El Festival de las Mulitas

May 22 is the Festival de las Mulitas, a celebration that's been held in Mexico City since the 1500's. During the days leading up to the festival, people sell little straw mules around the metro stops, so I picked up a couple for our niece Libby and friend Tamie, who were due to arrive on May 22. When they arrived we had a quick lunch of margaritas, salad, quesadillas and aguas (water flavored with fruit) from Antojos Dany down the street and headed for the Zocalo. What better place to begin to know the city? Walking down calle Cinco de Mayo, we struck up a conversation with this fellow. Libby and Tamie were surprised at the friendliness of the city, in contrast to the warnings about crime you always hear. We lived in the centro, I took the metro to work every day and we used public transportation and taxis regularly; we had no negative experiences, happily.



On the Festival de la Mulitas, people dress their small children in regional costumes (and they don't mind your taking their photograph!), bring them to the cathedral and walk around the Zocalo. Corpus Christi is also celebrated on May 22, so we saw the procession of the Cardinal from the cathedral to a platform erected for mass to be celebrated in the Zocalo.




On Saturday we headed out for a day in the southern part of the city, San Angel and Coyoacan. We had told Libby and Tamie to expect surprises and to be flexible with plans. Good thing, because within five minutes on Avenida Juarez we came upon a beautiful parade of dancers in regional dress from various parts of Latin America, a celebration of the cultural diversity of the D.F.




We were a bit delayed getting away from the centro, but still found time to get to Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul and to the Dolores Olmedo Museum, which houses a great collection of works by Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, pre-Colombian art, and Olmedo's collection of travel souvenirs, not your usual trinkets. Besides exquisite taste, she had the money to amass an impressive collection. And, inspired by her mother's altruism, she left her home and collections to the people of Mexico, creating a wonderful oasis of calm and beauty. The buildings are set in a garden full of sculptures by Juan Soriano and others, peacocks, and the Aztec hairless dogs seen so often in Rivera's murals.