From Xico

Muy beautiful and interesting paintings of Veracruz by Teodoro Cano

Now that I've got your attention via my trip to the emergency room (remember how good care is here, please, and how cheap...people here regard health care as a right as stated in the Mexican Constitution and it makes them angry when it isn't always as available as it should be, definitely a problem for some.  The notion that it is a business and for profit and filled with bureaucracy and limited access and too many machines and not enough primary care physicians, etc etc a la the US is alien here) ... but I digress....

I wanted to tell you about the wonderful artista veracruzano Teodoro Cano.  

If you remember, we took a long walk down Calle Revolución a week or so ago.  Our walk didn't end at the bottom of the street, but continued on across Parque Benito Juarez, down the stairs and into La Pinacoteca Diego Rivera.

You can click on the pictures for a larger version.

Here is the entrance to the Parque Benito Juarez:

 

The Pinocateca is under the far end of the park.

This head is one of Cano's sculptures.  It stands watch in front of the entrance to the Pinocateca, as you can see.  You can also see the railing of the park above.

The head dress reads Papantla, and Cano is from Papantla.  It's in northern Veracruz, near The Gulf of Mexico, and it is a Totonac region, as is much of our area, including the rural areas around us.  Papantla is the home of the Voladores, the dancers you see swirling on ropes high above the ground in tourist pictures of the region. 

Teodoro Cano is Totonac and the region is called Totonocapan.

There are majestic Totonac ruins at El Tajín, near Papantla, and a bit further south you can find the smaller Cempoala, the city where Cortés was welcomed on his trip up to Tenochtitlán to meet Moctezuma. But that's just a tiny part of Totanaco history and heritage.  More to follow in a later post, since we visited Cempoala yesterday and I have a whole hoard of new photos.

Cano is a muralist, and like most muralists, he developed a stylized approach.  In his paintings, he brings tremendous warmth and love and empathy. Below you will see a sampling of what we found at La Pinocateca.  Imagine them, for the most part, large and richly colored. I took some at an angle to avoid reflection, which distorts them somewhat.  And the photos do not reflect the color and depth at all.

We start with a procession of La Virgen de Guadalupe who is a constant undercurrent in the life of all Mexico.

 Below is a painting called City of the Gods.  And of course prehispanic, indigenous religion is as much a current as is Christianity.  If not more, I'm beginning to think.  You know La Virgen herself is syncretic.  In the picture below, you see the vivid old spirits tumbling among the temples and walls of the Totonac city of Tajín.  Notice the reliefs on the walls, too.

 

This is a picture of a velaria, a wake. In our colonia, velarias are not much different. The original people who settled here in Ursulo Galván were Totonac, though not everyone is even part Totonaco (obviously).  
As you see in the picture, in the back people are gathered inside around the coffin. Outside, they are eating and talking.  When someone dies, people go among the neighbors for offerings of food, beans particularly, and money for the velario. Recently in our colonia, a woman in her early 60s died walking with her daughter near the soccer field.  Tere says she had been sick with cancer, and finally just gave out.  That night, a group of young men came to our house and everyone else's for the offerings for the velaria.  You see in the picture what looks like a floating piece of cloth towards the top.  Here, and I imagine in most places today, a plastic tarp is put out over part of the street for people to sit under. I'm always startled to see that the poles holding it up are just balanced on the concrete.

And now a wedding.  

As you can see, there are awnings here, too.  In our colonia, every celebration takes place in the street outside the houses of the people throwing the party.  The street is roofed with tarps especially if there's any chance of rain, the entrances blocked with rocks.  

 

The next two pictures show aspects of Día de los Muertos....or as we've learned here, Días de los Muertos since there are several days involved. See how comfortably death is mingled with life in the imagery. And look at the ofrendas, the offerings for the dead.

 

 
A mother making preparations for El Día.  I think she is making tamales.  In the foreground, I think are stuffed jalapeños. And a cat.

 

A Posada, the procession through the community looking for (and finally finding) a place for Mary and Joseph and Jesus.  In our community, these happen for maybe ten days before Navidad.

