Do You Recognize this Church?

As I was wandering around the neighborhood of Colonia del Valle, I came upon this impressive, modern church.

It is called "El Templo del Purísimo Corazón de María" (Church of the Purest Heart of Mary).  It is built of concrete, and it was completed in 1953.

I was told that it was featured in the movie "Romeo and Juliet" (the modernized version that starred Leonardo DiCaprio).  I never saw the movie.  Do any of you recognize it?

No, I Have Not Returned to Ohio Yet

I could not resist taking a picture of this place in the outdoor food court of a shopping mall in Mexico City.  I figure that fellow Ohioans who read my blog would especially appreciate it.

Wendy's, whose world headquarters are in Dublin, Ohio (a suburb of Columbus), has four locations in Mexico City and four in Monterrey, Mexico.

A Whole Bunch of Murals

A couple weeks ago while I was in the car with Alejandro, we passed a complex of buildings that were extensively decorated with murals.  

The murals reminded me of the work of the Mexican artist Juan O'Gorman.  (That's right, O'Gorman.  His father was an Irish immigrant to Mexico.)  O'Gorman's most famous work is the 43,000 square feet mosaic murals which cover all four sides of the library at the National University of Mexico.

I did some searching on Google Maps, and discovered that the building complex is the Secretariat of Communications and Transport.  It is located on Xola Avenue which is served by one of the Metrobus lines.  So a few days ago, I hopped on the Metrobus to take a better look.  Unfortunately, the complex is fenced in, and outsiders are not admitted.  Except for some murals along the sidewalk, I had to settle for photos taken from a distance.

I found some information on the internet.  The government complex was built in the mid-1950s, and numerous artists, including Juan O'Gorman (aha!) were commissioned to decorate the buildings.  All of them are mosaics created with colored stones, glass or ceramics.  They suffered extensive damage in the 1985 earthquake, but were restored afterwards.  That's about all I could find, but they certainly are an impressive collection of murals.

Making Money

On Wednesday I added one more to my list of Mexico City museums that I have visited.  I went to the "Museo Numismático Nacional"... the National Numismatic Museum... in other words, a museum that's all about money.

The museum is located on a rather scruffy street in the historic center in a 17th century building that was known as the Casa de Apartado.  Originally it was a factory for the production of sulfuric acid which was then used in the separation of precious metals.

Between 1848 and 1983 the building was Mexico's National Mint where all Mexican coins were made.  (Today the coins are minted in the city of San Luis Potosí.)

Upon entering, I was told that there would be a guided tour in a few minutes.  I usually dislike being herded around, but I am glad that I decided to join the tour.  The fellow who led our small group (only five of us) was very knowledgeable and personable.  I didn't understand everything (there were a lot of technical words), but I got the gist of what he was saying.  We were given a demonstration of how coins were actually made here.

First we were led to a cavernous room where gold and silver were smelted and cast into ingots.

From there we went to another large room where the minting of coins was done.  All of the machinery from when this facility was the National Mint is still here, and it is still operational.  Many of the machines date from the early 1800s.  At that time they were run by steam power and then later converted to electricity.

First we saw how the ingots were put through a machine that flattened them down to thin metal strips.

The strips were then placed through another machine that would punch out the discs that would become coins.

Our guide

Next there is a machine to stamp the design on the edge of the coin.  In this demonstration they stamped a disc with the motto "Independencia y libertad" which used to be on the edges of the five peso coins in the 70s.

Finally this apparatus stamps the front and back of the metal discs and then spits out the finished product.  (This machine was built in 1824, was modified to be powered by electricity, and is still functioning.)

The machine minted souvenir coins which each of us could keep.  The "M" under an "O" (the first and last letters of "Mexico") has been the emblem of the Mexican Mint since Spanish colonial times.  If you look very carefully at any Mexican coin, you will see that to this day that emblem is on the Mexican coinage. 

I would have missed this entire demonstration if I had not taken the tour.  All I would have seen is the display of historic Mexican coins.

This is an eight "real" coin minted in 1755 during the reign of King Fernando VI of Spain.  In that era this coin was widely used throughout the world, including the United States.  This is where we got the old term "pieces of eight".

Here is a gold coin from the ill-fated reign of Maximillian von Hapsburg.

If you should ever visit the National Numismatic Museum, be sure to take the tour!  Even if you don't speak Spanish, watching the process of making a coin will be interesting.

The Rains Came

image from the web

Even though we have had some rain ever since I arrived here on June 7th, it wasn't until this past week that the rainy season arrived with a vengeance.  Each day the rains have held off until late afternoon or evening, and I have been able to get out of the apartment and do some sightseeing.  I have taken my rain jacket with me, but I have not needed to put it on.  The sun has even come out for periods of time.

