By David Leija"Don't tell me not to be' scared, I’m in freakin’ Mexico City!!!" -As you might be able to tell by my cousin's concern, even us mås o menos seasoned travelers had our pre-conceived notions about chilangolandia or the Capital city of the Mexican Republic, México D.F. Upon entering, we were greeted with colorful houses on the hills, what seemed like police cars on every corner and of course, lots and lots of traffic. We were very concerned at the time about whether we were even driving lawfully. You see, because the population is at about 21.2 million in the Greater Mexico City area, there are limitations as to who can drive on what day. If the police is anything like the famous Mexico City band, Molotov, describes them, we did not want to cross them.
We made it to our friend Pepe's family's house without incident. His mother and nephews greeted us very warmly, invited us to eat with them and told us all we needed to know about getting around on public transportation. As soon as we could we hopped in the shower as we had slept in our van that night, parked somewhere in Guanajuato. As we walked out the door my friend Pepe's mom, Mrs. Ortiz Garcia, walked us to the bus stop, I was still filled with the thoughts instilled in me about what Mexico City was, so naturally I had my guard up. We hopped on a bus to make our way towards the first stop, the Basilica de Guadalupe. We got on the bus and to my surprise it was not packed and there were no people hanging off of it (I saw that when I drove through as a kid and thought that it was always like that). After a couple of stops a couple of clowns got on and they were actually pretty funny. Towards the end of their act it struck me how they mentioned that they were simply entertaining in order to make an honest buck; can you blame them? As I looked around the bus I was relieved to see that most people actually did help them out. The bus driver finally told us that we had arrived at the Basilica. We got off, walked around, looked and thought, "oh how nice". Thankfully my cousin had the bright idea of googling this place that was 'pretty nice' and it turns out that that was THE BASILICA DE GUADALUPE at the foot of the Cerro de Tepeyac. Just to get an idea of the importance of this place in Mexican as well as Catholic culture, it gets over 20,000,000 visitors a year (9,000,000 in December alone) and it is the second-most visited next only to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Honestly, it was something I heard about my whole life but had never really paid much attention. When you walk into the modern basilica where they hold worship services everyday, you can actually see the original cloak that the saint Juan Diego wore when the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared. I didn’t grow up catholic so I’m not super familiar with the story. I’m still not sure since I read about it on wikipedia. I just know that when my dad would say, "se te va a parecer Juan Diego” (Juan Diego is about to have an apparition up in here) it meant I was about to get whooped so I’d better start acting right! I haven’t felt that dumb in a while…such intense history in this place and we almost missed it. Naturally after this, we were pretty ecstatic. We walked outside the gates to head to the bus and metro that would take us downtown. Again, we went with our guard up and not even talking too much so that people might not hear our accent. With help from a police officer, random people on the street, and a bus driver, we finally made it to a place that I’ve always wanted to see for myself, a place that when I would see it on TV I would get goosebumps -El Zocalo or the main square. This has been the main plaza since the Aztec Empire ruled. When we got off the metro it was already dark out but the first thing shining on us was the biggest Mexican flag I’ve ever seen in my life. You look to the right and there is an imposing cathedral that looks like it’s straight off the cover of an Iron Maiden album. Look even further to the right and there’s the national palace where the presidents of the republic traditionally give ‘El Grito de Dolores’ at midnight on the night of September 15 to declare independence. That night everyone gathers in the zocalo as the president waives the flag from the balcony and shouts “… Viva Mexico. Viva Mexico. VIVA MEXICOOO’!!! This is one of the most electrifying moments for me and Mexicans everywhere year after year, probably tantamount to the feeling I imagine one might get when giving birth to their first-born. I get goosebumps every time and even now as I’m writing this. It was dark at this point and contrary to what we’d always heard, we decided to walk around ‘el D.F.’ at night. As we were walking we passed ‘Tacuba’ street and I remembered that one of my favorite bands, Cafe Tacvba had gotten their name from a local cafe there. I looked it up with the quickness and it was just a couple of blocks away. As we walked there I imagined that there would be all types of allusions to the band and that the walls might be filled with memorabilia kind of like the soup nazi’s restaurant is with Seinfeld in New York City. When we got there I was shocked to see that it couldn’t be further from the truth. The cafe has actually been there since 1912 and had its very own identity. It did not look like it wanted to be associated with the band at all -it had no need. We decided to sit down and have a coffee anyway but as soon as we saw the prices, we left as if they were going to charge us for just thinking about it. I’m sure it was worth every peso but this paisa was just a little too broke to be getting fancy with it. We walked around a bit more… actually a lot more. We stumbled upon the best churros rellenos de cajeta we’ve ever tried, we walked past beautiful art museums, sculptures, monuments and plazas. Honestly, I did not feel unsafe for a second once we got to know the city. As we mentioned in previous blogs, every city has its rough spots, you just need to use common sense. We saw several gringos kickin’ it doing their thing seemingly without a worry in the world. As we walked back to the metro and squeezed onto the trains we still had our reservations; we were leaving the safe touristy areas. We actually got a little lost on the way home in what some people might call a ‘sketchy area’ but is really just a working class neighborhood. Again with the help of perfectly kind strangers, we made it home. It was so crazy to me, that something i’ve heard so much about, had actually gotten to me. I had actually believed all the hype about D.F. and ‘chilangos'. I slept that night with a sense of shame. The next day we woke up and Mrs. Ortiz Garcia had made us some bomb pambazos which are tortas or mexican sandwiches where the bread is dipped and fried in red chile guajillo and then filled with chorizo, potato, cheese, cream and who knows what else. It was too good. I ate two. Along with the pambazos we enjoyed some great sobremesa (conversing at the table after the meal) with Mrs. Ortiz Garcia and the family. We found out that the term “Chilango” actually refers to people that moved into Mexico City; People that are from Mexico City are referred to as “Defeños”. That kind of rocked my world a little bit. They told us that and more little bits of great info about the city. They were pretty awesome people. The son-in-law is a marathon runner and is planning on running all the way to Chicago. Not to mention, my friend Pepe, is a successful entrepreneur living in Chicago and all around awesome guy -the type everyone likes. Before they left to work, they gave me a cumbia cd for the road; I was touched. We spent the rest of the day exploring different parts of the city, we saw Diego Rivera’s murals at an expo and kicked it in Frida Kahlo’s neighborhood, Coyoacán. Most importantly, we did two things that were on my bucket list: we went to the world famous Estadio Azteca where my father’s favorite soccer team as well as my own, Club América plays (puro Américaaa). Then we finally went to Ciudad Universitaria in UNAM which is one of my dream schools and what I really wanted to see. UNAM (short for the National Autonomous University of Mexico) is the biggest university in Latin America with about 120,000 students. It was great to finally see it in person. A place full of life there’s so much I could say...catch me on the block so I can tell you about it one day. We did so much in two days, it was incredible. Two weeks is not enough, let alone a couple of days. Everything was so easy to get to, and you were entertained most of the time whether it was on the bus, on the train or on the street. Mexico City has so much hustle. Aside from the beauty of the main squares and its neighborhoods, what makes Mexico City so unique is its people who are luchadores -not in the lucha libre sense, but in the fact that they work hard. They work hard for what they have which, possessions aside, is their culture, their very own swag that is impossible to imitate. I’ve been to many places, but Mexico City is one of if not the most unique and visiting it really affected me. It gave me the feeling and realization that all travelers eventually get and that is to stop going by what you heard; experience it for yourself. -David |
DavidMuchacho simpatico EdgarEdgar is Christian. He loves soccer, traveling, and meeting new people. Archives
July 2016
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