In the Historic Centre - Mexico, Day 1

Did I mention previously that our hostel has a tie-up with Mexbus, a tour company? So today we went on a free tour of the Historical Centre of Mexico, i.e. our neighbourhood. We started off in front of this huge map of the area in the pre-Hispanic times. There were two major cities in the area, Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco. Tenochtitlan was the political and military centre of the Aztec world and Tlatelolco the economic centre. The two cities were on an island in the middle of a lake. After the Spanish conquered the Aztec, they started filling in the lake and Mexico City expanded on this reclaimed land. The Spanish also pulled down all the Aztec temples and used the stones to build churches next to the temple. But the churches are so heavy that they are now sinking into the earth... requiring a lot of conservation effort. Divine retribution?

The Aztecs too had problems with their temples sinking into the earth. But they had a simple solution for that. Just build another temple over it. Remember, they were pyramid builders. So what you see on top is just the outermost layer, on top of a much older structure. There is a huge excavation site just next to the Catedral, of the Aztec Templo Mayor (Great Temple). The inner walls of the older pyramids are exposed to view here. We visited the site and the accompanying museum after the tour. There is this a macabre altar with human skulls all around it. That would have been the altar of the God of War.


Our next stop was the National Palace, where we were introduced to the murals of the famous Mexican painter, Diego Rivera. He has a series of murals up one staircase and down one wall of one of the palace courtyards. He was a communist and definitely anti-Spanish, anti-Catholic, so the Aztecs look like poor victimised people and Cortes and the Catholic church like murdering conquerors, making conversions by the sword. Truth to tell, the behaviour of the Spanish was also horribly cruel but they must have felt that anything was better than a religion that cut out the hearts of its adherents. Talk about relative moralities! Our guide (Leo) took us through the paintings in detail - Diego's prejudices aside, they also presented a lot of information about the pre-Hispanic world. There was a picture showing some of the religious rituals - playing a ball game called pelota; the Voladores de Paplanta or the Paplanta flyers. None of the more grisly rituals like cutting out hearts, although Leo told us that sometimes the victors of the ball games got the knife. Sacrificing the lives of some people, would ensure the survival and prosperity of the rest. Or, as someone in our group said, "life, for life." In one corner of the National Palace was a little display from the Day of the Dead celebrations. In one way, the culture of the Aztecs is still alive and well. Day of the Dead displays feature skeletons (or Katrinas) dressed up in fancy outfits, shrines and altars feature more skulls (we were to see a fine example at the old basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe the following day). Its got this very tribalistic feel to it.

We next stopped over at the Catedral. I was amazed at the number of masses. There must have been about 8-9 altogether, 4-5 in the morning and another 4 in the evening. I went to the 5pm mass later that day. The Catedral itself is ornate. The first thing we saw was a huge chapel just inside the catedral, all covered in gold leaf. The main alter itself has tall gold-leaf covered columns on each side. I suppose this is after the Spanish style, with Mexican overtones. There were two large pipe organs. One is from Spain, the other Mexican-made. The Mexicans also have an interesting custom. There was a picture of our Lady on one of the walls with all these medals, and little photos stuck around the frame. Apparently, if someone has survived a brush with death, or recovered from a serious illness, the practice is to put up one of these little medallions or trinkets on the frame as a form of thanksgiving.

We then went on to view various buildings in the historic part of Mexico - the building in which the Spanish Inquisition was held (they brought it over from Spain), the Post Office building, the Opera House and the National Art Museum. The tour ended after that and we then went off on our own. We went back to the Art Museum, and had to enter by the back entrance because the front was being blocked by the group of Oaxacan protesters who were camping in the square just outside the museum. The museum itself (and this is true for all the Mexican museums we visited) was excellent. Of course some English explanations of the works would have been nice but this is a Spanish speaking country, after all.

We ended off our day with a tour around the ruins of Templo Mayor (as mentioned earlier). It is really an absorbing archaeological site and it is incredible to think that this was just one small part - and around and below me lie far more of the ancient city of Tenochtitlan.

Photos from Mexico Day 1 here! Day 2- will feature visit to Teotihuacan (and more pyramids).