Also at San Ildefonso was an exhibition commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Zapatista Movement. In 1994 the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, EZLN, coordinated a 12-day uprising in the state of Chiapas, Mexico in protest of the enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The organization’s goals were around agrarian reform and protecting indigenous rights. Though successful in promoting their programs in several cities in rural Chiapas, in the last several years they have been under threat by not only by their traditional opponents, paramilitary groups and the Mexican army, they are now threatened by narco cartels and a drop off in adherents. (Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapatista_uprising)
Stars in the firmament of Mexican culture: top left, Father Miguel Hidalgo, credited with uttering the cry for freedom that sparked the war of independence from Spain; top right Emiliano Zapata, one of the insurgent leaders in the Mexican Revolution; bottom left, subcomandante Marcos, first leader of the Zapatista movement; I don’t know who the guy on the bottom right is; and front and centre, Virgin of Guadalupe
A few photos from an excellent exhibition of three contemporary Mexican photographers at the Museo Archivo de la Fotografía.
And some random stuff
Quinceañera dresses. The Quinceañera is a coming coming out birthday for girls on their 15th birthday. It’s a big deal in Mexican culture as the dresses might suggest
The Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso is one of my regular stops on the museum trail. Once a prestigious Jesuit college, founded in 1588, San Ildefonso is considered to be the birthplace of the muralist movement in Mexico and has continued to be one of the premier art venues in the city. On this visit one of the featured shows was of works by Sergio Hernández, a new artist for me. I wasn’t wowed by the show but appreciated the skill and vision.
We were happy to be back in CDMX and settled into our little home away from home. And some very tasty ceviche.
And some crusty street art
We made a friend at Anys, where we live. Genevieve Desjardins is from Montreal and we spent time with her during her short stay.
One of the things she wanted to do while she was here was to see Lucha Libre and it had been on my mind as well never having seen this iconic Mexican spectacle. Introduced in Mexico during the French occupation in 1863, the Lucha libre became an integral part of Latin culture. At that time, the Mexican wrestler Enrique Ugartechea introduced the art of ‘free-style’ to traditional Greco-Roman combat, thus defining the foundations of Lucha Libre.
Lucha Libre has played an important role in Mexican culture since the late 1950s. The sport became famous mainly due to its masked wrestlers, who incorporated their own family traditions, beliefs and fears into the design of their masks, transforming an ordinary person into a fearless character.
I’d never really been tempted to go to Lucha Libre thinking it to be just a cheesy fake show. And, yes, it was cheesy and fake but a lot more as well and I was glad I went. It’s such a spectacle; the wrestlers/performers are thoroughly rehearsed and are actually quite accomplished athletes and gymnasts. Amidst much fanfare and hoopla, they emerge from a high platform wearing their outlandish regalia and descend a staircase in stately manner.
The crowd gets into it whooping and hollering “kill him, kill him”
These are some of the forms used for the construction of the sculptures built by the skilled, local carpenter, Jose Aguilar. James employed many locals in the construction of the gardens and injected a lot of money into the community. The project cost him $5million dollars and he had to sell his surreal art collection to raise the money.
Yes, it’s a spider
I have endless photos of the gardens but that’s enough for now. We had planned to stay another day but as the weather was turning to rain and there’s not much to do in Xilitla other than the gardens, we decided to cut our visit to Xilitla short and get the bus for Mexico City. It was a long 9hr bus trip, but at lease there was a bathroom on the bus and it was always interesting out the window. And we were happy to arrive back in Mexico City.
When we arrived in Xilitla, it was cloudy and wet from recent rains but for our day in the sculpture park it was perfect. Since my last visit there, they have been trying for UNESCO status so all sorts of rules and regulations have been imposed and, unlike when I was last there, one has to get a ticket in advance and go with a guide at a specific time. I was dismayed by this, having had such a wonderful time exploring the park on my own but I do understand the need for some regulation as people are inclined to do weird things otherwise and I guess they did. So we dutifully bought tickets and went at the appointed time for our tour. It turned out that it was just us and an English speaking guide, a nice you man. He gave us a good tour and I learned some new things about the park and it’s eccentric creator.
