My semester abroad in Mexico began with an activity-packed orientation in Mexico City (also known as el D.F.). Thanks to the organization of our program director, youth leaders from Oaxaca and Puebla, and a tour guide, our group of a dozen American university students spent the first four days in Mexico gaining a broad understanding of Mexico’s rich history and culture. Here’s a brief overview of our orientation.
Day 1: Still somewhat tired from the previous day of travel, we began the day with a bang by taking the Metro to the zócalo (the main plaza in Mexico City) where thousands of people gathered for the upcoming Three Kings Day celebrations. Adjacent to the zócalo is the Palacio Nacional, home to murals by Diego Rivera. He’s one of my favorite Mexican artists so I was ecstatic to see the murals in person for the first time. Our tour guide talked us through the different periods in the history of Mexico represented through each of the murals. After which, we continued on to the Templo Mayor, one of the many sites of Aztecan ruins. Since Mexico City was originally a city of the Aztecs, various ruins have been uncovered as the city evolved. Today ruins can be found in locations as unexpected as the subway station.
My other big cultural adjustment of the day was the late lunch hour. Unlike in the States where dinner is the main meal of the day, in Mexico lunch is the primary meal and is usually served between 2 and 4 pm. Dinner, which is sometime between 7 and 9 pm is more like a light snack because the lunch (“la comida”) is so substantial. Our first group lunch together was in a nice restaurant on one of the small streets off of the zócalo. I had panuchos, which are a traditional Yucatecan dish of open-faced tortillas with frijoles, shredded chicken and picked onion. This was finished off with a dessert of café con leche and a mousse.
After lunch we passed by the Palacio de Bellas Artes to see more of Diego Rivera’s and other Mexican muralists’ works. The rest of the evening was spent on our own.
Day 2: The morning started out with a quick trip to la Plaza de las Tres Culturas, a site most famous for having been the location of la Mantanza de Tlatelolco on October 2, 1968 (violent student protests). Then we took a break from the city by taking a bus to Teotihuacan, pyramids that were built even before times of the Mayans and the Aztecs. There are two main pyramids, both of which we climbed: the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. Supposedly, the Pyramid of the Sun is the largest pyramid in terms of volume of all of Mexico. After a morning of climbing pyramids, we had lunch at a restaurant called La Gruta (“the cave” in Spanish) because it is built into a cave. There, I enjoyed a plate of cactus salad with rice and lamb cooked under a leaf of the Agave plant. The Agave (also called maguey) is perhaps one of the most versatile ingredients; the indigenous used it for paper, for thread, to cook with, to wash, and to make an alcoholic drink called pulque. I even had a dessert of candied agave fruits stuffed with raisins and nuts after lunch.
We concluded the day with a visit to the Basílica de Santa María de Guadalupe, one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in Mexico. There are actually two churches because so many pilgrims visited each year that the original church didn’t have enough capacity for such masses of people, so a very modern looking church was built next to it.
Day 3: Perhaps one of the most famous museums of Mexico City is the National Museum of Anthropology, which we spent the entire morning touring. Even if we had spent the entire day in the museum, there probably would have been more to see because the museum is huge. We saw the exhibitions of the ancient civilizations: the Olmecs, the Mayans and the Aztecs, primarily. Just outside of the museum was an example of the living traditions of these ancient civilizations: voladores (translates to “the flyers”). Four men hang upside down and twirl around a pole, and each of their turns indicates the passing of time according to the ancient Mayan calendar.
The afternoon was a pleasant surprise of a riverboat ride (trajineras) in a town south of Mexico City called Xochimilco. The town economy thrives off of these riverboat rides down the peaceful canal that is lined with flower gardens and houses. The canal is lined with other people enjoying a ride on the riverboats, along with vendors selling candied apples, flowers, toys, homemade tortillas and mariachi songs.
Day 4: The Artsy Day. Two of my favorite Mexican artists are Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, and today I got to see both of their artwork. We began with a visit to el Museo de Dolores Olmeda, which is actually the house of former model Dolores Olmeda preserved as an art museum. She collected many valuable pieces of artwork throughout her life, including many portraits that Diego Rivera painted of her. But what I found equally impressive as the house were the gardens surrounding the house. Peacocks, ducks and dogs roam freely throughout the gardens, creating an almost surreal atmosphere.
This was followed by a visit to la Casa de Frida Kahlo, the house in which she was born, grew up and passed away. It is a bright blue house on a European-looking street in a peaceful town called Coyoacán. The interior of the house is just as colorful, with walls painted in bright magenta, yellow and blue. There were some pieces of artwork by Frida and Diego, along with photographs and even some of their love letters. The best part was walking through the rooms and seeing the very bed in which Frida did much of her artwork. At the tender age of eighteen she was in a trolley car accident that marked the beginning of a life of physical ailments. Her artwork is so powerful because Frida painted from her heart, painting such painful emotions as the loss of her first child to the adoration that she felt for her husband Diego. Yet, perhaps what makes Frida’s work most everlasting is the fact that, while her emotions are an extreme of the spectrum, they hold elements of truth for all of us.
Our last evening in Mexico City was spent enjoying a ballet performance of traditional Mexican dance at the National Museum of Anthropology. Dance is one of the many ways in which Mexicans demonstrate cultural pride; from the elaborate costumes to the carefully planned choreography, there is pride in every step that they take.
In less than a week in Mexico City, I have solidified my understanding of history more so than any semester-long class taken in the States. But this is only the beginning of an entire semester of discovery.
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