And Navidad:

 

Here, Christmas is celebrated late on Christmas Eve into very early morning Christmas Day, after the Mass celebrating the birth of Jesus.  

Below are some smaller paintings, mostly.  

This one is called Felicidad.

 

María descansando (María resting)

 

Lluvia de oro (Rain of Gold) 

Mujer en la playa (Woman on the beach)

  

And here again is one filled with people, called La Feria (The Fair). You can see people riding on the carousel.

 

A photo of Teodoro Cano repairing a mural:

 

And, to finish up, a portrait of the artist.

 

The two photos above are from an article in El Sol de San Luis which also appeared in El Diario de Xalapa, written by María Elena Ferral. I'm in the midst of translating the article and will try to finish it. Unfortunately, I have misplaced the link.  I will look for it.
 

 
 
 
 
 

My Trip to the Emergency Room (Yikes!)

We went to Xalapa Friday evening to have a birthday dinner for a friend with some other friends.  We had a lovely meal, and then we all walked the two or so blocks over to El Teatro del Estado for the symphony. And then we got into the theater and got our seats and started to sit down and I got dizzier than I've ever been. So I put my head on Jim's shoulder and closed my eyes hoping like mad that it would just fade away.  But it didn't.  It got worse.  To be altogether too graphic, I started to barf.  And barf and barf. I couldn't stop.  RIGHT THERE IN THE THEATER!  It was awful.  BUT a bunch of symphony people and John and Jim got me out and down to the bathroom.  I couldn't stand up or walk by myself.  In the bathroom, it became obvious things weren't going to improve.  They -- Jim, John, and the symphony people decided to call an ambulance which, on the one hand, seemed way too dramatic, and on the other, seemed like the only thing to do since I couldn't imagine how I could otherwise get to the car.  So I had my first trip in an ambulance.  I was trying very hard not to open my eyes, since that just made everything worse, but I was aware that everyone helping was gentle and patient with me and soft-voiced. 

The ambulance bumped (inevitable here) its way to the hospital, siren going for me.  When we got there, I was moved from the ambulance guerney to a hospital guerney and then to a wheelchair and then to a room, barfing and dizzy all the way.  I really thought I was going to die.  Jim was right there the whole time.  I know now for the first time one of the real benefits of a marriage to someone you love.  He just stayed and stayed and helped and wiped my face and was so good to have around.  John, my brother-in-law, knows good Spanish.  Jim's Spanish is much better than it was, but it failed him under the circumstances to some degree, so John calmly and competently took over the communications making sure he and Jim understood everything right. I don't know what we would have done without him, since I was rendered speechless and useless by my problems.

Anyway, I was given intravenous solutions and a shot in the rear and over a number of hours, the world stopped spinning and I could open my eyes and my stomach calmed.  And the whole time, people in the hospital were gentle and kind and soft-spoken and very attentive.  I couldn't have asked for better care.

The whole thing, including ambulance cost about 900 pesos, about 80 dollars. 100 pesos for admission to the emergency room and 70 dollars for the medicines they gave me and the medicines Jim and John bought for me to take home.  The ambulance cost nothing.  And there was NO paperwork.  They asked Jim more than me my name, my full name, asked my birthdate, and then asked medical questions pertinent to treatment.  

By Saturday morning, I was fine, just a bit weak.  Yesterday even better, and today we did our morning run.

I don't understand the mess US medicine is in.  I just know that people who have been in far worse straits than I have also found the system here more what you'd like to have when you're sick, not only from the point of view of being reasonably up to date and competent, but for being, yes, kind and gentle.

Anyway, the general feeling seems to be that I was the victim of some kind of food poisoning.  Jim and I wondered what might have happened if I hadn't gotten treatment.

The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver: Read It!

TypePad is back with its features, and I'm not ready! Or I am, but right at this moment I can't do anything substantial. All I am going to do is tell you that The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver is a book you really, really ought to read for many reasons.

Perhaps the first reason is that the first half of the book, set mostly in Mexico City will blow you away.  It is possibly the best non-Mexican-written portrayal of Mexico I have ever read. And for you who don't read Spanish, of course it's in English. It is rich in description of the stuff that at least some of us Americans who love living here love about Mexico: stuff I can't really pinpoint in a list, but which permeates me. 

