some guy who purported to be Montezuma. After lunch ‘the Chihuahua’ put on a CD and told us to sit back and relax for the drive back to Mexico City, while he had a nap.

Being ‘friendly’ Australians who were keen to know more the four of us refused to comply and instead managed to keep him awake by asking him all sorts of difficult questions all the way back to MC. (As you may have gathered this trip just reaffirmed for Peter and I our distaste for the practice of ‘herding tourists’!)

That evening, since our hotel was located next to the old square, we walked up the city mall as the sun set, over to the Opera House and then to the Post Office. And what a Post Office it was – could there ever be a time in history when Mexico would generate enough letters to justify such a huge and ornate building? We finished the day with a sumptuous dinner at the House of Tiles (Casa de los Azulejos), an old mansion house whose exterior is covered in blue and white tiles.

Once a home to a noble Spanish family it is now a branch of the Sanborn's cafe/restaurant chain. Location: Madero #4 in the Centro Histórico. It has an interesting courtyard with 20th century murals and it used to have a central patio with beautiful garden where you could sit and see the stars, but now it is covered to protect diners from the rain. The restaurant used to be the favourite of intellectuals, poets and writers in the XIX century but nowadays it seems mostly filled with middle class Mexican families enjoying a ‘posh night out’. We finished our meal with two deliciously authentic margaritas and then wandered off back down the mall (which was by this time even more packed with noisy but good natured crowds than it had been at the start of the evening) and went up to our hotel room to pack as we were scheduled to fly home to NYC the next day.

I had a massive headache which, as far as I could deduce later, since it disappeared as soon as I got into the pressurised cabin of the aircraft that flew us back to NYC, seemed to be caused by the effects of dehydration from the high altitude (MC is located at 2,240 metres (7,350 ft) above sea level). Definitely not the tequila!