Filed under: Photo, Update | Tags: Acapulco, animals, DF, flowers, food, Guanajuato, swine flu, transportation, Veracruz
Somehow the year has gone flying by, and I find myself with only a few weeks left before I head back to my other home, Chicago. While I haven’t quite left yet, the nostalgia is already kicking in, big-time…
Partial list of things I’m going to miss about living in Mexico City:
1) My Mexican family (if they don’t kidnap me to make me stay, as they often threaten)
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4) The weather. As much as bad weather doesn’t bother me, I’m going to miss knowing that every day the weather will be perfect.
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7) My neighborhood taco stand, and the sweet, sweet tacos campechanos it serves up.
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15) Neighborhood fruit stands (and other markets of all types). The Chicago farmers markets are great, but once or twice a week in summer doesn’t quite match every day all year, and low low prices. Plus, there’s no mangos or dominicos in Chicago.
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22) Guanajuato, Acapulco, Jalapa, and countless other cool cities to visit within a 5 hour bus ride.
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37) Bugambilia, Jacarandas, and all the other flowers that are everywhere in the DF year-round.
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44) The Metrobus. Having to wait more than 30 seconds for a bus to come is going to be a rough reminder of US public transportation.
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102) Boing de Guayaba, the startlingly addictive bright pink guava drink available at taco stands and convenience stores everywhere.
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1,345—1,347) (Tie) Toss up between mosquito bites, air pollution, and lack of Ethiopian food as what I will miss least
Fun Mexican Word: Tapaboca – Literally “cover mouth”, the tapabocas craze kicked off several weeks ago when swine flu hit the news. While their use has dropped since the end of April—perhaps because people calmed down about the “pandemic”, perhaps because pharmacies and hospitals ran out of them—they still are a fairly common site on the street in Mexico City.
Picture: La Granada waterfall. I’ve already posted several pictures of this, but as it was one of the coolest things I’ve done in Mexico up to this point (or maybe just the coolest thing I’ve done recently, but whatever) I think it’s earned the right to show up multiple times on the blog.
La Granada
Something I miss (aside from all of you, of course): Oak Street Beach. I expect to be playing Frisbee there the evening after I return. June 2, you know who you are.
Something I like about DF: The lizards that I see every day scampering away as I walk by their sunning spots. (If you’re interested, that’s #256 on the list from above)
Saludos,
See you Chicagoans soon,
k
It’s all been building up to this point, and it hasn’t been easy. Months spent acclimating to the city, making contacts, identifying locations, and becoming familiar with the necessary materials is all about to come together into the ultimate accomplishment of my time in Mexico. No, I’m not talking about my Fulbright project. I’m talking about “Taco Week”.
Yes, the humble taco, a tiny pair of tortillas, some meat, and a little chopped onion and cilantro, will be the focus of my attention for an entire week as I search high and low for the Perfect Taco. Will it be suadero in Del Valle? Pastor in Condesa? Tripa in Xochimilco? Carnitas in el Centro? There is only one way for me to truly find out.
My friends, I plan to eat a full 100 tacos in 7 days… and enjoy every last one. That’s more than 14 a day—easily two meals; a taco practically every hour and a half; enough corn flour, animal parts, and salsa to kill a weaker man. Stay tuned: I’ll post my notes and totals online from this epic challenge against fullness, intestinal parasites, and future coronary artery disease.
Ambitious? Yes. Delicious? Clearly. Completely and utterly disgusting? Absolutely.
“Taco Week” is simply a working title, by the way, so please, send some creative suggestions as to what I should call this timeless pursuit of glory…
I know it’s been a long time since I actually updated you all on what I’ve been doing, so here’s the last month and a half in abridged form: I finally made it to Michoacan for my project, and had a very productive interview with the director of Seguro Popular (the program I’m studying). After that, I took a couple days after that to travel around the state, enjoying both the historic, Spanish-influenced capital and the heavily indigenous island-village of Janitzio in mystical Lake Patzcuaro. Our midterm Fulbright reunion was towards the end of February, complete with each of us giving a presentation on our research (and other experiences). I spent about a week earlier this month back in Chicago, partly to take care of taxes/financial aid/a haircut, but mostly just as a birthday visit. The past few weeks have involved a few short trips, one hell of a soccer game, the same contacting-of-interviewees-problems on my project as before, many coffee shop hours spent relearning medicine, and, of course, many, many delicious tacos.
