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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 4, 2023 14:54:12 GMT
Great stuff!
Sangria and vodka-my kind of drink. But you can keep the octopus although it does look good.
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Post by nycgirl on Apr 5, 2023 14:58:48 GMT
Thanks for the info, Bixa! I had assumed La Limpia was partly a show for tourists, but I was interested to learn that it's a respected tradition for locals.
The sangria vodka was delicious. I saw it offered at several restaurants. I don't recall seeing it when I visited Spain, perhaps it's a North American thing.
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Post by lugg on Apr 5, 2023 18:42:04 GMT
Just caught up with your wonderful report. Your photos are fantastic and really capture the vibrancy of Mexico ( at least how I imagine it) But ...my favourites are of the set of your daughter with the butterfly ..beautiful.
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Post by nycgirl on Apr 5, 2023 20:38:04 GMT
Thank you! Those are my favorite, too.
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Post by fumobici on Apr 6, 2023 19:07:09 GMT
Truly outstanding photo report, you have talent. Thank you.
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Post by nycgirl on Apr 7, 2023 0:31:50 GMT
Thank you! I really appreciate it.
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Post by nycgirl on Apr 8, 2023 16:47:39 GMT
After lunch, we walked around the Zócalo and took photos with the CDMX (Ciudad de Mexico) signs. The Zócalo, you may notice, is completely bereft of statues, fountains, and other trappings that are typical of a major city square. It’s not important for its beauty, but rather what occurs here. In Aztec times, it was the site of ceremonies and parades. Today, it continues to serve that function; it is the center of many national events and festivals, such as the Independence Day celebrations and the Alebrije Parade. People also assemble here for less jovial reasons; this is typically the gathering place for protests against organized crime and police and governmental corruption. On this particular day, though, there is nothing here but a refreshing breeze. Next, we took a stroll down the pedestrian-only Avenue Francisco Madero. The street is named after Mexican revolutionary and president of Mexico Francisco Ignacio Madero who enacted progressive policies but was sadly assassinated 2 years into his presidency. The street, fully pedestrianized since 2010, is a great place for shopping and people-watching. Amid the modern buildings are some historical gems, such as the Palacio de Iturbide. It was built in 1779 by a Count, occupied by Agustin de Iturbide (the first Emperor of independent Mexico) in the early 1800s, purchased by a national bank, and today houses a free cultural museum. Look down the street and you can spot Torre Latinoamericana, once the tallest skyscraper in Latin America. You can take an elevator to the observation to get a bird's eye view of Mexico City. The building was designed by some of the best engineers in the country to withstand seismic activity. Their work paid off; in 1985, the tower withstood an 8.1 magnitude earthquake that devastated much of Centro Historico.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 8, 2023 17:08:44 GMT
Your last photo makes the skyscraper look much taller than I remember.
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Post by nycgirl on Apr 20, 2023 16:23:59 GMT
Sorry it's been so long. I just got back from another trip (it was spring break for teachers here).
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Post by nycgirl on Apr 20, 2023 21:11:44 GMT
Further down the avenue is La Casa de los Azulejos (the House of Tiles), a 16th century palace that once belonged to an aristocratic family known as the Counts of the Valley of Orizaba. Apparently in the 1700s, the Fifth Countess ordered renovations that involved covering the building with thousands of tiles from Puebla. Over the years, the palace changed hands until it was purchased by an enterprising American who owned a drugstore and soda fountain business. He conducted extensive remodeling on the building and opened his flagship restaurant, Sanborns, which is thriving til this day. La Casa de los Azulejos is a nice backdrop for pictures, especially if you're wearing a gorgeous quinceañera dress. Let's take a peek inside, shall we? It's an atmospheric place to have a meal, or but you are also free to wander around, take pictures, and use the bathroom. I chose to do the latter. Both the exterior and the interior of the building's design feature Baroque details; the balconies and doors have frames made of carved stone and inlaid with French porcelain, giving them a luxurious touch. Further inside is a courtyard in which there is a tiled Moorish fountain. The glass-ceilinged atrium lets in a nice amount of natural light. One of the more modern elements is the addition of murals, such as the 1925 work "Omniscience" by José Clemente Orozco. So nice to get a chance to peruse the work of one of Mexico's great muralists while you're on the way to the WC.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 21, 2023 4:40:14 GMT
That's a quite stunning restaurant.
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Post by whatagain on Apr 21, 2023 6:40:47 GMT
Fantastic report, and brings me back to Mexico. Thanjs.
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Post by nycgirl on Apr 22, 2023 23:14:05 GMT
Thank you!
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 23, 2023 15:57:21 GMT
I am continuously knocked out by your pictures, NYCGirl, and really appreciate the background you provide in the captions. The information about the zócalo is particularly appreciated. Even though I know better, I'm still always disconcerted by how big & empty it is compared to every other main square in the country. The quinceañera girl in front of the tiled wall is one great capture. I'm embarrassed to say that I never knew that Sanborn's was that fancy inside. My only complaint about your trip report is that having NYCCutie along to include in the photos gives you an unfair advantage.
