The Market Place

Today we were all exempt from classes and instead, Ramiro and Ana Maria decided to take us to the market place to buy offerings for the "grave" of Emiliano Zapata, a deceased Mexican hero. So the school gave us money and sent us out with a list of things to buy, such as flowers (there is a special orange type of flower that smells beautiful and is only in bloom during the end of October), paper cut outs, and fruit to put on a table at the school near Emiliano's picture.

The whole market was stuffed full of people buying candles, sugar skulls, meats, fruit, flowers, and incense just for the shrines that they will make to their deceased loves ones. So after being bustled around the market place by Ana Maria we finally managed to find all the things we needed and ran back to the school to find a table with Emiliano's picture hanging over it. We started putting the flowers and fruit and sugar skulls (with the names of all the teachers on them) all over the table, as well as dishes of candied yams and pears. Carlos even gave up two empty packs of cigarettes and Ramiro and Claudio donated some vodka and beer.

We made the table look very nice and took some pictures with it and Ramiro explained that tomorrow we would be able to eat the food ourselves after the "spirits" get at it first. I personally think the only thing that will be enjoying that food before me are the ants, but it was very fun to take part in a truely Mexican tradition. Here's a picture of our Emiliano Zapata shrine:

Tonight I'm going with one of my teachers to visit the graveyard of her sister and see what goes on there. My host mom tells me that its common for a story teller to be at the graveyard and tell ghost stories to everyone. Of course, now whatever taxi you get into, the driver will have a story about how he was called out to a house by a person who had been dead for years. Everything is so much like Halloween...but so much less like a holiday made for the sole purpose of bringing in money. Here, things are very spiritual and deep.

Pictures of the market can be seen here.

From Mexico City to Mexico City

So Saturday, Universal took us to Mexico City to see a giant museum that houses many pieces of original art from Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, as well as some other modern-day Mexican artists, one of which specialized in gigantic wax heads of women with clumped wax eyelashes and dripping wax "flesh."

This museum (The “Museo Dolores Olmedo”) was donated to the City of Mexico by a woman named Dolores Olmedo who was an avid collector of Diego Riveras paintings. She and her daughter have been featured in a few of his works, as well. But she didn’t just collect from Rivera, she had a whole room full of ancient Asian works of art, including TONS of carved ivory, some of them complete tusks that had been intimately carved, and a bunch of wood stamps (which are finely carved pieces of wood, dipped in ink, and stamped onto a paper. Its extremely tedious work to make such delicate carvings into a piece of wood that’s about the size of a postage stamp.)

The works of Frida Kahlo were, of course, my favorite part. It was very moving to be up close, RIGHT IN FRONT of a piece of art that I’d only seen in books (and seen MANY TIMES since being in Mexico). You just look at it and think, ‘Wow, this is the real deal.’…and then you think about how small it is compared to how you imagined it. Anyways, there were a few of her paintings displayed that I hadn't ever seen before and that was very exciting.

Diego’s room was cool too. I didn’t know he had experimented with so many different styles of art. He did surreal art, portraits, even some pieces that looked like Picasso works.

The whole thing was very exciting to me, especially walking from exhibit to exhibit and running into swarms of peacocks which were ALL OVER the grounds.

After the museum, we traveled to Xochimilco (ho-chee-mil-co) to ride on some Venician-like boats on a canal. We all got onto this long, thin boat that had a table down the middle of it and the “driver” pushed us along the canal with a long pole. There were tons of boats on the canal, and as we saw, many of them were rented out for weddings and anniversaries. There were people who would paddle up next to you and try to sell you flowers, hats, and other wares. Other boats were full of mariachi bands that you could hire to follow you along the water and serenade you. The Che was kind enough to rent two bands to follow us. They were full bands too: Guitars, bass, horns, drums, and one even had a hammer dulcimer. We drank drinks and enjoyed the scenery and had an overall relaxing time.

After this, we drove further into Mexico city to Coyoacán, the neighborhood where Frida Kahlo’s house was. Her house is easy to spot on the street simply because it’s the most intense, brilliant, color blue. The house has been turned into a museum with more of Frida and Diego’s original paintings as well as their furniture and displayed letters between Diego Rivera and Albert Einstein and other famous people. In the house you can see the bed where Frida died as well as an urn with her ashes in it.


Pictures of today can be seen here.

That was all Saturday. Sunday, my mom flew home and my friends and I decided to venture back into Mexico City on our own to watch the biggest fútbol game of the season: The Guadalajara Chivas vs America Aguilas. This was quite a sporting event because the Chivas are the only Mexican soccer team to have all Mexican players, while the Aguilas are Mexico City's team. Both teams are classic and have very loyal fan bases (especially the Chivas!) so the Azteca Stadium (which is 3rd largest in the WORLD) was PACKED! At first I decided to wear neutral colors to prevent myself from getting stabbed outside the stadium by an opposing team loyalist, but when James, Emilee, Erin, Ashley and I arrived early, I decided to take the opportunity to get into the team spirit and pick out some proper attire. For the Aguilas: James, Erin, and I. For the Chivas: Emilee and Ashley. Above is me, supporting my team with their mascot (plus sweet shirt).