Fun Mexican Word: Porra – The serious fans at soccer games, as well as the cheers they do. A-mer-i-ca! AGUILAS! A-mer-i-ca! RAH RAH RAH! (not that I’d ever cheer for the NY Yankees of Mexican Soccer…)
Picture: Unfortunately, some fool left his camera in a cab at O’Hare when flying back to Mexico City. Lucky, that fool’s sister and girlfriend rescued the camera, though it remains in Chicago.
Statue on Janitzio, from the last Mexico set I have
Something I miss (aside from all of you, of course): Vegetarian food. I enjoy meat, and I love Mexican food (after all, why else would I do “Taco Week”?), but various vegetarian meals while home a few weeks ago reminded me how much I love those, too. While it’s not impossible to find the sort of vegetarian foods I like here, it’s definitely not particularly easy, either.
Something I like about DF: Art Deco buildings. They aren’t skyscrapers like most of the cool art deco in Chicago, NYC, Detroit, and other American cities, but smaller residential and commercial buildings stretching from el Centro through Roma, Condesa, and up and down much of central Insurgentes. Less cluttered than the heavily decorated colonial facades, with more character than the sleek modernism of newer buildings, and often painted bright colors, they make for very attractive streetscapes.
Saludos, wish me luck,
k
Mexicans are among the friendliest people in the world. Even in the busy metropolis of Mexico City it’s very common to have a complete stranger tell you “buen provecho” (the local equivalent of bon appetit) at a restaurant, help you with doors, or just greet you on the street. Basically, they want to be liked.
However, there is a downside to the Mexican desire to be seen as helpful and friendly, at least for us non-Mexicans unfamiliar with this custom. While Mexican will gladly tell you ‘yes’ when they are willing and able to help, they will rarely tell you ‘no’ when they are not. One example of this habit often occurs when asking for directions. It is almost certain that you will get detailed directions to your destination. Unfortunately, these directions are often completely fictitious and only serve to further confuse your path. In order to appear helpful, a Mexican would rather make up false directions to your destination than simply tell you they don’t know how to get there.
While providing false information to a stranger is one thing, dealing with friends or business associates is another. Instead of making up information on the spot, a Mexican will instead try to avoid having to provide any information at all.
How to say “no” in Mexican:
Step 1: Say yes.
Step 2: Avoid person who initially asked the question at all costs.
Step 3: If contact is unavoidable, assure the person that their request will be met “ahorita”.
Step 4: Repeat steps 2 and 3 as necessary until the other party gives up.
Where am I going with this? My project, of course. While I like to think of my project as moving along well, I am plagued by the Mexican “no”. There is undoubtedly a number of patients who I have and will interview who try to tell me what they think I want to hear. While frustrating, this is expected in survey research and not an overly grave concern.
The larger problem is instead the “Mexican No” I’m getting from the doctors who I’m looking to for help. I have called a doctor at the state health department of Michoacan nine times since I was initially put in touch with him last Monday, each day, and at different times. I have not been able to get him on the phone once yet, as he has always “just stepped out”. I left my phone number with a secretary Friday morning, but I have a hard time believing I’ll hear from him without making at least a few more calls. If this process has to be repeated with the four other state health departments I hope to meet with, I may go crazy.
Otherwise, the year continues to fly by. I’m starting to get to the point where I have brief moments of panic when I realize how much medical knowledge I’ve forgotten and that I’ll be back in the hospital in a few month’s time. For the most part, though, I’m content to just relax and enjoy Mexico City.
Fun Mexican Word: Maguey – Unlike several of Mexico’s other pre-Columbian agricultural products (corn, chiles, squash) that have become part of so many of the world’s cuisines, the versatile maguey is rarely grown outside of Mexico. Numerous species of maguey are heavily used in landscaping, and the plant’s fibers have long been used for in cloth-making. However, the most important products made from various maguey are all alcoholic—the frothy, fermented pulque; harsh, smoky mescal; and, above all, tequila, Mexico’s gift to the world of booze.
Picture: Eagle carving at the Monument to the Revolution. This fascinating dome was initiated during the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz, and was originally intended to be the new meeting chambers for the Senate. However, Diaz was forced from power before the building’s completion. Its shell was later repurposed into a monument celebrating the event.