The second reason is that the characters are fully brought to life, very sympathetic, captivating, heart-breaking.  Kingsolver merges historical people with fictional flawlessly.  Her hero, the fictional Harrison Shepherd, will live on in your soul after you finish.  Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and especially Leon Trotsky will, too.  I have no idea if her versions of these people are accurate, but I don't really care, so interesting and rich are they in the novel, so flawlessly mixed into the story.

When the novel moves to Asheville, North Carolina, I feared that it wouldn't be so interesting.  In Poisonwood Bible, Kingsolver lost vibrance when the story moved to the US.  The US just isn't, at least at first glance, as luminous, as rich in life as Mexico or parts of Africa that she writes about and that I know.  But here, she rises to the challenge.  The mood, the setting, are completely different from Mexico. Asheville is more sturdy greens when it is vibrant, and browns and grays.  But persist, and you will be drawn in as much as you were into her Mexico.  The story turns political, and it also turns tragic, enraging and into a most remarkable love story.

Kingsolver describes the growth of anticommunist witch hunts stirred up by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee and carried out eagerly and sometimes with a bit of shame throughout the US by describing the effects on Harrison Shepherd.  It is eerie, frightening and all too contemporary.  It is hard to imagine this happening again in large parts of the country, yet it isn't really, not when you read this book. Kingsolver captures beautifully our country's tendancy to fall into mindless, hateful, harmful extremes of behavior.  I found myself so upset that at first I skipped sections so I wouldn't have to deal with them.

This isn't a traditional novel.  The story is told, the characters described first through the diaries of Harrison Shepherd, then and increasingly through newspaper articles and book reviews, all giving a sense of immediacy and a sense of foreboding.

The last book I liked this much was Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.  Both books are alive, characters in both so much of flesh and blood that it's hard to remember they never really lived.

NOTE: I am typing this into the skinny little "quick compose" window on my typepad dashboard. It has no editing features and I can't make links. More details will follow if and when they get the damn thing up and running as it should.

The Abortion Issue in Mexican Public Opinion

There have been no angry demonstrations or bombing of abortion clinics or murders of clinic doctors here in Mexico, as far as I know, but the abortion issue is a topic of much interest. A new survey (Dec 2009) by Consulta Mitofsky offers some insight into Mexicans' attitudes. I'lll summarize for you.
--There is growing approval of the majority of methods of contraception and "Interruption of pregnancy." Remember, in Mexico, schools provide full sex education.

In 2008
+ condoms received 94.3% approval from the general public.
+ contraceptives received 87.7% approval
+The morning after pill received 70.1% approval
+ Abortions received 35.8% approval

in 2009, looking only at abortion:
+ among the whole popoulation, against abortion at least in part, 45.3%
+ among the whole population, those in favor of at least in some circumstances, was 48.8%
Broken down into groups,
those in accord partly or completely with the legalilzation of abortion:
men: 48.1
women: 49.5
Not in accord partly or completely:
men: 48.1%
women 45.7%
Men who didn't know or had no opinion: 7.1%, women: 4.8%
Age:
18-29: 53.6%
30-49: 51.0%
50 and over: 37%
Don-t approve by age:
18-29: 40.9%
30-49: 51%
50 and over: 37.2%
The no-opinion or don't know crowd was largest among the fify ad over at 8.4%. 30 to 49 year olds were at 4.7%, 18-29 year olds were at 5.5%.
By education:
None or just primary: 35.9% approved, 56.1 disapproved, 8.0% no opinion/don't know.
secondary/preparatory school: 53.1 approved, 1.5% disapproved, 5.4% didn't know, no opinion.
University or higher: approve, 63.3% approved, 34.3% disapproved.
Location:
Urban: 52.5% appprove, 41.5 disapproved
rural: 31.8% approved, 62.== disapproved
Region:
North: 43.8% approved, 48.7 % disapproved
Bajio: 37.1 approved, 59.7% disapprove
Centrol de México; 62.6 approve, 29.00 disapprove
Sureste: 2.8 approve, 53.9 disapprove

Also changing:
in April 1907 73.9% of the population thought abortion ought to be a crime, 19.7% thought it shouldn't be.
In April 1909 it had fallen to 41.1% thought it should be a crime, and 45.7% thought it shouldn't be.

