Random pictures, mid-tour in Mexico City, part I

I'm getting farther and farther behind in this blog, so I thought I'd post a few pictures I took in various place in Mexico City.

I love this door knocker! In Queretaro I also saw a lot of great ones, but always when I was either in a moving vehicle or without my camera.
I finally got a good picture of an organ grinder. These fellows play all around the Zocalo, with a compatriot holding out a hat for tips. They all wear the same kind of uniform. He's holding the hat right now.
In the Presidential Palace, there are amazing murals by Diego Rivera. Here's a little piece of one:
And a much bigger section:
Last year in Brazil, I took lots of pictures of plants. I haven't taken as many here, but this Bird of Paradise was begging to be photographed.

That's it for now.

El Dia de los Muertos

When I learned that I would be in Mexico in October and November, I was thrilled: I'd be here for Day of the Dead! Officially, it's All Soul's Day, but there's huge lead-up to the holiday. This holiday has its roots in ancient indigenous civilization. It's NOT Halloween, and is not scary, but is a joyous celebration of the ancestors (Kent reminded me that it's not much different from the "begats" in Genesis). All over Mexico, people create altars (ofrendas), display skulls and skeletons, eat pan de muerto and have a giant party. Families go to the cemetery to clean the graves and have a good time.

Though it's not Halloween, in recent years, some of the trappings of Halloween have come into Mexican culture: children dress up and hold out plastic jack-o'lanterns for candy or money.

Marigolds are traditionally used in the ofrendas, as are offerings of food, sugar (or clay) skulls, skeletons dressed as upper-class ladies. Some of the ofrendas are very personal, showing pictures of family or friends who have died. Some are political, some are historical, some are general. There are markets where chocolate skulls and sugar skeletons are sold. Here are some of my favorite pictures of the holiday (I'll do another post with more pictures and less chat).

This is an ofrenda I saw in a small park near my hotel.

Outside a restaurant in Queretaro, with my best skeleton smile.

Another ofrenda in the park near my hotel. Frida Kahlo!

These are made of sugar!

Queretaro, at play

The rest of the day after the two performances at Colegio Fontenar was free. Dina and I walked around Queretaro, had coffee, relaxed. That evening, we went back to the park in the historic district, where there was a keyboard player entertaining a large crowd. Couples old and young danced to the music, and many of us sat on the benches on this pleasant evening. After a while, we wandered up the hill to see the Day of the Dead altar in process (more on that in a different post). The next day we took a couple of tourist buses around the city, to see even more of this charming town. Queretaro is an important place in Mexican history, sometimes called "the cradle of Mexican independence." One of the main leaders of the independence movement was a woman, Josepha Ortiz de Dominguez, called "La Corregidora." This is also the city where Emperor Maximilian I was executed in 1867, after Benito Juarez led the Republican forces to victory (did Mexico really need a Habsburg Emperor?!).

Here are some pictures of Queretaro now:
I love the mix of Colonial buildings in this picture.

Talk about Baroque! The goldwork in this church is amazing! In the next picture, you can see St. Francis Church and former convent. There are lots of churches here and I saw many nuns on the street wearing habits (but not in this picture).
Lots of the trees in the city center are pruned like this. It makes for a dense cover.

I'm going to put some pictures of Day of the Dead celebrations up next, including some from Queretaro.

Queretaro, at work

On Thursday morning we got up early, had breakfast and hopped in a cab for Colegio Fontenar. After the hugeness of Mexico City, Queretaro felt like a small town. It took us only about twenty minutes to get to this beautiful school in the outskirts of the city. When we arrived, we learned that one group of children wouldn't be able to attend the storytelling as they had been quarantined for H1N1. Those were the four-year olds. Instead I had the threes and fives, in two different groups.

What I know is that even though the three-year olds didn't understand my words, and the fives couldn't believe that I didn't speak Spanish (I answered their Spanish questions in English, though), there is value for the children in hearing a native speaker tell stories. They also all understood puppet.

Here we did a song with movement:

Thank goodness for songs, fingerplays and puppets! I could see by the way the children joined in that they were following the action. Very fun.