La Aguila
Something I miss (aside from all of you, of course): Ethiopian food. Most food cravings can be at least partially satisfied one way or another in Mexico City. Within a short walk I can find Argentine, Chinese, Polish, Brazilian, and Japanese restaurants, and of course various Mexican options (plus American fast food, if for some inexplicable reason I feel like Subway or a Big Mac). Numerous other options are found throughout the city. While I have one lead on a possible “Indian/Ethiopian/Ghanian restaurant”—quite a combo—I think I’m probably just going to have to wait until I’m back in Chicago to fill this particular craving.
Something I like about DF: Cantinas, the traditional Mexican drinking hole. Have a few beers, get dinner free! Add dominos, live music, and a soccer game on TV and you are bound to have a good time.
Saludos,
k
Every Mexican city worth its wait in corn, beans, and chile peppers has witnessed a historic battle, usually a major point of local pride. Puebla had Cinco de Mayo, Zacatecas had the Toma, Guanajuato had the Alhóndiga, Queretaro had the end of Maximilian’s reign, Mexico City had… well, it’s probably had more armies come through than Belgium did during WWII. Such is the history of a country founded on conquest, freed through rebellion, re-conquered and re-freed numerous times for the next hundred years, and eventually overthrown and re-established (through, what else, a decade of battles) less than a century ago. A run down of a few of the ones I’m most familiar with:
Puebla, French invasion of Mexico, 1862. Contrary to popular belief, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day (that would be September 16th). Instead, it celebrates the victory of Mexican forces over the French Army in the defense of the city of Puebla, at that time Mexico’s second city. The victory possibly had more to do with severe diarrhea that had handicapped the French than anything else. What’s more, the French still managed to conquer Mexico within a year. Even so, it’s considered a significant victory in Mexican history.
Guanajuato, Independence Movement, 1810. After Father Hidalgo—Mexico’s George Washington—gave the Shout of Independence on the morning of September 16th in the town of Dolores, he led his rag tag army towards the city of Guanajuato. There, he and his forces laid siege to the Spaniards who had holed up in a large granary. It wasn’t until “El Pípila”, a local miner, tied a stone shield to his back and lit the doors on fire that the Mexican forces were able to overwhelm the Spaniards. Unfortunately, the Spaniards eventually managed to retake the city, and from the corners of the very same granary hung the heads of Hidalgo and three other prominent rebels.
Zacatecas, Mexican Revolution, 1914. Zacatecas, rich with silver, was one of the primary sources of wealth for the Mexican government. As such, the revolutionaries knew its fall would be a major blow for their cause. A large federal force guarded the city, and artillery had been set up on the surrounding hills, making its capture a daunting task. However, thanks to Pancho Villa and his División del Norte, the revolutionaries were victorious, and in cutting off much of the government’s income they broke the back of the ruling regime.
Chapultepec (Mexico City), US invasion of Mexico, 1847. Many people forget about this one in the States, which is interesting as California, New Mexico, and a lot of other territory would otherwise still be Mexican. The culmination of the battle involved the cadets of the Military Academy on Chapultepec Hill desperately fighting the American army before patriotically/idiotically (you choose) wrapping themselves in the Mexican Flag and jumping off a cliff to avoid capture. The Niños Héroes (as the 6 teenage cadets are now known) are remembered in street names and memorials in practically every city in Mexico.
As for my life in Mexico, all’s well. I spent last week in the northern city of Zacatecas, mostly just hanging out with my friend Zach but also getting some productive interviews done for my project. Additionally, I’ve begun to work on a second part of my project looking at insurance enrollment in a more quantitative fashion that hopefully I’ll be able to write a paper on (or ideally use as my MPH culminating experience). We’ll see how things go between now and June.
Obama’s inauguration was well celebrated by the ex-pat community here in DF, and several friends ended up being interviewed by multiple TV and print media journalists while watching the ceremony at the US Embassy library. Most exciting part of the night: finding a place that serves excellent bratwurst in Condesa. Hopefully I’ll have more fun stuff to tell you about soon, but until I get my next bank deposit from Fulbright I won’t be doing much.
Fun Mexican Word: Teleférico – Cable car. Not the San Francisco ding ding streetcar type, the gondola-like, dangle from the cable as you go up the side of a mountain type. As far as I know, there are two in Mexico, one in Zacatecas and one in Taxco. My excitement level (and by that I mean “fear of plunging to my death”) in riding Zacatecas’s teleférico was significantly diminished when I found out it was designed and built by a Swiss firm, not a Mexican company.