This is broken down, too, but I am getting very impatient typing in this skinny "quick compose" box with no edit features. I will put in more later.

I am getting really impatient trying to type all this into the skinny "quick compose" box on typepad...with no editing features. I will save the rest for more

Typepad responded: seems they are having technical problems. They suggested I (and I imagine many other users) try a hard refresh: failed. Empty history and cookies: I am unwilling to. Change browsers temporarily; I may yield to this at some point, but really don't want to.

GRRRRRR.
So I will follow this with another unillustrated post....I am looking forward to letting you all know about the Veracruz artist/muralist Teodoro Cano and a bit about his world, as well as showing you some of his art. Stay tuned.

HEALTH CARE REFORM NOW! CHECK OUT THIS SITE: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/health-care-action-center/?source=20100209_ms_launch

A couple of nights ago, we were discussing health care in Mexico vs. in the US and decided that probably more poor people (as well, of course, as not poor people) in Mexico got adequate health care than did in the US. This is because there are programs and services that give at least basic care to just about everyone. I will write more later.

I am writing this in the "quick compose" place for posts on my dashboard because I have been UNABLE to open the regular "compose" window for three days now. I have emailed typepad about it, but have not heard back.

GRRRRRR!!!!!

Guajolotes and Eating Meat

I think I mentioned that we went to Doña J's birthday party last Monday. We had chivo, which is goat, and guajolote en mole.  The goat, Don A told us, is a specialty of Monterrey.  It was baby goat.  I couldn't eat more than a bite -- I'm just an old softy: I can't bring myself to eat lamb or veal eithr -- but Jim ate it and liked it.  the guajolote (the j is pronounced like the "ch" in challah, like in Yiddish, the final "e" is also pronounced) was from Doña J's poultry flock which runs around in an ample yard at the side of the house.  The mole was from Hidalgo, the state just north and west of Veracruz.  It was quite different from what we get here.  It was quite savory, not at all sweet, and made with squash seeds (pipián) that made it crunchy and gave it a very good nutty flavor.  

Guajolote as you may remember is turkey. It is a Nahuatl word, prehispanic. It appears there is another word, too: hueyxolotl, which means big monster, also in Nahuatl.  The Spanish word for turkey is pavo. Mexicans domesticated the turkey.more than a thousand years ago.  Turkey was brought from Mexico to Europe in 1511 where it evolved with human assistance partway towards what we have today in US supermarkets.  THOSE turkeys, the ones USAers buy around Thanksgiving and Christmas I hear are so overfed that they can barely stand up. Some of these are bred in Mexico for sale to the US.  I learned that the Latin for guajolote is Meleagris gallopavo on a blog post about guajolotes written by someone involved in agriculture called El campo es vida [agropecuario]. Unfortunately, the "about me" [Mas de mi] link was nonfunctional, so I couldn't find out anything about the author.

In our neck of the woods, guajolotes still resemble their ancestors.  I was sure I had a picture -- more than one -- of a guajolote, but it was taking me too long to rummage through my somewhat chaotic photo archives, so I took one from Wikipedia.There are lots around here.  When we walk across the little river in the rural ejido land which surrounds us, we pass a small homestead with guajolotes mingling with the chickens.  Sometimes we see them in the colonia, too, but not so often because, I imagine, since they are bigger than chickens, they need more space.  What people around here call guajolotes look kind of like turkeys, but not really. I think they must still be close to the wild guajolotes.  Here is a picture from wikipedia of a wild guajolote:

 

Here is an engraving by an artist named  Josefa García which looks more like what I'm accustomed to seeing around here:

I've now eating guajolote twice, both times a drumstick.  The bone is long and thick, the meat dark, smooth and very good.  Not fat like a US drumstick.

