Stroll Among Flowers

Is there a recurring theme to this trip?  The gardens along the Ecoducto... the blooming jacarandas... the museum exhibit on the importance of flowers in Mexican culture...

And now as I walk along the section of the Paseo de la Reforma which passes through Chapultepec Park there is the "Paseo Entre Flores" - the "Stroll Among Flowers". 

In the median strip of the Paseo de la Reforma in front of the Botanical Garden, archways with live flowers were placed over the pedestrian path.  They were there only through last weekend as a part of a flower festival at the Garden.

The arches were planted with live petunias in pots.

To either side of the path, there are seasonal plantings.  In the fall there are marigolds for the Day of Dead, and at Christmas they have poinsettias.  I am not sure what kind of flowers these are, but they are quite attractive.

In the park the ground is covered with a purple carpet where the jacaranda trees have dropped their blossoms.

Coming up next... MORE FLOWERS! at the Botanical Garden's Festival of Flowers and Gardens.

Faces from the Past

I have mentioned before that fence along the Paseo de Reforma as it passes through Chapultepec Park is the venue for outdoor photographic exhibits.  One of the exhibits now on display is a collection of reproductions from Mexican photography studios of the late 1800s.

In the last half of the 19th century, as photography became more common and affordable, studios appeared in all the major cities of Mexico.  Middle class Mexicans could have themselves immortalized with a photo portrait the way the very wealthy would with oil paintings.  People could order numerous copies of small portraits glued to cardboard which were known as "tarjetas de visita" (visiting cards).  The photographs were given as momentos to other family members and to friends.  Thus the "family album" was born out of the portraits collected.

These photographs give us a glimpse of the fashions, the hair styles and the attitudes of that era.

Here are a few of the pictures that are on display...

Ball Parade

Last October when I was in Mexico City there were larger-than-life skull figures along the Paseo de la Reforma for the Day of the Dead.  Each skull was imaginatively painted by a different artist.  Now, in recognition of this year's World Cup, all around the traffic circle of the Monument to Independence there are enormous soccer balls.  Each is painted in honor of one of the countries participating in the World Cup.  The display is called... not in Spanish, but in English... "Ball Parade".

Here are a few of the giant soccer balls...

South Korea

Serbia

Brazil

France

Mexico, in the foreground, Egypt, in the background

Colombia

Panama

Eating Globally

On Thursday I headed back downtown...

...and revisited the International Fair on the Zócalo.

There were a few more souvenirs that I wanted to buy as gifts for friends.

But my biggest reason for returning to the fair was to sample the international foods offered in the food tent.  Last Saturday the line to get into the tent was ridiculously long.  Today, even though there were a lot of people, there was no wait to enter.

The food tent covers most of the Plaza of Santo Domingo which is just a few blocks away from the Zócalo.

An outdoor eating area has been set up in front of the Baroque, 18th century Church of Santo Domingo.  I did my eating standing up within the tent however.

The fountain and statue of "La Corregidora", a heroine of the Mexican War for Independence, is, for the duration of the fair, sitting in the middle of the tent.

The stern-faced "Corregidora" looks as if she could be thinking, "What the heck is going on here?"

Of the 86 nations participating in the fair, 69 of them have booths in the food tent.  A few of the booths are operated by ethnic restaurants in Mexico City, and a fair number of the employees in the booths are Mexicans rather than citizens of the visiting nations.

Before I bought anything to eat, I looked around to see what was available.

Ivory Coast

Morocco

Haiti

Portugal had a lot of port wine for sale.

The Netherlands

No comment.

My first purchase was at the El Salvador booth where I tried a "pupusa", a thick, corn tortilla stuffed with a savory filling.

At the Argentinian booth I had a "choripán", a chorizo sausage in bun with "chimichurri" sauce.

Before I got too full, I wanted to try out the Swiss booth.  (After all, Switzerland is one of my ancestral homelands.)  The lady, who is obviously not Swiss, is holding a sign saying,

"I'm not leaving the fair without my veal sausage."

So, that's what I ordered.

From Vietnam I had a baguette with roast pork.

The booth from Denmark was offering Danish beer and Danish pastry.

I had a pastry for dessert.

Finally, to drink I ordered a refreshing "agua de maracuyá" made with a tropical, South American fruit.

Which was the best?  I liked everything, but my favorite was the "choripán" from Argentina.  The fair runs until April 29th, so there is a good chance that I will return again for lunch and perhaps order something a bit more exotic.

The Zócalo Through the Ages

For as long as I remember, under the city in the Zócalo subway station, there have been three models in glass cases portraying what the Zócalo, the city´s main plaza, looked like in different times in history.  I was passing through the station on Thursday, and for some reason the models, which I have passed scores of times, looked better than before.  I took pictures of them, and then saw a sign which said that they had been recently renovated.