Picture:
Memorial to the Niños Héroes. One could think of this white marble memorial in Chapultepec Park as a giant middle finger towards the US in response for its 1847 invasion. Of course, being the understanding, live-and-let-live country we are, we decided to return the favor and build our embassy across from the Monument of Independence to remind them who’s in charge…
Something I miss (aside from all of you, of course): Having a bed I can fit on without lying down diagonal. I guess it’s probably not something most other people would miss here…
Something I like about DF: The availability of tortillas españolas, basically glorified omelets that make a perfect small meal while working in a café.
Saludos,
k
A list of relatively modest 2009 resolutions for Mexico City:
1) More public trash cans. Disposing a Kleenex, gum wrapper, or cigarette butt practically requires taking it home with you. Needless to say, there’s a lot of Kleenex, gum wrappers, and cigarette butts on the ground.
2) Better traffic enforcement. Running red lights is more the standard than the exception. Changing lanes randomly is considered a normal part of driving. Hitting a pedestrian in a cross-walk is clearly the pedestrian’s fault. And so on.
3) Sidewalk repair. A chip here or an uneven slab there would be normal. A 4 foot wide hole or a randomly placed knee-high pole should not be.
4) Don’t shut the subway and metrobus at 10 PM on New Year’s Eve (or early on weekends in general). There’s a reason most world cities extend/increase public transit service for a holiday that consists mainly of staying up to drink booze at midnight.
5) Stay cool.
Clearly this ignores a few major goals for Mexico (ending violent war with drug cartels, cleaning up the corrupt police force, narrowing the excessively large income gap, eliminating all-too-common kidnappings, etc) but accomplishing those things over the next year is about as likely as the US paying off the national debt in the same time frame. Feel free to comment with your own Mexico City resolutions.
The past few weeks here have been busy as tour guide/tourist with my family and later Annie. My family and I managed to cover an admirable amount of Mexico City—Chapultepec Castle, the Anthropology Museum, Zona Rosa, Condesa, the Basilica of Guadalupe, the Centro Historico, Tlalpan, the canals of Xochimilco—as well as celebrated Christmas Eve with my host family and take a trip to wine/cheese/empty water park country (i.e. Tequisquiapan). Annie and I opted to get out of the city and visit Guanajuato state’s twin colonial gems, Guanajuato city and San Miguel de Allende. I’ve got a week to get back onto a normal schedule and complete a few more interviews in Chapultepec park before I head back north to see a friend in Zacatecas, where I’ll continue the project and check out a city I’ve long wanted to visit.
So when are you going to come and visit? Yes you. Do you really want to squander your chance to experience Mexico with a fun and talented tour guide such as myself? I’m here through June 1st…
Fun Mexican Word: Moros con Cristianos – Literally meaning “Moors with Christians”, moros con cristianos is beans and rice. I’m guessing this one came over from Spain, as there aren’t many Moors in Mexico and most of the Christians around here aren’t exactly rice-white…
Picture:
La Parroquia, San Miguel de Allende
Easily the most recognizable landmark in the most gringo-infested town in central Mexico. While the main church sanctuary dates to the late 1600s, the distinctive façade is several centuries newer. Its design was based on a postcard of European churches by an indigenous Mexican architect with no formal training. Reportedly, the “blueprints” used to guide construction were drawn on the sandy ground with a stick.
Something I miss (aside from all of you, of course): Bike lanes; I know of maybe 2 in Mexico City, neither of which is very useful for me (assuming I had a bike). Then again, at this time of year the bike lanes in Chicago aren’t really of much use to me, either.
Something I like about DF: Plazas, particularly those that have sidewalk cafes. Mexico City, particularly in its older sections, is chock full of plazas, pocket parks, and pedestrian malls. What’s better than sitting in a plaza drinking cafe con leche? I mean, other than sitting in a plaza eating dried grasshoppers, of course…
Happy New Year! Hope all is well wherever you are.
Saludos,
k
Así es México, meaning roughly “That’s Mexico,” has come to function as both my explanation and justification for the unusual, illogical, and often downright strange things that one witnesses and experiences while spending time here. Three different counters, four shop attendants, and two receipts required for the purchase of 75 cents worth of ribbon? Así es México. The morning scrubbing of sidewalks? Así es México. Microbusses with black lights and speaker systems that put most dance clubs to shame? Así es México.
These types of oddities jump out to foreigners, but when asked, even Mexicans often admit to being confused by there existence. What explanation can their possibly be for three-step checkout procedures at the pharmacy, or traffic circles where the traffic does not actually circle? They simply shrug, and tell you “Así es México.”