This is Sir Edward James, said to be the illegitimate grandson of King Edward VII, a collector and patron of surrealist art.
James and his compatriot Plutarco Gastelum who he originally hired as a guide but became very close to.
The gardens encompass some 80 acres (32 ha) of natural waterfalls and pools interlaced with towering surrealist sculptures in concrete.
I’m including photos that I took several years ago later in the spring than this visit when there were flowers everywhere.
We’ll leave you here for today and finish the tour another day
Our next destination after Queretaro was Xilitla, a small town in the jungle with a surrealist sculpture park created by a Sir Edward James. It was a seven hour bus ride on a second class bus, so no bathroom. There were some stops along the way but not many. No coffee in the morning and limited liquid intake. Though the bus ride is long, its very scenic. I’ve written about Xilitla a couple of times in the past and talked about it a lot to Kathryn so she wanted to see for herself.
Traveling east from Queretaro the highway goes through flat scrubby landscape with nondescript little towns.
This is one such little town whose chief industry is the marble quarry, hence the clouds of dust.
but then starts to ascend steeply on a windy, narrow road through sere high mountains.
Finally we reached Xilitla on a cloudy, damp afternoon, found our hotel, had dinner and called it a night.
Next day was beautiful so we looked around for a place to get coffee first thing and found a nice cafe in The central plaza in Xilitla, which was suddenly heavily occupied by the army.
I guess it was a slow day so you could even get them to take your picture.
Tall, thin buildings on steep hillsides.
And the occasional angel if you’re lucky
In the distance, the iconic peak, El Sellito
The big attraction of Xilitla is the surrealist sculpture park created by a wealthy, eccentric Brit expat, Sir Edward James in the 30s-40s. You can read about him here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Pozas Great story, a unique individual and unique place he created. This is his former home, now a hotel.
Otherwise the town isn’t much of an attraction and for someone whose mobility isn’t great it’s challenging owing to the fact that its very mountainous.
After passing it by once, we decided to stop and have a look at the MUCAL Museo del Calendario and we were glad we did. There was all the information about calendars you’d ever want, the history, the different kinds of calendars from different cultures and civilizations, and how they all work. As well there are lots of examples of Mexican calendar art that was popular in the early and mid twentieth century. But the real star of the show was the building itself, a remodeled 17th century mansion with beautiful gardens. It is the first museum of it’s type in the world, created under the sponsorship of the Landin Canendar factory.
Landin produced these iconic very Mexican calendars in mid 20th century.
The rooftop terrace
A joyful reunion for Kathryn and her long term zumba buddy, Rosie and her husband, Don who live in Queretaro.
Every day there was this frenetic ringing of the church bells down the street. This day we saw the ringer (he was alive).
This gal needed some consoling (the one on the left ;-))
From Guanajuato we traveled south to the city of Queretaro, a city of 1.5 million and capital of the state of the same name. It’s the fastest growing city in Mexico and a business/tech hub with a beautiful UNESCO world heritage centro historico and rated at one time as the cleanest city in Mexico. We just had a couple of full days there and took in some of the most important sites.
Templo y Exconvento de la Santa Cruz – 15th century church and convent
Views to the east with the famous aqueduct.
At the museum of contemporary art, a remarkable building with incomprehensible displays (and no paper or soap in the loo).
The Museo de Arte de Queretaro itself is a work of art of the colonial era Queretaro.
There we saw a remarkable exhibit of the sculpture of renowned Mexican artist, Jorge Marín.
