I already mentioned that the poinsettia plant that I have in the apartment is still blooming. Just a short walk from the apartment there is a house which has a poinsettia plant outdoors that has grown to the size of a small tree. I had not been down that street since I moved down here, but a few days ago I happened to pass the house.
Yes, that poinsettia, known here in the land of its origin as "flor de Nochebuena" (Christmas Eve flower) is still flowering for Easter.
I send best wishes for a happy Easter to all my readers who celebrate the holiday.
Today is also Alejandro's sister's birthday, so we will have a double celebration. We stopped at a bakery last night on the way to buy a birthday cake. We are also taking the family out for dinner later this afternoon. I will post photos of that in a later post.
Happy Easter!
Because Alejandro's birthday is in April, for years Easter has coincided with one of my frequent trips to Mexico City. I would always buy plastic Easter eggs, wrapped candies and a funny Easter basket to pack in my suitcase. On Easter morning we would have an Easter egg hunt for Alejandro's nephew Ezra.
Well, now I live in Mexico City. Even though Easter eggs and Easter baskets are foreign to the celebration of a religious holiday in Mexico, it seems that those customs have filtered down from north of the border. At Walmart I now see the plastic eggs, and containers to hold the eggs.
I asked Ezra if he still wanted to have an Easter egg hunt, and even though he is now an adolescent, he said "yes" without hesitation. So, I went to the nearby Walmart a couple days ago to buy to Easter supplies. They don't have traditional Easter baskets, but there were clear containers shaped like a chick that were filled with plastic eggs.
Later today we will head to Alejandro's family's house. After Ezra has gone upstairs to bed, we will fill the eggs with candy and hide the eggs around the house in preparation for Easter morning.
Visitors to Mexico are always warned, "Don't drink the water!" It is certainly true of water from the tap. At least once a week I would go to the supermarket and lug back to the apartment a six pack of liter bottles of purified water.
Well, I won't be carrying home water anymore. Alejandro bought a water purifier which we now have in the laundry room just off of the kitchen.
While we are on the topic of water, you have probably read articles or heard news reports that Mexico City is going to run out of water within a couple months. The water supply has been an ongoing problem for years, and people have long been urged to conserve water. At the apartment or the family's house, I take short showers and, when washing dishes, I never fill the sink with water.
Water rationing in which the supply is turned off for certain hours has supposedly been put into effect, but I have not had any lack of water here. Many buildings, including the apartment building and even Alejandro's family's house, have underground cisterns which are kept filled in case of emergency. Several years ago, water was actually turned off completely for several days while repairs were being made. Even then I never lacked water. There are also large tanker trucks called "pipas" which carry water to places that are lacking. In the last month I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of "pipas" I have seen filling cisterns. Although I do not discount the seriousness of the problem, we have not been personally affected. By the end of May, the rainy season will begin. As much as I love the sunshine, I hope that there will be abundant rainfall to help replenish reservoirs.
The one special exhibit at the Modern Museum of Art which I found truly fascinating was the collection of works by Abraham Angel, another Mexican painter that I had never heard of previously. Angel (1905-1924) died at the age of 19, and he only produced 26 paintings in his short lifetime. He lived a relatively open life as a gay man in an era when homosexuality was taboo. The exhibit, 100 years after his death, gathers together most of his work. With his unique and colorful style, he stands out among the artists of early 20th century Mexico.
I wrote yesterday that most of Mexico City's Museum of Modern Art is taken up with special exhibits, and I found only two of the five exhibits to be of any interest. One of them was called "Enrique Echevarría: the Threshold of the Abstract". I had never heard of Echevarría (1923-1972), but he was considered an important Mexican painter of his generation. The exhibit shows how his work during his short lifetime became increasingly abstract.
Early in his career he spent a number of years in Spain, and his work is largely figurative... in other words, his subject matter is recognizable.
Years ago, when I went to Mexico City's Museum of Modern Art in Chapultepec Park, I found it very disappointing. For a country which produced so many famous artists in the 20th century, I thought that the number of works from its permanent collection that were on display was paltry. (Like most museums, only a fraction of the permanent collection is on display at any given time.) After being closed for renovations, the museum reopened recently. Last week I decided to return and see what changes had been made. I found the museum even more disappointing than before. There were five temporary exhibitions on going on. One was of 20th century Italian art, another of photographs of "brutalist" architecture. Only two of the five did I find at all interesting. (I will write about them separately.) There was only ONE small gallery, with perhaps 20 pieces from its permanent collection on display... just 20 pieces to represent the entirety of 20th century art. There was nothing at all by the "big three" of Mexican muralism, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente. Pathetic!
Here are a few of the very few works from the museum's collection on display...
The principal entrance into Chapultepec Park is a walkway known as "la Avenida Juventud Heroica"... Heroic Youth Avenue. It leads from the Paseo de la Reforma to "el Monumento a los Niños Héroes"... the Monument to the Boy Heroes. Behind the monument is a hill crowned by Chapultepec Castle.
When I visited the park last week, the area around the monument was closed off by a barricade. The sign said that the monument was undergoing "rehabilitation". To visit the attractions of the park, such as the castle or the zoo, you need to circle around the construction area.
The monument honors the six teenaged cadets who died in the Battle of Chapultepec when the United States invaded Mexico City in 1847 at the end of the Mexican American War. Chapultepec Castle was at that time the site of the "Colegio Militar" (the Mexican equivalent of West Point in the U.S.). In those days the castle was on the outskirts of the city, and the Battle of Chapultepec was the Mexican army's final, desperate defense of the capital. Although the young cadets had been ordered to leave the castle, many of them refused and continued to fight in the battle. Six of them, between the ages of 13 and 19 died. According to popular legend, one of them, Juan Escutia, wrapped himself in the Mexican flag and jumped to his death from the castle rather than let the flag fall into enemy hands.
No, I did not travel to the northern Mexican state located along the Gulf of Mexico and which extends all the way to the U.S. border. In fact, I have never been to Tamaulipas. However, to honor the bicentennial of Tamaulipas as a state, there was an outdoor photographic exhibit at the entrance to Chapultepec Park.
Here are a few of the pictures on display...
Last weekend Alejandro and I were at Home Depot to pick up a few things for the apartment. They had a large selection of orchids which were on sale. I have never had an orchid before, but a friend of mine back in Ohio says that they are easy to grow. After some hesitation, I went ahead and bought one. It is in front of the living room window where it gets bright sunlight filtered through the sheer curtains.
The plant is in a plastic container filled with bark. The directions say to water it every 10 to 12 days, although I know that my friend waters it by placing ice cubes in the container. I am sure that when she reads this, she will give me some advice.
I set it in a small Mexican dish, but today we are going to the "tianguis (outdoor market) that is held every Sunday around the corner from the apartment. I'll see if I can find an attractive pot in which to place it.
Last Saturday we left "Los Girasoles" Restaurant at dusk. Here are some pictures that we took.