Like most things, these peculiarities become less noticeable with time, eventually becoming the rule rather than the standard. Why wouldn’t you sell giant novelty pencils on the metro? Of course they sell antidepressants over the counter! Clearly a giant plate of tacos should be carried around the beach on your head. And so on. Still, every once in a while you find yourself caught off-guard and standing on the sidewalk scratching your head, wondering what you just saw. It’s to be expected, of course, because así es México.
Life in Mexico continues to flow along smoothly. My project has started back up again as I’ve begun a second round of interviews, this time in one of the main public parks in Mexico City. I’ve also gone to the International Human Rights Film Festival (largely organized by a friend’s roommate), took a one night trip to central Mexico’s wine-cheese-empty-water-park-and-mystical-giant-rock country, and visited the Basilica de Guadalupe for the annual pilgrimage to the Virgin. Next up: a visit from my family, followed by another from Annie.
Hope everyone has a fantastic holiday season and a happy new year. Let me know about any “Así es México” experiences you’ve had, even if it wasn’t actually Mexico, because it’s always fun to hear about the strange things people see on their travels.
Fun Mexican Word: Ahorita (often accompanied by a hand signal holding the thumb and pointer finger slightly apart) is generally translated to mean “in a little bit” or “soon”, but accurate interpretation requires taking Mexican Time into account. In this sense, it means something closer to “eventually” or “don’t expect it any time soon”.
Picture: The New Basilica de Guadalupe.
Unique, if nothing else
The original basilica has become Mexico’s response to the Leaning Tower of Pisa as the massive, heavy stone structure has been sinking and tilting for hundreds of years into the soft, former lakebed on which it was built. The two basilicas, along with numerous other chapels, plazas, and gardens, make up what is probably the holiest site in all of Mexico: the location on Tepeyac hill where the Virgen de Guadalupe appeared to San Juan Diego nearly 500 years ago.
Something I miss (aside from all of you, of course): Snow. Not the “three-day-old slush on the sidewalk” type, the “pristine, fluffy white snowflakes falling in the park” type. And even more so, the “compact, super fast sled-hill-covering” type.
Something I like about DF: The giant light displays that the Zocalo has for every major holiday–they are so huge and gaudy that they actually look good. I’ll make sure there are some more Christmas-in-the-Zocalo pictures soon.
Saludos,
k
Corn and Caviar
Many Americans imagine all of Mexico as a third world country, complete with donkeys roaming dusty village streets and poorly educated men in straw hats planting corn by hand. Mass immigration clearly plays a role in this perception; in large part, Mexican migrants to the United States truly are poorly educated, straw hat wearing farmers from rural villages where donkeys roam dusty streets. In some ways it’s not unlike the perception people might have of Americans if they’d only met back-country Appalachian folk and Native Alaskans—not incorrect, per say, but not exactly a balanced representation of the country’s population as a whole.
Similarly misleading, border cities such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez—seen by more Americans than any other part of Mexico—paint a disturbing picture of Mexican urbanity replete with drug trafficking, excessively high murder rates, and “anything goes” vice and sleaze. Again, consider the United States. While undeniably American, many of our own border cities—Detroit or Buffalo, for instance—do not provide a complete picture of urban life in the United States.
Like most of the modern world, Mexico is now a largely urban country. Nearly a fifth of the nation’s population lives in Greater Mexico City, one of the 10 largest metropolitan economies in the world. Millions more live in Monterrey and Guadalajara, two of Latin America’s wealthiest and most modern cities, while still more live in well developed cities throughout the industrial heartlands, in colonial gems and coastal resorts supporting the booming tourist trade, or in major ports shipping Mexican products worldwide. The country is the world’s 11th largest economy, has a higher per capita income than any other county in Latin America–Brazil, Argentina, Chile–and is home to the world’s second richest man. At the same time millions of Mexicans cross the border into the US, its own economic potential attracts immigrants from throughout the world.
Still, an image based solely on these positive statistics can be just as misleading as an image based solely on migrants and Tijuana. Mexico City may have luxury car dealerships, five star restaurants, and exclusive country clubs, yet it also has a veritable army of paupers willing to juggle in traffic, wash your windshield, or sell gum and cigarettes to the wealthy youth exiting the bars and clubs of Condesa or Polanco for a couple of pesos. While Carlos Slim, tycoon extraordinaire, makes billions from various enterprises, Mexico’s minimum wage is less than $4 a day (and even this only covers those with official employment; the millions of street vendors, food stall operators, and small store owners have no such guarantee). The straw-hat wearing farmers sell their hand-planted, hand-harvested corn for $13 per metric ton—it’s no wonder so many have chosen to forego this backbreaking labor to try their luck in the United States.