I like guajolote a lot better than baby goat though I still am too citified to want to think about eating a creature that was just that morning happily running around with the chickens next to the house I'm eating it in.  Yesterday Roger Cohen wrote a column in the NY Times talking about the Chinese eating dogs, and an effort in China to ban this.  How silly, Cohen thought.  It's all really how we are brought up.  It was an interesting column.  These days, I vary between having a hard time eating meat at all and feeling that eating meat is just part of the chain of existence.  I probably won't be eaten by other people, but I will be eaten by bugs and worms and swallowed into the earth unless I am too well preserved, which I hope I'm not. On the other hand, I cannot eat meat from animals raised in hideously confining conditions as if they had no feelings, condemned to terrible, short lives before they are consumed.

Obama and Mexico

There is no doubt in my mind that we are extremely fortunate that Obama, not John McCain is president.  What we have in Obama, so far, is a president who is far from perfect but who lives in the real world. But I am no longer so favorably disposed to him.  While his administration has done some really good things (see the FDA) he is a president who nonetheless deserves much criticism -- what president wouldn't under the current circumstances? What an impossible job!  Nonetheless, no one told him he had to run for the office, so he should listen to the advice of others, especially when it comes to sources more informed than those who surround him.

The area of criticism that most interests me is how he and his administration are dealing with Mexico in three areas: e/immigrants, the trans-border drug situation, and trade. He is certainly showing no hint of enlightenment in these areas.  I would be very interested to know if he is getting any information from his ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual, a man who may know better than the people in Washington. I'm going to see if I can find any information on how Pascual has been doing his job.

Today, however let's look at e/immigrants, and from the perspective of El Universal, the big Mexican daily (a newspaper that is a lot of fun to read, is very informative, and makes good use not only of print but of the internet).

The headline of the article in yesterday's paper reads:

"Obama wants to win points at the cost of migrants"

The article continues (my translation)

Migrant groups describe the hardening of immigration policy in the United States as electionerring and say that it is a response to [Obama's] loss of popularity.

The decision of the Obama administration to seek $4,600,000,000 from Congress to strengthen the work of the Border Patrol and to continue the project of [building] the first stretch of the wall [along the US-Mexican border] provoked a series of demonstrations in opposition and caused unease in the HIspanic community of the US as well as among Mexican experts on migration, who see in the measure the "burial" of the promised agreement [on immigration].

"If the White House has already decided that it will not introduce an initiative to reform immigration until after the midterm elections in November, it is going to have very serious problems, because it is very clear that the record of raids and deportations by the Department of Homeland Security under Janet Napolitano has been equal to or worse than under the Bush Administration," said Angela Kelly, Vice President in charge of migratory policy at the Center for American Progress.

U.S. Representative from Illinois, Democrat Luis Gutiérrez, said that community and religious leaders in southern California agreed to implement tactics "to make ourselves visible on a march in Washington on the 21st of March" to protest the Obama policy.

[The president off the World Association of Mexicans in Foreign Countries, Carlos Villanueva, and José Luis Arzola, the ex-president of the Frontier Commission of the same organization, are the ones who made the comments cited at the beginning of the article about Obama acting against migrants for poitical purposes.]

They added, "It represents a backward move for the conditions of the Latin Community in the United States which would lead to raids and hate crimes and would bury whatever hope there had been for migration reform which Obama had promised during his campaign in order to get the Latin vote."

+++++++

The criticism is growing, and with reason. In  the "Related News" box on the same page of El Universal, you can find articles headlined: 

    "Obama is acting [against immigration reform] to get re-elected"

and

    "Obama appears more and more like Bush"

In the box offering related sites, you find:

    Forum: Has Obama deceived you about e/immigration matters?

and

    "Obama hardens against migrants"

For those of you who read Spanish, it is also interesting to read the "comments" section here.

Calle Revolución en Xalapa, Veracruz, México: Long but mostly pictures

Today we brought everything we needed to apply for the fifth renewal of our FM3 to the immigration office.  This is the last renewal which will fit in our visa booklets.  FM3s are visas which allow us to stay in Mexico for an extended time.  They have to be renewed annually.  We are still considered visitors.  Next year we can applyf or an FM2 which gives us official immigrant status.  After five years with FM2s, we can apply for citizenship. Yikes! at that point, ojalá, we'll be 72 years old. ¡Increíble!