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Post by nycgirl on Apr 29, 2023 15:52:26 GMT
Next, we visited the Palacio de Bellas Artes, a major cultural institution that hosts performances and art exhibitions. The exterior of the building is an unusual mix of Art Nouveau and Neo-Classical architecture. Its most distinguished feature is the roof with its orange and yellow-tiled cupolas (unfortunately marred with scaffolding on this day). The interior is mostly Art Deco in style, featuring marble floors and vaulted iron and glass ceilings. Besides special exhibits, the museum has an impressive permanent collection of murals by famous Mexican painters. Diego Rivera's "Man, Controller of the Universe" (1934) is a re-painting of an original work commissioned by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. for the lobby of 30 Rock in NYC. The mural featured pro-communist imagery, such as Lenin clasping the hands of people of different races and Leon Trotsky and Karl Marx rallying with workers, as well as anti-capitalist scenes such as the wealthy class ignoring the suffering of the common people.
Rockefeller, of course, was outraged and demanded that Rivera change the mural. Rivera refused. Rockefeller fired him and had the mural demolished. Now, we all know Lenin was not a great guy, but as Rivera's leftist views were well-known, you have to wonder what Rockefeller was thinking when he hired him. He must have thought as the buyer he would get to have things exactly his way, but clearly he thought wrong. Rivera got paid in full and recreated the mural for the Palacio de Bellas Artes, where it stands today.
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 29, 2023 16:31:12 GMT
That’s wonderful. Hope there’s more pictures.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 29, 2023 16:49:17 GMT
When I was in Mexico City, I passed by it many times since it was close to the hotel but unfortunately never went in.
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Post by nycgirl on Apr 29, 2023 21:17:14 GMT
This is "New Democracy" (1944) by David Alfaro Siqueiros. (It's so massive, it's hard to get a proper photo of it.) Siqueiros was the youngest and most radical of "los tres grandes" ("the three greats" of Mexican muralism, which included Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco). While I admire his vibrant, powerful work, I was disturbed to learn that he was a rabid Stalinist responsible for an assassination attempt on Leon Trotsky's life. In May of 1940, Siqueiros led a group of about 20 men into the Mexico City home of the exiled Russian revolutionary; they threw grenades, shot at the beds of Trotsky, his wife, and his 13-year-old grandson, and left them for dead. Their bodyguard was later found murdered. Miraculously, the grandson had only been shot in the foot when he quickly hid under his bed, and Leon Trotsky and his wife hunkered in a corner of their room and survived without a scratch. Trotsky's luck would run out 3 months later, when an assassin, after carefully infiltrating his inner circle, stabbed him in the head with an ice pick. But as awful as that was, I think Siqueiros trying the kill a child in his sleep, simply for being related to his political enemy, is far worse. We wrapped up our visit with a rousing game of art bingo. Guess who won? Next, we took a stroll through Alameda Central Park. In the 1300s, this was the site of an Aztec marketplace in the capital city of Tenochtitlan. In 1592, a Spanish viceroy created the park as part of a gentrification plan, making this the oldest public park in the Americas. The park is populated with its namesake "álamo" trees (Spanish for "poplar"), as well as ash, chestnut, and willows. There is a dark history to this beloved family-friendly park. What is now the western section of the park was once a plaza built during the Spanish Inquisition known as "El Quemadero" ("The Burning Place"), where accused witches and heretics were burned at the stake. In 1770, during the waning years of the Inquisition, the plaza was cleared to make space for the expanding park. At one point, the park was cordoned off for nobility only, but was later reclaimed for the public. After the war for Mexican Independence, the Alameda became the center of public celebrations. In 1846, President Santa Anna rode triumphantly into the city and ordered that all the park fountains be filled with alcohol. Today, though, there's only water. Following our stroll through the park, we caught an Uber back to our house and had dinner nearby. And that's a wrap on Day 3 in Mexico City.
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Post by nycgirl on Jul 30, 2023 4:11:42 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 30, 2023 14:35:18 GMT
I am fascinated by a lot of the souvenir items and would have probably taken the same photos that you did, but I also wonder who could possibly want this stuff? (And then I remember all of the incredible things that people want to buy as souvenirs from Paris for some reason, and my brain shuts down.)
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 30, 2023 14:41:44 GMT
Good to see you again, NYCGirl. I also see I never commented on your last April section, which is both wonderfully photographed and full of important information. I've seen the murals in Bellas Artes, but under somewhat rushed circumstances, so seeing your photos is better. I probably shouldn't say this, as it makes me sound like a boob, but I'm kind of ambivalent about the grand Mexican murals. On one hand, they're magnificent works of story-telling art composed on the most difficult of platforms. On the other hand (this is the boob part), often when gazing upon one of those murals I think, " Lois Lenski" or " Caroline Durieux". This is not total ignorance, but a case of having been first exposed to the style of that era as a child through children's books and an anthology of folk tales. It was interesting to discover that Durieux was a friend of Diego Rivera. I agree that Siqueiros' work is admirable in its scope and his mastery of many styles. But despite the passion depicted in his murals, I find his work icy cold. Your child is adorable even as she shamelessly gloats over her superiority at the game. Wonderful pictures of the park. I didn't know that horrible part of its history. Love those two views looking across the lake to parts of the skyline. The twin brown towers on the right seem architecturally appropriate for their most Mexican of settings. Great stuff -- keep it coming, please!
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Post by nycgirl on Aug 1, 2023 3:34:40 GMT
K, I enjoyed shopping for fun jewelry and other crafts, but some of the souvenirs were the same stuffed animals and junk that you'd see anywhere. And of course, this is the kind of stuff my daughter wanted to get to remind her of her trip to Mexico. You don't come across as a boob at all, Bixa (although I did see some boobs in the mural.) Thanks for sharing about the two artists, I hadn't heard of them before. I was also interested to learn that Durieux befriended and was inspired by Rivera. Thanks for reading!
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