On Wednesday night we had heavy thunderstorms with 2.8 inches of rain recorded.  Early Thursday evening we had a brief downpour here at the apartment, but other parts of the city had a record rainfall of 3.3 inches.  Flooding was reported in many areas, with 19 inches of standing water in some places.  On some lines, subway and bus service was halted.  Highway underpasses were flooded.

Fortunately there was no flooding here at the apartment nor where Alejandro works nor at his parents' home.

The forecast for today...90% chance of rain by 5 PM.

Saturday... 90% chance of rain in the afternoon and evening.

Sunday... 90% chance of rain in the afternoon and evening.

Happy Weekend!

Let Them Eat Cake!

Mexico City has loads of bakeries and pastry shops.  In the historic center of the city, on Avenue 16 de Septiembre, there is one which is a landmark...  "Pastelería La Ideal".   It has been around since 1927.

It would seem that it has even attained the status of a tourist attraction since at the entrance there is a sign in English directing you upstairs to the cake display.  I didn't see any other gringos when I went upstairs, but the staff was not at all fazed by me walking around taking pictures.

Here there are cakes of all sizes for all occasions.  Of course the stars of the show are the wedding cakes.

A sign tells how much each cake weighs as well as the price depending on what ingredients you order.  The cake above weighs 68 pounds and costs up to $300 US.

This one weighs 120 pounds and costs up to $550 US.   I have no idea what wedding cakes cost in the United States, but I suspect that by our standards those are pretty reasonable prices.

I then went downstairs where a huge variety of breads and pastries are for sale.

If you have never been in a Mexican bakery, there is a procedure which you must follow.  First you take a tray and a pair of tongs and put what you wish to purchase on your tray.  Then you go to the lady at the counter who will write up your bill.  You go to the cashier and pay for your goodies.  Finally you take the receipt back to the counter, and your purchases will be carefully wrapped and packaged.

I gave in to temptation and bought a bag of pastries.

I left the bakery, and just a few doors down the street I came upon a shop selling marzipan.  I looked in the window and thought about going in, but giving in to one temptation per day is quite enough.

The City of Palaces

In 1803 the German geographer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt visited Mexico City.  He found the city, which was then the largest in the Americas, to also be the most advanced in terms of educational, scientific and cultural institutions.  He called it "the city of palaces"... a nickname which has endured to this day.  As you walk around the Historic Center you see many buildings which were once the grand mansions of the Spanish aristocracy.  It is fairly easy to identify the buildings which date back to the colonial era.  They are usually built of the dark red, volcanic stone called "tezontle".  On some (but unfortunately not all) of these buildings there have been placed historic markers which tell when they were built and who lived there.

Here are some pictures of just a few of the old mansions which I spotted during my walks in the old city.

This building which houses the offices of a mutual aid society for teachers was built in 1682.  It was the home of Juan Chaverria de Valera, a Knight of the Order of Santiago.

This building is the headquarters of the Mexican Geographic Society.  Founded in 1833, it is the oldest geographic society in the Americas.   I have mentioned that the spongy soil of Mexico City has resulted in many buildings sinking or leaning.  If you look carefully you will notice that the façade of this building is buckled.

There was no plaque giving the date of this building's construction, but on the Mexican Geographic Society's website I learned that it was built in the early 1600s, and that it was the home of Guillermo Gutiérrez de Montealegre, a magistrate and official of the Inquisition.

The courtyard of the Geographic Society with a statue of the revered President Benito Juárez 

This ornate mansion was built in 1760 and was the residence of the Count of Heras Soto.  Today it is the headquarters of the Historical Archives of Mexico City.

Detail of the sculpture work on the corner of the building

The courtyard of the archive building

The plaque on this structure said that it was the site in 1524 of one of the houses of the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés.  Although this building is a later construction, it is still obviously very old.  Today the ground floor is occupied by a shoe store.

Madero Street, the principle street of the Historic Center, is the location of a number of colonial palaces.  The home of the Marquis de Prado Alegre, built in 1725, now has a McDonald's.

This building, which stretches for much of the block was built in 1775 and was the lavish residence of José de la Borda.  Borda was a miner who struck it rich when he discovered silver near the town of Taxco.

I have mentioned this building previously in a number of posts.  It is today owned by Banamex (Bank of Mexico) and is used for cultural exhibits.  It was originally built in 1780 as the home of the Count of San Mateo Valparaiso.  It was later the residence of Agustín Iturbide, an ambitious military officer who had himself proclaimed Emperor of Mexico shortly after the country won its independence.  The building is still referred to as the Palace of Iturbide.

The doors of the palace

Detail of carving on the façade 

Probably the most famous of the city's colonial palaces is the so-called House of Tiles.

It was the home of the Counts of the Valley of Orizaba, and around 1735 it was decorated with Talavera tiles.

Today it is the flagship of the Sanborns restaurant chain.

Those were just a few of the many colonial houses in Mexico City.  Add to those the many churches, convents, schools and other structures and you have the largest collection of colonial buildings anywhere in the Americas.