Here it is, week three of our time in Mexico this year and I’m only now getting started on the first blog of the year. It’s been an eventful time since Kathryn and I got here. Upon arrival we stayed just two days in Mexico City before heading off for Guanajuato where we spent a lovely week. I’ve written a lot about Guanajuato over the years. It was my go to spot for several years until it lost it’s appeal for me and I discovered Mexico City. Nonetheless, I like to visit once in a while and Kathryn wanted to go there again after being smitten by it last year.
The view from our private rooftop terrrace
Church of San Francisco
Friends Michael and Rosann, who I met in Guanajuato several years ago, were there and we enjoyed time with them. Here enjoying shrimp tacos and ceviche.
At one of the museums in Guanajuato we saw a Leonora Carrington exhibit. Mary Leonora Carrington OBE was a British-born surrealist painter and novelist. She lived most of her adult life in Mexico City and was one of the last surviving participants in the surrealist movement of the 1930s. Carrington was also a founding member of the women’s liberation movement in Mexico during the 1970s. I’m not a huge fan of her paintings but like her sculpture and she is immensely popular in Mexico.
The little plaza where we stay, Plaza Mexiamora, doubles as a playground for an elementary school. Almost every morning, we are treated to the drum practice.
Who’d a thunk we’d see this in the middle of Mexico.
My oh my what a year it’s been! And what a topsy turvy world it is, getting topsier and turvier by the day. But let’s not dwell on that. On to a topic close to my heart.
As most of you know I returned to my happy place last winter and had what was one of the best stays ever in Mexico City.
It had been three years since I’d been there last but little had changed. Prices were a bit higher but still a bargain compared to home. Same great food, same great art and architecture, same genial people and a completely revamped bike share system. Nice new bikes and an expansion of the semi-protected bike infrastructure. I had many visitors which greatly enhanced my time. I never get tired of showing off this exciting city and most people are smitten by it. Charlotte spent some time with me there, a long standing fantasy realized and we had a great time.
My special friend, Kathryn, came for a month.
My niece, Kim, joined me for a week
As well as various and sundry other folks.
An exciting event of this past year for me was the release of an album of music from a psychedelic rock band that I was in in the 60s. A local musician, producer and archivist dredged up old recordings of the band, As Sheriff, over the course of 20 years and created an album. The release made a bit of a splash locally; we had an album release party, interviews with CBC and some local TV and radio media, reuniting with the few remaining former band mates.
I did venture off the island one other time in the past year for a little sojourn with Kathryn to her sister’s home in Vancouver. It had been many years since I’d been there last and the changes were huge.
I suppose it also counts as leaving the island to have gone to Gabriola Island with Kathryn where we shared a little house on a bay with her sister and family. A lovely place and a fine trip it was.
As always, my garden was a great source of pleasure not to mention a bounty of succulent veggies. My two biggest successes this year were the summer squash and the basil. I had a different type of yellow summer squash that I initially thought were zucchinis but where slightly different in shape, colour and taste. Delicious!
After a slow start, the basil took off. I had to reseed twice and resorted to buying some starts when the seeds were slow to germinate.
All things considered, it was a fine year. I continue to enjoy time with the local family and occasional visits from other family. Rolf and Tanzy came for a short visit and it was great fun reuniting at Charlotte’s place.
Lily also came.
Pretty soon Kathryn and I will be off to Mexico again. This time we’ll just touch down briefly in Mexico City before heading to Guanajuato. Having been smitten by it last year, Kathryn wanted to go back.
From there we’ll travel south a couple of hours to Queretaro, another large colonial city that I like.
Last stop before Mexico City will be Xilitla, a small town in the Sierra Gorda mountains renowned for a surrealist sculpture park created there by an eccentric British ex-pat.
After that we can finally settle in and relax in Mexico City for two months, if one really ever does relax in Mexico City. If you subscribe to my blog, I’ll keep you filled in. If you don’t and would like to, let me know. Otherwise, I send my love and wish you all the best as we continue our rotations around the sun.
Wanderings Onward 