Sundays in the City

Sept. 30

On Sundays, the city is given back to the people: some of the major streets are closed to cars from 6 A.M. until 2 P.M. and opened to bikers, joggers and pedestrians, who can travel safely all the way from Chapultepec Park to the Zocalo without traffic! This includes the most beautiful street in the city, the Paseo de la Reforma, which ends at Chapultepec. Modeled on the Champs Elysees, it's a broad, eight-laned avenue, adorned with five glorietas, roundabouts. Traffic coming into a glorieta can go both right and left, so it's a bit tricky to learn to drive around them without colliding with traffic entering from the other side. Each glorieta, except one that contains a single palm tree, has a statue, monument or fountain; from north to south, the monument to Columbus with a symmetrical rose garden on each side, then a statue of Cuauhtemoc, Aztec leader who fought the conquistadores, then the palm tree, followed by the Independence Monument, crowned with a golden Angel, and finally the Diana Cazadora (the Huntress) monument, a beautiful fountain. These five landmarks help people orient themselves in this part of the city. For example, the U.S. Embassy is near the Angel. On both sides of the Reforma are laterales, side streets that give easier access to other sections of the city, and broad sidewalks with lots of trees and unique, artistic, whimsical benches. Besides the Reforma, Avenidas Juarez and Hidalgo, on either side of the Alameda, are also closed, as well as a few other streets around the Zocalo. We've been regretting our decision to leave our mountain bikes at home, so today we went down to the calle San Pablo, with its dozens of bike shops, to look for bikes to join the Sunday rides.

Casa González: one of the patios from a balcony

Sept. 28, 2007

The Shrimp Ceviche a la Casa González was delicious! After dinner we walked down Independencia to the Metropolitan where a crowd was watching people stroll down the pink carpet, "wedding albums" in hand. We asked an official-looking guy if the stars had arrived (yes, they had) and if we could still get tickets (no, we could't). Ever the persistent ones, we hung around until we saw a woman apparently handing out more invitations; we made eye contact, she asked if we would like to go in, they strapped a pink bracelet around our wrists, and there we were, in the front section, waiting for Adam Sandler and Kevin James to be introduced and the movie to begin. And it was funny! The interior of the Metropolitan is rather grand, with corinthian columns and big Greek-like statues, a bit like Radio City Music Hall, a fine setting for a premiere.

Taxis and Taxistas

September 27, 2007
Today the metro was a lot more crowded than usual and the train stayed at Bellas Artes a long time; then an announcement was broadcast that from Hidalgo, the next stop where several lines cross, only one line was open, so I decided to take a taxi to school. We've been warned to take only sitio cabs, the ones that have a fixed position such as at a hotel, and not to hail one from the street, especially not the VW bugs that have only one door to exit. I don't know anyone who follows this advice, and I would have missed out on many interesting conversations if I had heeded it. Of course, it's the prudent thing to do in a city that has experienced taxi crime, but the media report mostly the bad things that happen. What's interesting in reporting that thousands of people arrived safely to their destination? Anyway, the first taxista today gave me detailed instructions for preparing Pollo en Vino Blanco a la Mexicana (Chicken in White Wine, Mexican Style); I'm renameing the dish Pollo en Vino Blanco a la Miguel and can't wait to try it. The second taxista, who was driving a VW bug, gave me a tip about an interesting site to visit outside the city called Valle de las Monjas, near a national park, Desierto de los Leones. And he insisted for me to write down his name, Andres, and phone number, explaining that he didn't have a card to give me ( lots of people hand out business cards - we need to get some too) because someone had robbed him! For all of you who worry about our safety, please be assured that we are cautious, just not paranoid.
Tonight, Bill is preparing shrimp according to a recipe that Jorge, from the Casa González, gave us. Most important step: thoroughly clean all the vegetables and herbs (in this case, cilantro) and soak them in water with a few drops of Microdyne for 15 minutes. While we're waiting for this process, we're contemplating going to the premiere of Los declaro marido....y Larry (I pronounce you husband....and Larry: Chuck & Larry), Adam Sandler's new movie. We're not big fans, but hey, they closed down the street in front of the Metropolitan, brought out the pink carpet, and decorated it every few feet with beautiful flower arrangements - preparation enough to pique our interest.

