An Amazing Library

I think that it was on the blog "Gringopotpourri" that I first read about Mexico City's Vasconcelos Library.  Last week I finally got around to going there, and it was worth the visit.  The library is located next door to the old Buenavista Train Station, so it was easy to get there.  I just took the Metrobus north to the Buenavista stop.  

The library was built in 2006.  It houses a collection of 500,000 books.  That sounds impressive, although the number of volumes pales in comparison with the world's largest libraries.  What makes the Vasconcelos Library worth seeing is its amazing architecture... not so much its exterior, but its unique interior.

Fortunately I had read somewhere that it is necessary to get permission to take photographs of the interior.  I had to sign a paper saying that I was not going to use the photographs for commercial purposes, and I had to leave my driver's license with a security guard.  It was worth the hassle in order to have a visual record of my visit here.

My first impression upon entering the library was that it was like something out of a futuristic movie (although I suppose that in the distant future technology will have replaced books).  Above you are six stories of bookshelves that are suspended by girders from the ceiling.  The floors are all made of glass.

 

It is a public library, and people with a library card are allowed to check out books.  There are a lot of computer terminals, and rooms where you can listen to music or watch movies.  Even on this weekday morning there were quite a few people taking advantage of the facilities.  

I checked out their collection a bit... on one floor was shelf after shelf of British and North American literature (mostly in Spanish translation).  I saw everything from Shakespeare to Jane Austen to Herman Melville.  There were also plenty of popular authors represented such as Ian Fleming, Ken Follett and even Danielle Steele.

Although it was a dreary day, there is a good view from the balconies of the library.

Here you can see the Latin American Tower and at the far left the bell towers of the Cathedral.

Something New Downtown

Last Wednesday I wanted to get out of the apartment because it was the day for the cleaning lady to come in.  However, I didn't know where to go.  I decided to head to the “Centro Histórico” because I always find something of interest there.  Sure enough, after wandering the streets a bit, I came upon something I had not seen before... "Futura CDMX".  I'm not sure if you would classify it as a museum, but this brand new attraction which deals with Mexico City is quite interesting.

After paying your admission, your are ushered on the hour into a large hall with bleacher style seating on all four sides.  In the center is an enormous model (2500 square feet in size) of the entire city.  A movie is shown on a screen above. (The movie that I saw was about Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital upon whose ruins Mexico City is built.)  Then lights are projected upon the model to show the growth of the city, borders of its "delegaciones" (boroughs), the subway lines, etc.

After the presentation you are allowed to head down to the model and study it more closely.

From there you go to an interactive hall where you can learn more about Mexico City.  There are screens which will show you maps and pictures of the city from different time periods, from the earliest settlement of the Valley of Mexico to the present day.  On other screens you can compare statistics on Mexico City with several other large cities throughout the world.  I have stated several times on this blog that Mexico City has more museums than any other city in the world.  Well, that it is not true.  Mexico City does have more than 150 museums, but I learned here that London and Sao Paulo, Brazil, have a slightly higher number.  I also learned that even though Mexico City is infamous for its pollution, New York City has a higher emission of CO2. 

You can even make a short video of yourself giving your thoughts on Mexico City.  I said that even though Mexico City is exhausting and annoying, it is the most exciting and fascinating city that I have ever visited. 

Cave Art

When I went to the Anthropology Museum last Tuesday, there was another special exhibit besides the Mayan exhibit.  It was entitled "Frobenius - The World of Cave Art".

Leo Frobenius  (1873-1938) was a German ethnologist and archaeologist who led expeditions throughout Africa, Europe and Oceania to study ancient cultures. 

One of his special interests was cave art, and on many of his journeys he took artists with him so that they could make life-size copies of the paintings.  More than 5000 of these copies were made, and they now belong to the University of Frankfurt.

Several dozen of these paintings have been brought to Mexico City for this exhibition.

Seven thousand year old paintings from caves in Libya show that the Sahara was not always a desert.

These paintings of horses from the cave of Cap Blanc in France are probably between fifteen and eighteen thousand years old.

This crocodile from Australia was probably painted more that 3000 years ago.

Figures of antelopes and humans in a 400 year old painting from Zimbabwe.

Dragon Fruit

Last weekend while we were at the outdoor market, Alejandro bought a dragon fruit, or pitaya, as it is known in Mexico.  I did not take a picture of this unusual fruit, but here is a picture from the internet.

I did, however, take a picture of it after Alejandro and peeled and sliced it.

I found the fruit to rather bland... slightly sweet, slightly salty.  I would not turn it down if it were served to me, but it was not something that I would make a point of eating.  That is, until I read about its nutritional values.  The fruit is low in calories, and rich in vitamin C, dietary fiber, iron, phosphorus, calcium and antioxidants.  The seeds contain omega acids which reduce triglycerides.  OK, maybe I will pick one up the next time I see it in the market. 

Mayan Exhbition

I have no idea how many times I have been to Mexico City's Anthropology Museum (surely dozens of times), but I returned on Tuesday to view a special exhibition on the Mayas entitled "Mayas - The Language of Beauty".

This exhibit, which is free of charge, will run until November.  It brings together more than 300 Mayan artifacts gathered together from museums throughout Mexico.  It has returned from a successful tour of Beijing, Berlin, and Verona, Italy.

The exhibit deals largely with the Maya's concepts of beauty.  These may seem strange to us, but consider the fact that the hairstyles, tattoos and piercings that are considered trendy today will probably be viewed as odd by future generations.

