Mexico City, 2009, 6

Sat., Oct. 31, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.

I went out for another walk that took me past Paseo de la Reforma and back again.  It is a wealthier neighbourhood with nice restaurants, shops, etc.  On the way over I had to dodge two youths who were  break-dancing for donations  on the crosswalk of a very busy street with at least eight lanes.  They didn't seem to care that I was coming and I had to yell at them, ¨Dejame pasar!¨ or let me pass.  Mexicans do not have a concept of personal space  so it is easy to get annoyed with strangers in my face all the time.  I have noticed today that my nerves are especially on edge from the constant noise, and I am wondering about the wisdom of staying  here for an entire  month, but as  my mother used to say, ¨You made your bed, so  lie  in it!¨ There was also a pleasant pedestrian mall, but I think I mentioned this in a previous entry.  Then I came across a small lump of matted feathers on  the pavement then  realized  from  the reddish-brown feathers of what used to be wings that it was the remains of one of the many little doves that live here.  They are tiny, just a bit larger than a sparrow, with a pointed tail and as I said these lovely red wings that show only when they fly.  They are everywhere and they are  so delicate looking. Upstairs at the RTH I was serenaded by a crying baby.  She is eighteen months old and the daughter  of a young English woman  who works as an anthropologist in Honduras.  Right now she is visiting Mexico City along with her parents from London.  Despite the noise from  the kid they are lovely people and I heard her mother playing wonderfully on the baby grand in the living room.  She is classically trained and her compositions sound a lot like some of the work of Philip Glass, who is also one of my favourite  contemporary composers.  Meanwhile I was in the courtyard working on a new painting, and it is freezing today.  The wind is cold and it feels no different from Vancouver this time  of year.  Afterward I went back to El Pendulo for dinner.  Frustrating.  A man joined the young woman at the next table and started noisily sucking face (kissing passionately) which is done quite openly here because, as I said, these people have no sense of personal space, and this wasn´t exactly great for my appetite, so I moved to a different table in what I thought would be a quiet corner, but it was also the dvd section, and suddenly different people wanted to browse nearly hanging over my head while I was eating, and one woman  started on her cell phone, which got me to dramatically move my table and chair to get away from her.  Then a couple parked on the couch right in  front of me and started sucking face and that´s when I asked for the cheque, which the waiter took his sweet  time delivering so no one got a tip tonight. I honestly don´t know how people can live in this city.  Yes it is fascinating with lots  to see and do, but this is insane.  I think this will be my last big  city visit  for a while. One pleasant couple from Seattle are sharing their docent with me, a lady who has been giving us all kinds of fascinating information about the history of Mexico City and the Aztecs, for example about how human sacrifice began as a way to propitiate the sun god into continuing to shine in order to guarantee good harvests, and that this happened on a cycle of every fifty-two years, and of how they would meticulously align their temples and other buildings in order to correspond with the positions of the sun, moon and stars.  Hey, in spite of my bitching I am glad to be here, and I will be bringing home with me memories that I will likely treasure for the rest of my life.  I just hope that I can  leave Montezuma and his revenge behind. Sun., Nov. 1, 2009 at 6:22 p.m. Today I spent two and a half hours over coffee with my contact person in Mexico City, Alberto, and his girlfriend Tanya.  A very lovely young couple. Alberto works as a financial advisor and Tanya is studying for the same profession.  I had many questions for them about Mexico City and Mexico and they helped provide me with some  interesting background and information.  I think our visit helped me get a better sense of the, shall we say, Mexican  Essence.  They explained to me that Mexicans tend to be very spontaneous and playful, they do not save money and they don´t think much about the future.  Enjoying the moment is particularly important to them.  This is why, I think, so many Canadians are envious of Mexicans.  (not me, I love being a stuck-up tight-ass prig.  Well, okay, maybe not always!)  Alberto has visited Canada a couple of times, I believe in Toronto and Calgary (not sure about Calgary)  His observations about Canadians are quite interesting.  He essentially finds us very admirable with our cultural diversity and openness and tolerance.  He also thinks we´re  kind of rigid and conservative and so goal-oriented and production obsessed that we´re not really that great at enjoying life.  He´s pretty smart, eh?  They also mentioned that the Roman Catholic faith is very foundational to Mexican culture and this also explains a lot.  They also confirmed my observation of the disproportionate population of indigenous Mexicans in the armed forces, and for the same reason as why generally people from poorer backgrounds here in Canada and the US enlist: to get out of the poverty trap.  I also learned that people in the military are very passionate about their profession here.  They also explained that the reason for the strong police presence here is because of the huge threats of crime, especially against tourists, though in  other parts of Mexico City one doesn´t have this sort of police presence.   Very few Mexicans, it appears, live away from their families.  You often have three generations under the same roof together and it is unusual for an adult to live away from home before marriage.  Also families tend to take very good care of their elders here.  It also appears that because families stick so close together here that there appears to be very little homelessness here.  We did the whole visit in Spanish which was great for me because I really need the conversation practice. When I got back to RTH I visited in the courtyard with some Mexicans who now live in Venezuela.  We made a deal: I won´t ask them about Hugo Chavez and they won´t ask me about the Olympics!  We were sharing the big marble table where I was also working on painting number two.  One of them lit a cigarette and I resolved for a change not to make a fuss about it since I really need to relax a bit about these issues (though I still haven´t changed my position about second-hand smoke).  They all went out for dinner and then the English lady who is here with her husband, daughter and granddaughter visited for a while with her granddaughter, whom regardless of her noisy little screeches is very delightful.