Sunday, July 01, 2007
The Zocalo
The Plaza de la Constitucion, which everyone calls the Zocalo, is supposedly one of the largest public squares in the world, second only to Tianeman Square. We walked down Tacuba from Belles Artes, past a perfume district and yes, Cafe Tacuba, which is not only a popular band, but also a restaurant housed in a building from the 1800s (though it opened around 1912). Because it was Saturday, because it's Mexico City, the streets were jammed with people and vendors selling roasted corn and other treats.
It is hard to prepare, or describe, this open space beyond human scale, with buildings wavy and earthquake buckled. The Palacio Nacional and Diego Rivera’s murals, glyphs of history, modern takes on the indigenous codices. El Templo Mayor springing up from the ground as the Catedral Metropolitano sinks down into it. Karma. A lake of people where there is no lake anymore. Among the vendors in stalls, on blankets selling watches and cream made from conch shells and t shirts and socks, a man kneeling on the bare ground with a bathroom scale, offering to weigh me. And a shriveled child’s body, stomach down on a cart that was more skateboard, the body attached to a handsome man face smiling looking up, three inches off the ground. There was dancing, men and women in indigenous costumes with feathered headdresses, accompanied by drums and conch shells. And there was a stage set up. Later in the day, a gay pride parade would end here, filling the square.
The catedral took more than 200 years to build. I didn't get to go in, but it is monstorously huge and black grey, almost the same color as the pale bloated Spaniards in one of Rivera's murals. It is sinking into the sandy soil that Mexico City is built on. The Templo and its accompanying museum was discovered in, I believe, the 60s. It is an amazing archeological find - it was the main sacred site in Tenochtitlan, the home of the Aztecs, used for generations. As the next generation improved or built up the temple, they buried the previous layer. So seven layers have been excavated and when one walks through, they are neatly disected and visible. They represent about 1,000 years, ending in the 1400s, when Cortez arrived. This site is one small part of the city the Aztecs or Mexicas, built in the middle of a lake (now dried up), accessed by bridges. Archaeologists have determined that there are several more buildings buried underneath the catedral. Just as in Oaxaca, the mescla of the indigenous and the European, with all its tension and beauty, is inescapable.
It is hard to prepare, or describe, this open space beyond human scale, with buildings wavy and earthquake buckled. The Palacio Nacional and Diego Rivera’s murals, glyphs of history, modern takes on the indigenous codices. El Templo Mayor springing up from the ground as the Catedral Metropolitano sinks down into it. Karma. A lake of people where there is no lake anymore. Among the vendors in stalls, on blankets selling watches and cream made from conch shells and t shirts and socks, a man kneeling on the bare ground with a bathroom scale, offering to weigh me. And a shriveled child’s body, stomach down on a cart that was more skateboard, the body attached to a handsome man face smiling looking up, three inches off the ground. There was dancing, men and women in indigenous costumes with feathered headdresses, accompanied by drums and conch shells. And there was a stage set up. Later in the day, a gay pride parade would end here, filling the square.
The catedral took more than 200 years to build. I didn't get to go in, but it is monstorously huge and black grey, almost the same color as the pale bloated Spaniards in one of Rivera's murals. It is sinking into the sandy soil that Mexico City is built on. The Templo and its accompanying museum was discovered in, I believe, the 60s. It is an amazing archeological find - it was the main sacred site in Tenochtitlan, the home of the Aztecs, used for generations. As the next generation improved or built up the temple, they buried the previous layer. So seven layers have been excavated and when one walks through, they are neatly disected and visible. They represent about 1,000 years, ending in the 1400s, when Cortez arrived. This site is one small part of the city the Aztecs or Mexicas, built in the middle of a lake (now dried up), accessed by bridges. Archaeologists have determined that there are several more buildings buried underneath the catedral. Just as in Oaxaca, the mescla of the indigenous and the European, with all its tension and beauty, is inescapable.
# posted by Anne @ 7:30 PM 