These two portraits were found in the burial chamber of King Pakal of Palenque.  The first one is of the king; the second one may be of Pakal's wife, or it may be of Pakal as a child.

The "stepped" design the hairstyle was achieved by burning the hair to the desired lengths.

The elaborate topknot on the king is supposed to represent the leaves of a corn stalk, and thus identify him with the corn god.

This sculpture of a seated man shows two common forms of body modifications.

Ears were perforated so that large "ear spools" could be inserted.  The sloping forehead is the result of cranial deformation.  Boards were strapped on the heads of infants, when their skulls were still malleable, to create the desired effect.

The sun god was portrayed with crossed eyes, so having crossed eyes was considered a sign of beauty.

Mothers would have a small ball dangling over their baby's face so that the child's eyes would permanently cross.

Teeth were filed into special shapes, or encrusted with jade or other stones.

Facial scarification was commonly practiced.

If you are easily grossed out, you might want to skip the next three pictures.

This man is gasping in pain because he is performing a bloodletting ceremony in which he is perforating his foreskin.  The noble class commonly performed such acts of blood sacrifice to the gods.

This carving from Palenque shows king Pakal handing his grandson a stingray spine to perform a bloodletting ceremony.

Mayan shamans would ingest hallucinogenic herbs and mushrooms in order to communicate with the gods.  In order to achieve quicker results they would take these substances in the form of an enema, as is shown on the bowl.

Mayan kings and nobles were elaborately dressed with fine clothing, jewelry and headdresses.

The headdress was a form of royal insignia which associated the kings with the gods.

Noblewomen wore beautifully woven fabrics with designs which can still be seen in the Mayan clothing of today.

Scribes were important members of Mayan society.  I did not realize that it was not uncommon for women to be scribes.  The attire of this female scribe attests to her high social rank.

Nor did I realize that there were cases of female rulers.  This carving shows Lady Ix Baah Pak, the ruler of the city of Edzná.

This is just a small sample of the treasures in this outstanding exhibit.  If you are in Mexico City between now and November, I highly recommend it.

Sculpture Boulevard

On Tuesday I was going to visit the Anthropology Museum, but before reaching my destination, I saw that there was a display of bronze sculptures along the Paseo de la Reforma, the boulevard that runs past the museum.  A few months ago there was an outdoor exhibit of sculptures by Salvador Dalí in this same place.  This time the display is of the work of another surrealistic artist, Leonora Carrington.

Carrington was a painter, sculptor and novelist.  She was born in England, but spent most of her adult life in Mexico.  She died in 2011 at the age of 94 and was one of the last surviving members of the surrealistic movement.

I find her work to be bizarre (isn't surrealism by its very definition bizarre?) but very interesting.  The display of her sculptures is an appropriate follow-up to the earlier Dalí exhibit.  Here are a few of her creations sitting right along the boulevard.

Sleepless Hours

(Image from the web)

No, the photo above is not from Houston, but from Mexico City last night.  Although it cannot begin to compare to the death and destruction left by Hurricane Harvey in Texas, Mexico City is suffering the effects of Tropical Storm Lidia off Mexico's Pacific coast.

Yesterday was a gray, dreary day all day long with intermittent rain and drizzle.  Although it did not rain that much here at the apartment, late afternoon saw heavy downpours in some parts of the city.  When Alejandro left the office, traffic was worse than usual, and there was standing water on many of the streets.  He arrived here at the apartment, and we had a late supper. 

Around 9:00 PM he got a phone call from home.  One of his aunts has been visiting from out of town.  Due to a family emergency, she wanted to get home as soon as possible, and she wanted Alejandro to drive her to the bus terminal.  Alejandro asked me if I wanted to come along, and I said yes.  Within a few minutes we were in his car.  Although it was no longer raining, very quickly we found that traffic everywhere was still moving at a snail's pace.  What we did not know at that point was that many major arteries, including the "circuito interior", that passes by the airport, were closed due to flooding.  The "circuito interior" was the route that we needed to take to get to his parents' home.  

Alejandro tried to use his GPS to find us another route.  Even side streets were jammed with traffic since everyone else was trying to find a way around the flooding.  At one point I think we spent a half hour just to travel a couple blocks.  In many places the water on the streets was so deep that I was afraid that we would not get through.  In other places the roads were closed, and we had to detour again.  We were traveling streets that even Alejandro did not know, and going through neighborhoods that were not the best part of town.  We finally arrived at his parents' house at 1:00 AM after four hours of driving!

His aunt was waiting for us.  Fortunately the bus station was not too far away, and the streets were not bad in that area (although we saw that the "Gran Canal" had overflowed its banks, and that Gran Canal Avenue was impassable.  We got to the bus station in good time, but we found out that the next bus to take his aunt home did not leave until 5:30 AM.  She bought her ticket and said that we could just leave her there, but there was no way that we were going to leave her by herself at the bus station.  So we all drove back to his parents' house and caught a couple hours of sleep before taking her back to catch her bus.

We saw his aunt off, and then headed to the apartment.  By this time the morning rush hour had begun, and it was slow going in some spots.  We finally arrived at the apartment around 7 AM, ten hours after we left.

The flooding had not only closed many roads.  The airport was shut down, several subway lines were closed, and in a few areas there were flooded buildings.  It is fortunate that we had never reached the "circuito interior".  We heard on the radio as we were heading back to the apartment that the drivers that got stuck on that thoroughfare were still stranded there.  

As I write this, the skies are still cloudy, but it is not raining.  However, the forecast calls for more heavy rains this afternoon.  Rush hour will once again be a nightmare.