Mexico City, 2009, 3

: Saturday, October 24, 2009, 8:41 AM

While La Condesa is a relatively affluent neighbourhood, like Yaletown and Kitsilano, there are also plenty of poor people who come here to beg.  I was accosted by three yesterday while having dinner at a semi-outdoor cafe.  I was seated just inside when one of the local organ grinders came by to serenade us.  These organ grinders are all over Mexico City it seems, and instead of having a monkey there is another guy with his hat inverted to collect donations.  They all wear the same non-descript beige uniforms.  At first I thought they were bus drivers or something.  So I am eating and this guy signals to me with his hat from outside.  I ignored him, hoping he would get the message.  Then he came into the cafe from another side and approached me again with his hat.  I replied ¨Dejeme en paz¨(leave me alone).  So he and his friend left.  Then a little boy, maybe eight years old if that came running over to me for alms.  I told him that you should never disturb someone while they are eating, so he left.  He will likely grow up to be a drug dealer or similar.  Poor kid and there are so many like him.  Then a very sorry looking old man came over for more of the same.  I turned him down.  Not really that much different from Vancouver except that so far anyway we don´´t seem to have any child beggars. Of course it is difficult to not feel sorry or guilty,  but the fact of the  matter is, I am here on a tight budget, and I do not want to become a target to people in the area where I am staying.  Also I do not know enough about the social infrastructure here to be able to get an idea of what´´s really going on in these people´s lives. Next day, Saturday: This morning while finishing my walk on Avenida Amsterdam, by the fountain in the plaza I noticed an older street man crouched down eating with his fingers from take out containers he had fished out of the garbage.  Breakfast was interesting as always.  There are always new people to meet and talk with.  I am quite enjoying these times of meeting new people  from all over.  Among others I talked with a woman from New York City who mentioned to me how 9-11 had brought people  together.  I also met a man and his sister and their aged mother who are visiting from Victoria.   His sister lives in Delta. After breakfast I went walking, in one direction and ended up back on Paseo de  la Reforma. On several blocks were tripods on the sidewalk featuring poetry by local Mexicans, mostly on the theme of benches, as in sitting on park benches.  Mexico City is full of benches, most of which are beautifully crafted from wrought iron.  In the Centro Historico I stopped again in a number of beautiful churches,  including the Cathedral.  While inside the cathedral I was again contemplating  the vastness of this space and all the gold and ornamentation and I had a mental image of Jesus walking through there in poverty and great humility with an ironical smile on his face, as though to say, ¨Thanks you guys, but this isn´´t quite what I had in mind.¨ The first church I sat in was smaller, of Baroque vintage, and an elderly lady came over to tell me that I was inside El Templo de San Judas.  From the Zocalo was a huge parade featuring these bizarrely designed  floats of dragons and other fabulous creatures made from papier mache and marching bands and students carrying signs against rampant consumerism.  On top of one of these fabulous creatures was perched a young woman in black fishnet and wearing a purple top hat.  On a plaza off the Zocalo between the Cathedral and the Templo Mayor were huge crowds of vendors and other people, with scarcely room to stand or move.  There were also Aztec dancers dressed  in feathers and loincloths  with two drummers and a flautist. The site of the ruins of the Templo Mayor were open so I paid admission and explored the place.  Very impressive, with foundations, walls, stairs  and some sculptures of serpent´´s heads. They also have a fine museum with artifacts and dioramas, etc.  From there I wandered further into a poor and very busy commercial area with crowds such as one would only find in a city like Mexico City.  I made it as far as another church surrounded by construction debris then I turned back.  I stopped  in another church, Baroque era, that seems to be under restoration work. They were playing piped in Bach and Vivaldi which was great to hear while seated inside.  Outside, all along the sidewalk that flanks the church are seven pedestals supporting white statues of Mary, Jesus and various saints.  Each figure is life-size and flanked  by two shorter angels, some of which are missing a wing or an arm.