We had pretty good seats that were up high so that we could see everything that was going on. People were already getting whipped up with team chants and such. One for the Chivas is "Olay, olay olay olay! Chivaaas! Chivas!" The other was "Vamos, Vamos America...!" and the stadium sides would bounce the chants off each other.

The Chivas section of the stadium looked like a prison had come to watch the game. It had barbed wire and armed guards around the section to keep Chivas and Aguilas from mingling. That side was the "militant loyalist" side and during the second half of the game, many people began lighting red flares and waving them around before hurling them down onto the Aguila fans below them. They also started shooting off fireworks during the game. One person was actually badly burned from a falling flare and, after the game, medics ran into his section.

The game was intense and very merciless. When the Chivas goalie knocked himself out by accident for a few seconds, the Aguilas fans started chanting a rude Spanish word at him. Whenever a Chivas player was tripped or hurt, the Aguilas would all jeer and laugh.

In the end though, the Chivas ended up beating the Aguilas on their home field 2-1. I was sad my team lost :( After the game, when people were slightly drunk and filing out, people started to notice that their were a bunch of white kids at a Mexican fútbol game. Suddenly, everyone wanted a picture with us. All the way until the bus station back to Cuernavaca, people were asking for pictures with us in our supporting team colors.

We finally got home to Cuernavaca at about 11:30, completely exhausted and full of the Mexican spirit.

Some pictures of the game can be seen here.

Lo Siento a todos!

I'm sorry everyone! I haven't been very consistent about updating this blog recently. Things have been unbelievably busy and the time flies by faster every week. To catch you up, Universal finished its first quarter so all us students were hard at work taking finals and finishing up projects for our classes. Before finals week, my computer crashed (it ALWAYS happens the week before finals - ALWAYS!!) and so I was out of a computer for a week...kinda an excuse, I suppose.

After finals, my mom arrived here in Cuernavaca to spend some of her with me during my vacation, which we spent in Acapulco, only a 4 hour bus ride from here. The hotel, Mayan Palace, was AMAZING. It was on Playa Diamonte which is a private beach about 20 minutes outside of downtown Acapulco reserved for the ritzy hotels. So the sand was white and clean and everything was beautiful. Our hotel also boasts the largest swimming pool in the world, which means it stretches a couple acres between two hotels (both branches of Mayan Resorts). The food was amazing and I REALLY enjoyed eating American for the first time in awhile. I filled up on Cesear Salad and was a very happy camper.

So now, we're onto the first week of the second quarter at Universal and my mom is still here, going to school with me and learning Spanish. She's been doing really good and has gotten to a point where she can communicate pretty well on her own with Oliva, my host mom.

This weekend, the Gettysburg and Fox groups are taking a trip into Mexico City to see the house of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. I'm really excited for this, and I've been looking forward to this since I first got here because Frida is probably my favorite artist. She had a really tragic life after a grotesque accident during her youth left her in pain the rest of her life, as well as unable to have children (something she'd always wanted). Her marriage to Diego wasn't much better. Neither were faithful to the other and eventually got a divorce, but then remarried a couple years later. They lived in separate houses that were connected by a bridge (La Casa Rosa y La Casa Azul - "The Red House and the Blue House"). Both were strong communist supporters and even welcomed philosopher Leon Trotsky into their home while he was a political refugee.

I find her life extremely interesting and more so because all of her paintings drip symbolism about the pain in her life and her outlook on other people's lives. She's considered Mexico's most famous woman and one of their most famous surrealist painters - which is saying something because there is no country whose art is more surreal than Mexico's. I can't wait to see her home!

Right now all of Mexico is getting ready for one of their largest holidays - Dia de los Muertos! Its now a three day celebration thanks to the United States' holiday Halloween, which the kids have adopted here in Mexico. So October 31st is Halloween, November 1st is Dia de Todos Santos (All Saint's Day), and November 2nd is Dia de los Muertos! This is a uniquely Mexican holiday that combines both Catholic beliefs and ancient Aztec symbolism. Already orange, white, and black streamers and cut-outs are everywhere as well as the famous Sugar Skulls which are inscribed with the names of friends and family and given as gifts. Pan de Muerto is already in all the Panaderias (a sweet bun that has a cross on the top). During this time, the people will clean the graves of their loved ones, offer food to spirits and spend the night in the grave yard with candles and (no lie) Mariachi Bands. Here in Mexico, death is treated much differently than in the States. Death is accepted as a part of life and often joked about in caricatures (made famous by artist Jose Guadalupe Posada). Because of this, Dia de los Muertos is not a couple nights of frights and scares, its actually more like a party.

During this time, my group and I will be in Guanajauto and there's sure to be parades and all sorts of fun, so I will have pictures!

Oaxaca

Pictures here. Blog later.