In a world where the gap between rich and poor continues to widen, Mexico sits firmly at the extreme leading edge—a country of billionaires and beggars; of Mercedes and donkeys; of gated communities and adobe huts.
Life here for me has, in a good sense, become largely routine. Rather than feeling like an extended vacation or a break from the real world, it has simply become ‘life in Mexico’–familiar and comfortable. My insurance project continues to creep along—I’ll restart interviews in December, while in the meantime i’ve read journal articles, continued transcription and analysis, and planned for the coming months. The patient education project I’m working on with several other people continues to develop. I’m not sure when it’ll actually be up and running, but hopefully sooner than later. Before too much else happens down here, however, I’ve got a 2 week ‘vacation’ back home for Thanksgiving 
Fun Mexican Word: Güero/a – If you look it up in a dictionary, you’ll see it defined as blond(e). As the number of blond Mexicans outside of Mexico City’s highest social circles is approximately zero, that’s not how the word is commonly used. Instead, it’s used to mean someone with lighter coloring in general. For example, I’m oftencalled güerito (“little blondy”) by bus drivers, street venders, etc, even though I’m neither blond nor small…
Picture: Towers of the Mexico City cathedral. During reconstruction work, a time capsule contained in the stone sphere crowning the east (in the photo, back) tower was opened. Inside were books, coins, and other artifacts several hundred years old, dating back to before Mexico was even an independent country. It has since been replaced with a new time capsule intended to be opened in several centuries’ time.
Mexico City Cathedral: Older than John McCain
Something I miss (aside from all of you, of course): Pumpkin Pie. I won’t have to miss it for too long, though! The current over-under for how many I will eat over the 12 days I’m home is something like +4.5.
Something I like about DF: The street naming conventions. It’s similar to the president streets in the Loop or Great Lakes streets in Streeterville in Chicago, except on a much larger scale. Mexico City streets in any given area tend to have names built around a common theme. Rivers of the world, famous doctors, US states, Greek philosophers, worker’s moment terms (Progess, Union, Prosperity, etc), and so on. As I write this, I’m not far from the intersection of Hamburg and Florence, just past Stockholm, in the European Cities section of town.
I’ll be flying back to the States on Wednesday and will get back to the Chi on Thursday (and eventually Ro/Ro for Thanksgiving). Hopefully on Saturday night we can festejar un poco? Let me know if you are around and free.
Saludos,
k
World of the Living, Day of the Dead
Aside from serious punks, Goths, and occasionally pirates, few people in the United States think of the human skull—a symbolic representation of death—as a decorative motif for all occasions. In Mexico, however, the skull is seen as appropriate adornment for everything from baby clothes to baked goods to candelabras. It is hard to overstate their popularity—for example, perhaps you remember the Tim Burton movie “Nightmare Before Christmas”. While few people in Mexico have actually seen the film, the entire country recognizes Jack Skelington—and at least half the population owns an object with his likeness—due to his extensive presence on everything from backpacks to window stickers to socks.
While skulls are a common sight year round here, their intensity has been kicked up several notches during the past several weeks. I am able to see fifty-four pictures, models, and stencils of skulls in the café where I’m currently seated. There is a skeleton nun, skeletons drinking tequila, skeletons getting married, skeletons dancing, skulls sitting on tables, a skull grim reaper, skeleton mariachi…. And the list goes on. I have eaten Pan de Muerto (Bread of the Dead), chocolate skeletons, and tamarind-sugar skulls. I have seen skeletons on stilts. I have seen more paper mache, clay, and plastic skeletons than you can shake a stick at.
Halloween likely played at least a minor role in the sudden explosion of skeleton-related décor, but the primary cause was without a doubt Día de los Muertos, Mexico’s famous “Day of the Dead”. An ancient and cherished tradition throughout Mexico, Day of the Dead celebrates the return of the spirits of the deceased to the world of the living. Ofrendas, altars decorated with pictures of the departed, golden marigolds, and yes, skulls, are built, and gifts to the spirits—cigarettes, candy, beer—are left for their enjoyment. It is a colorful, celebratory affair, far from the funerary atmosphere one might expect. Rather than mourn the passing of loved ones, it celebrates their lives. In a sense, one might say Mexicans embrace death as a part of life, perhaps moreso than any other culture in the world.