These are the police who patrol the Alameda Park. Dressed in their charro uniforms, they add just the right touch to the Alameda.

Sept. 24, 2007

The music ranges from lively to sublime. In the centro organ-grinders, dressed in khaki tan uniforms (there's a huge variety of uniforms in this city) are on every street, cranking out such standards as "Cielito lindo" with one hand, hat in the other extended for tips. Sometimes an assistant stands nearby asking for the tips. The stands that sell CDs always have music blaring. Often on the subways, the blind pass through playing CDs from a small chestpack and selling copies for "Diez pesos." I think you can buy just about anything for diez pesos: it's a chant you hear often enough, "Diez pesos, solo diez pesos." Since we live within earshot of the Alameda, we often hear music from there, especially on weekends. They often have live bands and dancing in the park. The first weekend we moved into the centro, the music was so loud we couldn't sleep, so we didn't even unpack our bags; but that was because it was the last weekend for"Australian Thunder", a male strip show that had been playing at the Metropolitan down the street. We had seen stretch limos driving around and advertising this show for a few days, and we wondered about the kind of neighborhood we had settled into. It hasn't been that bad since!

Sometimes the music is surprising. After we left the Frida exhibit at Bellas Artes. full of her beautiful, transcendent, ugly, painful, surrealistic style, we stepped into the BA bookstore and heard oh so familiar Elvis! A few weeks ago we were savoring tacos and the ambiente at the Cafe de Tacuba, when we were surrounded by the music of guitars and beautiful voices singing traditional Spanish (not Mexican) ballads - Clavelitos, Valencia, etc. Once we were really enjoying a balladeer singing at a Chinese restaurant (Chinatown is a few blocks away) when another (not as enjoyable) singer strolled up and started singing at our table. We -and the waiter- just rolled our eyes. Yesterday a trio of guitarrists serenaded us at lunch at the Hotel de Cortes, and last Sunday as we ate breakfast on calle Gante, a pedestrian street, a jazz trio with long dreds was playing in front of a typical Mexican pushcart selling food just in front of a Starbuck's. Strange juxtapositions!

On weekends there are sometimes small concerts at two historical buildings near the Zocalo. We went to one at the Antiguo Colegio de San Idelfonso, at one time home of the preparatoria made famous in the movie Frida. She was a student at the school when Diego Rivera, home from Europe and still painting with European influences, was painting the mural Creation. That mural forms the backdrop for the stage. A cappella singers, the madrigalistas of Bellas Artes, sang many traditional tunes and the featured singer Luz Bermejo, now quite elderly, sang some amazing tangos, accompanied by a virtuoso Russian pianist. We enjoyed the concert and the setting immensely. And at the end, the music director announced the tribute to Pavarotti for the following Wednesday (please see post for 9/23), a most moving celebration of his life and sublime music.

September 23, 2007

Hello to all our family, friends, and students!

This photo is of el Palacio de Bellas Artes, home of art galleries, a theater with a beautiful Tiffany crystal curtain depicting the volcanoes Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl which surround the city, the Ballet Folklórico, the opera and much more. Recently it was the site of a major Frida Kahlo exposition. Huge crowds waited hours to get in; on the last day the line completely circled the Alameda Park! Of course, we went too, but I actually enjoyed more visiting her museum in Coyoacan the following weekend. The photo is taken from a delightful coffee shop terrace across the street on the 8th floor of Sears (pronounced Say-ares here). Most days I walk through the Alameda to the metro stop just to the left of Bellas Artes, a most pleasant way to start the day. A week ago I stepped out of the subway and into this plaza, where tenors from the Mexico City Opera were paying tribute to Pavarotti from the portico. Bill had arrived earlier and had a front-row seat. Women handed out hundreds of roses, which individuals placed in a huge vase next to a big photograph of a smiling Luciano Pavarotti, much loved here for his efforts to bring classical music out of the opera house and offer it to the public. And this is one of the reasons I love living here: art and music are everywhere and easily accessible.