#25: Mexico: Tacos with Ants Eggs, Pretending to be a Beijing Commie and lots of Dead Bodies
16 May 2002
I am now in Puerto Veracruz, almost at the end of my journey through Latin America. Tomorrow, I shall return to Mexico City, and then on to Miami.
Since my last update, I have been dashing around the central heartland of Mexico including its capital Mexico City, D.F. (commonly known as "De-Fe"), as well as the states of Jalisco, Nayarit and Veracruz. I have been having a great time in my one month in Mexico (Hey, for those of you who think it's pure fun, let me tell you it's not necessarily that way when you are backpacking. It's hard work worrying about where to spend the next night and personal and luggage security, getting the bus tickets, facing touts, dealing with bureaucratic red tape and planning for the next stage of the journey.) However, at this stage of the journey, I am no longer intrigued by yet another colonial architectural gem or wonderful natural sight, but rather, by the process or adventure in reaching the next place, sometimes by the historical and political association of the place (don't forget my enthusiasm in history/politics, so a place with not much to see but lots of past historical events may attract me) and always by unusual food. I am now busy planning for the next phrase of the journey, and shall provide an update at some stage.
Mexico City was the main highlight the past two weeks. Built at the center of the central plateau of Mexico over 2300m above sea level, it was once the heart of the Aztec civilization and the capital of the Spanish empire in the Americas. Today, with more than 20 million people, it is the largest city in the world. You can drive for more than an hour and a half on a motorway and you are still within the city. The city used to be notorious for its pollution that sometimes forced the municipal government to shut down all traffic but the situation seems to have improved in recent years. I don't think London's atrocious underground and traffic is any cleaner than that of Mexico City's.
Mexico City is a city of contrasts, with old colonial palaces and narrow cobbled streets, as well as modern skyscrapers and wide multilane motorways. This is the center of a country with more than 100 million people, large corporations and many billionaires, as well as many shantytowns and poor masses in the suburbs. It is supposedly recession time and yet its shopping malls are full of enthusiastic local shoppers.
Mexico City is also a city of wonderful museums. I spent one whole day at the Museum of Anthropology, a world class treasure trove of Mexico's diverse ancient civilizations and ethnic cultures. I spent a few days exploring the famous political wall murals of Mexican artist, Diego Rivera, in the National Palace, Ministry of Education and other areas around D.F. Rivera lived in the era just after the Mexican Revolution (1911 - 1920), when Mexico was experiencing drastic social changes, agrarian and political reforms and upheaval. Many of his themes (as well as other artists like him) dealt with Mexican history (glorifying the Aztecs and other pre-Hispanic cultures, over the Spanish invaders) and social and political reformation. They tend to be leftist in nature, often portraying the oppressed peasants and workers, greedy landlords and capitalists, the proud revolutionary fighter and certainly with a deluge of red flags and the hammer and stickle. I like one particular mural at the Ministry of Education, entitled "The Orgy", depicting the rich upper class after a night of hedonistic party. Some of the hopelessly drunk in that mural look exactly like some of my former banking colleagues after some crazy drinking nights.
In D.F., I stayed at the home of Fausto, my Business School classmate. It was a wonderful reunion with him and his family after the past few years. He not only introduced me to fine aspects of Mexican cuisine, but also some of the more unusual dishes, such as tacos with ant eggs fillings.
We also drove around Mexico City and its suburbs, including the leafy town of Coyoacan. Here Russian revolutionary Leo Trotsky arrived in 1937 after being exiled by Stalin. He survived several assassination attempts by Stalin's agents, and fortified his home with watchtowers and high walls. Even then, in 1940, he was killed by an ice ax struck by a Catalan who had spent months working on becoming the lover of Trotsky's secretary and gaining the Russian's confidence. The assassin was jailed for 20 years and upon his release went to Moscow where he was awarded the Hero of the USSR medal.
We arrived at Trotsky's House Museum after it was closed. Fausto, as innovative as ever, told the caretaker that I was from China, was a member of the Chinese Communist Party and on a short visit to Mexico. The caretaker had a quick cursory scrutiny of the strange crowd before him, and in true socialist bureaucratic manner, apologized that he couldn't make an exception, although he was pleased that someone had come so far to visit this museum. He must be suspicious of this camera wielding visitor with a Hard Rock Cafe Bogota cap and the well dressed not-so-working class looking Mexican family in a fancy car with a Florida car plate. Fortunately he did not test me on the finer points of Das Kapital or the latest ideological works on Trotskyism. He probably already recognized these might be agents of capitalism or worse, Stalinism, trying to infiltrate this high temple of communist orthodoxy, or perhaps these people were mere manifestation of how far Chinese communism has deteriorated into a group of corrupt bourgeoisie turncoats still pretending to uphold proletariat interests. So ended my attempt pretending to be a Beijing commie. What can you expect from a Singaporean ex-investment banker?
I went to the great archaeological site of Teotihuacan and the colonial cities of Queretaro, Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende and Dolores Hidalgo, many of which were closely linked to Mexico's struggle for independence. Guanajuato is also famous for its museum of mummies, where more than 100 well preserved corpses were dug out from the local cemetery when they were up for reburial and their descendants didn't pay for that (or couldn't be found). Here you see Mexican families take family snaps in front of these dried corpses in period clothing (or in their naked (un)glory), with wide open eyes and mouths, as if to scream at the desecration of their remains. The children mummies were particularly popular. Not surprising. After all, this is the country that celebrates the Day of the Dead with skulls made of sweets and candies.
The state of Jalisco was next. This is the traditional heartland of Mexican culture - the land of tequila, charreada cowboy shows and the mariachi musicians with their huge sombero hats and shiny gala suits. I visited Guadalajara, capital of the state and Mexico's second largest city with 5 million people, as well as the Pacific resort city of Puerto Vallarta. Across the "fields of upright swords" - the turquoise blue agave plant from which tequila was made, I went on to Tepic, capital of Nayarit State. This is a quaint little city with few tourists. Huichol Indians walked around in their traditional white shirts and pants, dotted with symbols of the sun, moon, sacred cactus and other magical objects. Like the Australian Aborigines, the Huichols are experts in the interpretation of the dreams and their messages. Today, they are also sellers of dreams - they weave their dreams in colorful textiles for sale to the passing tourists. Dreams... what are yours?
I hopped onto an overnight bus back to Mexico City, switched to another one across the mountains to the Atlantic coastal state of Veracruz. I visited the famous pre-Hispanic city of El Tajin, with its pyramids and numerous ball courts depicting human sacrifice of captives as well as willing sportsmen the latter as the ultimate personal sacrifice - to the gods of war and harvest. I moved on to Puerto Veracruz, the famous port where Cortes the Spanish Conquistador landed on his way to conquer Mexico. It was also here that the city fought US invaders three times and the French once. Numerous monuments here proclaim this a "Heroic City Four Times". I love the warm Caribbean atmosphere here and the great seafood and paella. Tomorrow I shall return to Mexico City, visit a few more museums and then fly on to Miami on Sunday.
OK, enough of my monologue. I shall next write more about my travel plans for the rest of the year.