In short, the skull represents death every bit as much in Mexico as it does in the United States and elsewhere. The difference lies instead in what death represents.
Skeletons aside, life’s been good in Mexico as of late. While I haven’t been particularly busy with my primary project, I have begun several side persuits. The first is a possible future study on how patient advocacy is taught during medical training, the other is a patient education project in rural Mexico with another Fulbright fellow and several Mexican healthcare providers (on a related note, if you have any patient health promotion-type materials please let me know). I made it to a pair of costume parties over the weekend as Michael Phelps, who apparently has quite a following among Mexicans as everyone seemed to want a picture with me. Other than a day trip to Mexico state, it’s been a while since I left the city. However, I plan on spending the weekend in Acapulco (you can hate me, it’s ok) which will be a nice change of pace.
Fun Mexican Word: La Catrina – Aside from the Virgin of Guadalupe, there is likely no image as widely recognized in all of Mexican culture. First appearing as a 1913 metal etching by Jorge Posada, a printmaker and political cartoonist, this female skeleton dressed in fashionable clothing and ornate hat of the period now appears in costumes, paintings, and ofrendas throughout the country.
Picture: Giant skeleton at UNAM (the national university). One of the many ofrendas put up to commemorate Dia de los Muertos on the campus quad.
A well dressed skeleton makes his way through UNAM
Something I miss (aside from all of you, of course): Non-Mexican beer. While I generally like Mexican beer it’s basically all the same, which is to say incredibly light. I’m taking a 6-pack of the heaviest stout I can find back with me in November. Anyone who comes visit will be asked to do the same.
Something I like about DF: Street and market vendors. I’m not sure which is more impressive, the sheer number or the overall variety of their wares. 50 gallon stew pots? Check. Cactus paddles? Check. Bootleg porn DVDs? Check. It’s not an exaggeration to say that one could easily live here without ever setting foot into a formal store.
Hope all’s well in Chicago (for those of you there) and everywhere else for the rest of you. Enjoy the election tomorrow, I know I will.
Also, I’ll be home on the 20th for a week and a half or so; let me know if you’ll around Chicago or Ro/Ro and want to meet up.
Saludos,
k
El Mariachi Loco Quiere Bailar
Chile peppers, sombreros, and tequila may all be strongly associated with Mexico, but even these can’t quite match the Mexicanismo of a night full of mariachi music—in large part because it generally involves all of the others to one extent or another. While the state of Jalisco is the true home of the Mariachi (as well as tequila… coincidence?), Mexico City’s Plaza Garibaldi almost undoubtedly has the highest density of Mariachi groups anywhere in the universe. During the day, this dusty plaza on the northern edge of the Centro Historico is underwhelming—if not downright unpleasant—populated primarily by homeless drunks and stray dogs. As afternoon blends in to evening however, musicians slowly begin to trickle in. At first, they are primarily old men with heavily worn guitars, willing to play an out-of-tune love song for 10 pesos, and inexperienced ensembles looking to break in their mariachi chops. As evening blends into night, they are slowly replaced with established groups of 8, 10, or even 15 confident, well-dressed men (read: guys in matching suits with lots of buttons and/or gold embroidery) offering a full repertoire of time-honored songs, many times complete with choreographed movements of horns, violins, and guitars of various sizes. Surrounding these hundreds of musicians is a crowd teetering on the brink of complete chaos, indulging in tacos, tequila, and liter sized Micheladas (a combination of chile powder, lime juice, and most importantly, beer). As night drifts steadily towards morning, the crowd becomes rowdier by the minute. While a fight or two may break out (complete with flying glass bottles!) and briefly seize the plaza’s attention, the real entertainment remains the musicians, playing the same songs that mariachis have been playing for decades, perhaps even centuries.
And just in case someone is not interested in hearing Cielito Lindo for the 42nd time, there are clubs, bars, and “table dances” all over.
In addition to several late nights (early mornings? not-so-early mornings?) in Garibaldi, I’ve been busy (finally) with my project. “Busy” may be a bit of a stretch, but the point is it has started and I’m interviewing, transcribing, and planning most days of the week. While I haven’t made any groundbreaking discoveries, the project has started off quite well. People are generally willing to talk and don’t hold back about what they see as benefits and problems in the health care system here. I’m hoping to interview medical students sooner than later (NU med kids—expect a possible companion project in the States when I return…), as well as spend a couple of weeks in the city of Zacatecas interviewing patients there.
