Mexico City, Sunday, March 10, 2024
We thought of our friends Connie and Vladimir B. and Patti and David B. (no relation!) as we sat down for breakfast at the Hotel Casa de la Luz, where we had stayed last year. I reprised our favorite breakfast from that visit: “divorced eggs” are two beauties sunny side up on fresh tortillas with frijoles and salsas verde and roja.
Talk was lively and the breakfast long, fueled by excellent americanos from the bar.
Here’s Sue outside the hotel, on the charming Rinconada de Jesus.
As we entered the Zocalo, the city’s main square, we saw the northern and eastern sides completely barricaded, obscuring the Palacio Nacional and the Metropolitan Cathedral. The government was clearly expecting massive demonstrations as the presidential elections approached.
The nave of the Metropolitan Cathedral, that great hulk of a thing, was half blocked with scaffolding. The 18th century Tabernacle, however, was virtually empty.
This is the Cathedral and Tabernacle from the side.
The side entrance to the cathedral dumps you out just below the Templo Mayor, the remains of the largest temple in the sacred precinct of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan.
Here’s the happy crew staring into a sun that was already blazing: it’s unseasonably hot in Mexico right now. Not that we’re complaining about mid-’80’s.
We walked down Calle Madero, which has been turned into a pedestrian zone, following it all the way to the edge of the oldest park in Latin America, the lovely Alameda Central, where it turns into the Avenida Benito Juarez. You have to love Mexico City’s organ grinders…you can see one in the left foreground here.
Perhaps the best known building in the historical center is the Casa de los Azulejos (“House of Tiles”) , a Baroque palace built by the Count of the Valle de Orizaba family starting in 1793. The building is known for its facade, which is covered on three sides by blue and white Talavera tiles from Puebla. The main facade is being restored, but Sue captured the building’s long side.
I piggybacked on a family who were paying to have a picture of their kids with a couple of Zapatistas; the guy on the right didn’t like that, and is about to shoot me.
The Jacaranda trees in the Alameda Central were in full bloom, making for a gorgeous canopy. This isn’t my shot, but it gives a good sense of the role these trees play in the park.
It was Sunday, and admission was free to the Palacio de Bellas Artes with its extraordinary collection of murals. I included lots of images of the murals by Jose Clemente Orozco and David Sesqueros last year, so I’ll limit myself to a reprise of Rivera’s Man, Controller of the Universe (originally called Man at the Crossroads in its Rockefeller Center version). A couple of young men roam the balconies here, offering insights into the murals; the one with whom I spoke was enormously well informed. I asked about the figure at far right between Trotsky and Engels, and he told me immediately that it was Bertram Wolfe, a leading figure, first in the Mexican Communist Party and later its American counterpart, and a friend of Rivera’s.
We were in need of liquid refreshment, so we popped into one of the many branches of Sanborn’s for some mineral water and a snack: a very tasty queso fundido with chorizo and flour tortillas.
Back in the park, we watched families out for their Sunday stroll, young people eating street corn, and kids frolicking in the fountains. It is a lovely place to while away an afternoon.
But who has time to while away the hours when there is so much art in the offing. In this case, a great Rivera that we had never seen, A Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Central. Like many of Rivera’s murals, earthquakes and urban development have necessitated multiple moves. This one was painted for the Hotel del Prado, across the street from the park, but the hotel suffered serious damage in the great earthquake of 1986 and had to be closed. The mural, rather miraculously, suffered only minor damage and was eventually moved to its very own museum, the Museo Mural Diego Rivera, very near the site of the hotel.
The mural depicts, from left to right, the history of Mexico as represented by its key figures. Cortez is the figure furthest left; towering over the lefthand third is the figure of Benito Juarez. The central grouping shows Rivera as a child holding the hand of La Catrina, a popular image of death; Frida Kahlo stands behind him. To the right of the balloon we find Porfirio Diaz, who served, with brief interruptions, as the de facto dictator of Mexico from 1876 to 1911. Then follow scenes of violence from the Mexican Revolution and, on the far right, a jumble of heroes and traitors of the revolution, crowned by Francisco Madero (lifting his hat) next to a corrupt president of the Republic. This strikes me as one of Rivera’s most brilliant and engaging murals.
We weren’t quite done with Rivera for today, though: the Hilton Reforma stands near the site of the old Hotel del Prado. To honor the old hotel and Rivera, Benjamin Murguia created a mural inspired by A Dream of Sunday in the Alameda Central. It adorns one of the walls of the restaurant El Cardenal; as Sue said, it isn’t impossible that someone is going to splash some mole onto the work.
It has been a warm day, in the mid 80’s, so we decided a siesta was in order.
Later that afternoon we hopped in an Uber to take us to the Parque de Mexico, the gorgeous center of the Condesa neighborhood. Both Paul and Sue noticed the change immediately when we entered Condesa with its lush greenery and throbbing bar and café scene. One of the first things we saw as we walked toward the park was a one-man band.
The kid was actually pretty good, even if he couldn’t pronounce Tucson.
The park itself has an exotic beauty.
After a leisurely stroll through the park and some of the side streets in Condesa, with their art deco architecture, we crossed over into Roma Norte, where we would eat later. First stop was a beautiful restaurant, Tr3s Tonala, for drinks. I had a memorable mezcal martini: not too sweet, not too dry, and very complex.
Dinner was at a newish place called Mux Restaurante. The chef, Diana Lopez del Rio, spent several years researching regional Mexican food, cooking alongside people with the reputation as the best cooks in a region, before bringing together unusual recipes in Mux (Mayan for “sacred point”). The menu varies seasonally, with a different region’s cuisine in each season. Our menu came from the region around Malinalco, a city about 70 miles southwest of Mexico City. Sue started with Esquites (corn) in a broth flavored with epazote and pumpkin seed mayonnaise; I had one of the best starters ever. I have to share the full description: Fava bean tartar, avocado, mezcal and pink pepper marinated tuna, roasted pineapple, watercress, red onion, cilantro, manzano chile jam, hibiscus powder, bougainvillea, and lemon vinaigrette. Sue N. had an equally complex and delicious plate: heirloom tomato salad with flowers, praline, orange, and grapefruit supremes, goat cheese with hoja santa, rosemary, and yellow fruit vinaigrette. Sue and I chose the same main: a pork rib in an incredible red mole, served with a bean tamale. Sue N. had a milder but just as tasty green mole robing a chicken leg, and Paul had chicken marinated in local mezcal. The tastes were like nothing we had experienced before. Highly recommended!