Mexico City is Crackin'

I am in Mexico city, I took the bus overnight and arrived here Monday morning. My friend Rafa met me and we spent the day 1) dropping off my stuff, 2) going to Coyoacan (a colonial area that is probably the closest thing to Oaxaca here), 3) going to the Zocalo and seeing the Catedral Metropolitana and other major sight-seeing areas. Outside of Palacio Bellas Artes I got the lovely view above. Turns out we had caught the "tail end" of a protest, I am pretty sure it was about the elections.

Then we went to walmart. Yes I went to Walmart in mexico. shame on me. It was really interesting though to see some of the differences. Having to hand over my little back pack to the attendant, to prevent theft. The demographics of people shopping were different. I suppose you would consider them "middle class" if there is a middle class. Walmart is more expensive than markets and street vendors so it attracts a wealthier crowd. Rafa reminded me to tip the baggers because they are unpaid teenagers.

The subways here are quite an experience. My first day here Rafa and I tried to take the subway from the bus station, but it was way too packed with people from northern mexico city heading to southern mexico city to work. We split up so I could use the womens car, and kind of stood there dumbfounded as I watched women struggle to get out of the subway car as packs of women shoved the women infront of them onto the car. I mean physically pushing and cramming as many people as possible into the car. I believe all the cars were that way at that time and trying for the womens cars was a better idea than being groped on the regular cars. We ultimately took a taxi to Reforma and walked through zona rosa (the capitol hill/broadway of mexico city) to take the subway to Rafa's from there.

When we visited the Zocalo I really enjoyed seeing the churches and buildings that are crumbling to bits. Catedral Metropolitana seems to be standing strong, although I hear that different parts of the structure are sinking at different rates which seems problematic. I have a very mixed reaction to these colonial churches on any given day, but Monday I really was disgusted by the Catedral. The very walls of the place include stones removed from the Aztec Templo Mayor. For me, the Catedral is the poster child of the physical and spiritual genocide that took place on this once sacred ground. These are things I will be thinking about througout latin america, it's just as challenging for me to understand the religious syncretism in this context as it is for me to sort out my own conflicting views between my identity as a Native person/traditional ways of knowing and my experiences with Christian churches. I have a feeling I will be writing more about this soon. For now I need to hand the lap-top back over to Rafa and work on my plans for tomorrow, which I have pretty much decided will be "Diego Day".