The immigration office used to be in a spacious, airy suite of offices on the second floor of a government building.  It has been moved, supposedly temporarily, to a storefront on Calle Revolución.  The guy we talked to yesterday looked really skeptical that they'd get out of it anytime soon.  Anyway, we went yesterday and everything was going smoothly till we went to Banamex to pay the fees.  As I've mentioned before, one brings cash to a bank to pay fees and so forth.  We hadn't realized that the first workday of the month banks are jammed. Or we'd sort of realized that some days banks are jammed, but hadn't thought about when.  We waited for so long to pay that not only was the immigration office closed long before we succeeded, but I also missed my beloved singing group.  Anyway, we finally succeeded, so today when we went back with all our paperwork and the receipts for the fees, the application process was a piece of cake.  A very pretty, friendly young woman processed our paperwork muy efficiently.

Afterwards I took the opportunity of snapping some pictures of Calle Revolución, a narrow,  busy, ever-interesting street jammed with people and cars and small retail stores selling almost everything. So here's a brief tour.  We'll start at the top with the least obviously interesting picture, the entrance to the supposedly temporary office of immigration. The very faint sign to the side of the metal security door has the hours.  The poster urges people not to endanger themselves by trying to cross illegally to the US.  Those are the only indications that there is anything having to do with immigration here.  Everyone has to squeeze through that small door set in the big one. As you can see, it is quite small. The office is actually a bit nicer on the inside, having been painted white, with a nice floor and posters and pictures on the walls.

 

Here we're looking across the street from just below the immigration office.

 Now we'll head down towards El Centro.

A newspaper stand.  Note the number of dailies available.  I recently read that competition for newspapers in Mexico still comes from radios...even more than TV and MUCH more than the internet. Obviously, newspapers are still quite popular.

 

A tacos al pastor place and clothing and electronics stores.

  

People passing.

 

Ferreteria Globo, in English, Globe Hardware:

Below, a section of the signs that advertise what's for sale:

There are a number of stores like this that sell religious items:

The picture below is of niños reyes being sold in a papeleria.  They may be on sale since yesterday was Dia de la Candelaria. February 2 is the final of three days related to the coming of the Christ Child.  The first, of course, is Christmas itself when the baby Jesus appears in a manger.  The second is January 6, or Epiphany, when Jesus is visited by the three kings (and which is the day, traditionally for children to get their gifts in Mexico) and the third is Dia de Candelaria when Jesus (el niño rey) was presented in the temple, all dressed up.  You can find an explanation in English here, where it says something I didn't realize before: at the time of Christ's birth, Jews considered mothers to be "unclean" for forty days after giving birth, so it was not until the fortieth day that babies could be brought to the temple to I guess be blessed.  (Nothing is said here about when the baby would be circumcised.)  Anyway, in our area of Mexico, the niño rey is dressed in beautiful clothes, kind of like baptism clothes, as you can see below.  

I was subjected to some teasing about all this. We were hoping to have some friends over on January 6, but the book I was indexing had been subjected to delays and then needed immediately anyway (not uncommon) so I called very apologetically to postpone the get-together a few days.  On January 6, it is traditional at the meal to serve a rosca, a circular cake, inside of which are baked small figures of Jesus.  The person who finds himself with one is supposed to host the fiesta for Candelaria on February 2.  Our friends said I was trying to get out of having to provide a second party on the chance I'd bet the one to find the figurine.  Hadn't thought of that.  We did have a second party, but I didn't give it.  February 1 was Doña J's 50th birthday, and as you might expect, she did the cooking for her own party....but she had help cleaning up. 

Anyway, finally here is the picture of the niños reyes (the sign beneath the niños advertises colored sand for sale.  This is a papelería-craft store):

 

In our area, there are seed stores, but they don't sell seeds for planting, they sell dried peppers, herbs and spices, nuts and lots of different kinds of beans, all in bins of one sort or another.  They also now sell various grocery items.  Below is a picture of a big one:

Across the street is the annex, or probably the original of this store in which you can see barrels of chiles.