Outside of the project, Annie was able to visit for a weekend (wonderful but way too short), I had dinner with a high school friend who it turns out lives here as well, I keep teaching Vicky the maid English (funny story there… ask if interested), and continue eating my weight in corn/cheese/chile based foods.
Fun Mexican Word: Caguama – basically, a 40. We’ve joked about playing “Eduardo Caguama-Manos” (manos = hands) at some point; for our livers’ sake I hope it stays a joke. Interestingly, they’ve now started selling what they call a Caguamon…27% more beer than a caguama!
Picture: Night taco stand, Guanajuato.
A nighttime snack
Something I miss (aside from all of you, of course): Being able to fit on a train (even if it’s uncomfortably crowded) during rush hour. I never thought I’d find myself wishing that more people drove, but after spending a half hour trying to get on the metro without success (and this is with huge trains coming every 2-3 minutes or so) I definitely felt that way. You haven’t seen a crowded subway until you try taking the booger-green line in Mexico City at 7 pm or so.
Something I like about DF: Churros. Sure, you can get churros in the states, but the overall quantity and quality here can’t be matched. Mmmmm, churros….. now I’m going to have to get some on the way home…
Anyway, hope everything is going well back home. I’ll be around for a week and a half or so around Thanksgiving, hopefully I’ll see some of you then. And let me know when you are coming down to visit; we both know you want to see Mexico. Especially the mariachi.
Saludos,
k
I’m running on Mexican time now. This is basically just a nice way of saying that I take forever to do things, and expect the same from others. For example, I’m in the process of registering as a foreign national in Mexico. This needs to be done during the first month in the country, which for me means by Thursday. I finally got my forms completed yesterday; I’m going to be waiting all day for a copy of my host mom’s ID to prove I live with her, and then I expect all day tomorrow to be spent in various lines with other foreigners hoping to collect all the stamps necessary to be legal (I think something like 17% of the Mexican government’s annual budget is spent on rubber stamps. Yes, I just made that up, but it honestly feels like that could be true). I think in the US this same process would probably be completed in 15 minutes by filling out an online form, but then again I’d miss out on all the cool stamps.
I’m hoping to start my project in October, as well as spend the month rotating with Mexican medical students at one of the hospitals here in the city. I’ve gotten confirmation from the doctors I’m in contact with that both are in the works so theoretically there’s a good chance they’ll happen soon, but there’s an equally good chance I’ll spend another month waiting for both to actually get rolling. Mexican time strikes again.
My Chinese classes (my one productive-feeling activity) have been going well. I’m now able to say such useful phrases as “My little brother’s phone number is 815xxxxxxx”, “Do you want coffee?” and “I am not Mexican”. I think my host family probably thinks I’m a little nuts when they hear me sitting in my room mumbling things like “Wŏ shì mĕiguó rén”, and in their defense they would probably be right. It’s fun though, and gives me a scheduled activity at least 2 nights a week. And perhaps most importantly, as it’s run by Chinese and not Mexicans, it actually happens when it’s scheduled.
Fun Mexican word: Callejoneada – Imagine 25 young Mexicans (15-30 years old or so). Now imagine they are dressed in fancy medieval costumes and carrying a variety of unusual string instruments. Now, imagine that you are wandering around steep alleys and hidden plazas with 40 other people watching this group sing 500 year old ballads. All while drinking. Yeah, you don’t find that in the States…
Picture: From a march protesting several recent kidnappings and demanding the government take action. I’m not sure if anything concrete was accomplished, but it was an impressive and moving demonstration.
La Marcha en Blanca - Crowd gathers at the Angel
Something I miss (aside from all of you, of course): Lake Michigan. I miss the sudden change you get going from the skyscrapers of the city to the nothingness of the lake.
Something I like about DF: The plants. It’s amazing how things grow here. There are waist high impatiens, 12 foot tall poinsettias, Calla lilies that grow practically as roadside weeds, what might be coffee trees that scatter their beans all over the sidewalk, and more sculpted ficus trees than you can shake a stick at.
Viva Hidalgo! Viva Morelos! Viva Allende! Viva México! Viva México! Viva México!
Hope all’s well back home.
k