The Zócalo in 1521

Just before the Spanish conquest, this is what the magnificent ceremonial center of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán looked like.   The large structure to the rear was the main temple.  There were two shrines atop the pyramid.  The blue one was dedicated to Tlaloc, the rain god; the red one was the shrine of Huitzilopochtli, the god of war.  The excavated foundations of the temple are today next door to the Cathedral of Mexico City.


The Zócalo in 1824

Mexico had just won its independence a few years before, and the Zócalo still looked the same as it did in the colonial period.  The recently completed Cathedral, the largest in the New World is to the left.  Within the circle on the plaza the statue of King Carlos IV of Spain still stood, although that symbol of colonial rule would soon be removed.  A good portion of today's Zócalo was taken up by the Parián Market building (just below the circle).  The long building above the circle had been the Viceroy's Palace during colonial times, and became the National Palace after independence.

The Zócalo in 1900

Mexico entered the 20th century under the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz.  Díaz wanted to make the capital a modern city.  As you can see trolley cars ran around the Zócalo.  Trees and gardens were planted in the middle of the plaza.

Cleaning Time

When I went to the National Anthropology Museum on Wednesday, I found that a portion of the museum's courtyard was fenced off.

Signs explained that the enormous aluminum canopy, that is the most striking feature of the museum's architecture, is going to undergo a cleaning.

The project is apparently in good hands.  The company in charge has previously cleaned the London Eye, Mount Rushmore, the Colonnade of St. Peter's Square in the Vatican, Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the Christ of Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro, and the Statue of Liberty.  This should be a fairly easy job in comparison.

The Flower in Mexican Culture

On Wednesday I took the Metrobus (the new Route 7) and got off right in front of the National Museum of Anthropology in Chapultepec Park.  It's great to be able to reach the museum via public transportation.

Chapultepec in the Aztec language means "Grasshopper Hill", and

the place was represented with this glyph.

My reason for coming here (as if I need a reason to revisit this magnificent museum) was to see a special exhibit which is currently on display... "The Flower in Mexican Culture".

The exhibit gathers together hundreds of archaeological pieces, works of art, and handicrafts to show the importance of flowers in Mexico from pre-Hispanic times to the present.

The pre-Hispanic cultures viewed flowers as precious and associated them with the gods.

Xochiquetzal was the Aztec goddess of flowers, love, and pleasure.

She was responsible for the germination of plants.

Her son Xochipilli (which translates as "Flower Prince") was the god of beauty, art and music.  He is portrayed here holding a bouquet of calla lilies.

A scepter for Xochipilli in the form of a sunflower

The god of agriculture is shown adorned with flowers.

In pre-Hispanic art, flowers are often depicted with four petals to represent the four cardinal directions.

When the Spanish arrived, they brought their own religious iconography in which flowers carried symbolism.

In this colonial painting of the Immaculate Conception, Mary emerges from a white lily, a flower which symbolizes purity and which is associated with the Virgin.

The famous Baroque painter, Cristóbal de Villalpando, used flowers in his painting of ¨The Wedding of the Virgin¨.

Flowers have an important role in the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico´s patron saint.  The Virgin appeared to Juan Diego and told him to pick roses to take to the Bishop.  He carried the roses in his cloak, and when he presented the flowers to the Bishop, the image of the Virgin was imprinted upon his cloak.

This colonial painting is attributed to Miguel Cabrera, another famous painter of colonial Mexico.

St. Joseph is often portrayed holding a flowering staff.

"Christ in the Garden of Delights" - a flowery Paradise



Church vestments hand embroidered with floral motifs

Most early colonial churches have a stone cross in front. 

However, these crosses never have the body of Jesus on them because the priests did not want the native peoples to associate the crucifixion with human sacrifice.

The face of Jesus would be shown in the center of the cross.

And on the arms of the cross, flowers would represent the stigmata.

Flowers are a frequent motif in Mexican decorative arts and handicrafts.

An inlaid wooden box

Hand painted ceramics


In the town of Huamantla in the state of Tlaxcala, the streets are covered with "carpets" made of colored sawdust and flowers each year for the Feast of the Assumption.  The beautiful designs are then trampled underfoot by the religious procession.

If you have read my posts about the Day of the Dead (or if you have seen the movie "Coco") you already know that flowers, especially marigolds, are in important part of that celebration.

Many of the regional outfits of Mexico are vividly decorated with flowers.

The traditional woman's dress from the state of Chiapas

Two traditional outfits from the state of Veracruz:

the woman's "jarocha" dress and men's attire from the Totonac tribe.

The dress worn by the women of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the state of Oaxaca

The special exhibit is excellent and well worth a visit.  It will be running through the month of June.