 About half way down, there's a tiny square with a tree in it.  When people are telling each other where on Revolución something can be found, they generally say, it's above the tree or below it.

Another ferreteria:

 

In the ferreteria below, you can see hanging from the ceiling the jugs people use to transport fresh milk in and sell it from.

 
  There are shoe stores everywhere.  There are more shoe stores per square inch here than anywhere else I've seen.

  Below is Dumbo's, for gifts and materials:

And some seeds for planting for sale in another hardware store. I bought orange carrots, purple carrots and spinach.

A sign for a dog groomer and boutique whose store was located upstairs.  You can see two little dogs on the balcony.  The sign on the door is advertising a special sale on dog sweaters.

 

A mercería, or sewing store which also (as many do) sells craft materials:

 A very big cloth store:

We're getting towards the end.  Here is a quiet callejon, a very small street, that veers off Revolución.

A view towards the end of Revolución.  You can see the cathedral towards the bottom on the left.  It's really unusual that there's no traffic:

  

A vendor at a side door of the church:

Looking up Revolución from the cross street where it ends. This street passes in front of the cathedral,  Parque Benito Juarez and some fine old government buildings with beautiful murals on the inside.  Also, you can see the pretty young woman holding a coke bottle.  She is the traffic cop at this intersection.  All the traffic cops at intersections around El Centro are pretty young women.

 

And this is the end of our walk down Revolución.
 
 

 

Ixhuacan de Los Reyes, San Marcos and Xalapa, Mostly in Cold and Rainy Weather

I keep intending to retire once and for all and luxuriate in the freedom to write endless (and quite probably boring) blog pieces on stuff here in Mexico, but it doesn't happen, so I guess we'll all lurch along with uneven postings, etc.  Probably not a bad thing.

Anyway, here is a kind of miscellaneous post with pictures of three different towns.

This past weekend we had a visit from a delightful friend from the US who comes down every winter to travel around by local bus.  We took him to see Ixhuacan de los Reyes probably on the worst day for such a visit.  It was completely socked in with fog.  We kept saying, if it weren't foggy, you'd see all these gorgeous, steep, green mountains.  But we could have been on some flat island for all he could tell.  Anyway, here are a few pictures from Ixhuacan, all from one street.

Below is the exterior of a papeleria on the corner.  Papelerías are just about my favorite kind of store.  They are filled with notebooks and art supplies and fancy and plain paper and pens and pencils and balloons (globos) and craft stuff and seasonal decorations (as they say in the US).  The stuff is jammed into a good papeleria, shelves divided into narrow slots, gift bags hanging from the ceilings, baskets filled with ornaments.  The car in front is one of many in Ixhuacan that day decorated for a pilgrimage to the shrine of la Virgén de Remedios.  The fiesta day itself is January 5. This virgen is also a manifestation of the Virgin Mary.  she is the patron saint of Mexico City, one who crossed the ocean from Spain rather than appearing first here in Mexico.

 

(For the moment, just note the church at the top of the street.)

Here is a picture of the house next to the arched portals of the papelería.  The

branches and trunks are filled with orchids and air plants.

  

We've climbed up to the church.  This shrine with La Virgen de Guadalupe is in front.  If you look to the right of La Virgen, you can see an eagle holding a snake. This is a symbol of the founding of the Aztec empire, what the Chichimeca who were to become the Aztecs were, according to legend, looking for as the sign of where they should settle.  The place they found the eagle and the snake is called Aztlan.

 

While we were poking around, the fog grew dense enough for the streetlights to go on. Below is one of the light fixtures.  Notice the gargoyles.

 

This is just a little house to the side of the church.

Here are three life-sized three kings, still on display next to the main church in Ixhuacan (down in the other direction from the church I've been showing you.=

 

Unfortunately, it isn't a very good photo, but I really liked the kings and their beasts so I put it in anyway.

And now a few shots from San Marcos, right near where we live to show our cold and rainy weather.

 

Jim walking towards our car.

And now a shot into the courtyard of the Hotel Limón in Xalapa.  This peaceful interior is right off a very busy, very narrow, very noisy shopping street.

 

That's all, folks, for now.