lightening the mood after the onslaught of political and social realities wrapped in an alterna-reggaeton wrapper, was empire of the sun, the weirdest band south of asia.
they were awesome.
multiple costume changes for their jobriath-esque delightful freak of a lead singer and their bendy troupe of female dancers.
there was an excellent video display, light show, and the drama of the music was even more than i had dreamed of and better than i expected.
they instantly rocketed into one of the top five bands i had ever seen live.
an amazing time.
and then, we half-ran the mile out to the road, caught an insanely expensive taxi, hurtled into bed, and slept the barely four hours before rushing to catch our early bus to puebla.
and i think my test at nin o'clock went alright. somehow. i feel that even if it didn't, it was still worth it.
my mom had told me saturday about the recent changes in arizona concerning their immigration stance, which i reflected on in disgust and then moved forward in my weekend, intending to return to the thought today.
but sunday night, the unfortunate actions in my country took center stage during what was supposed to be a time reserved for me dancing like a dork and screaming lyrics i half-understand in spanish.
residente, the incredibly handsome and charismatic singer of calle 13, turned around to reveal on the giant video screens his political stance on the issue:
"luz verde para invadir arizona."
and that was not the end of it.
throughout the night, between songs, he returned to the subject, rousing the crowd with his rant against the blatant stupidity of u.s. lawmakers. a boy who had been attempting to get my attention throughout the show tried to make robin and i feel better by letting us know that he thought what residente was saying was "too strong", but both of us gringas knew better. everything residente said was completely valid, and the angry cries of the crowd around us were perfectly understood, even in my broken spanish.
living in the united states, it is difficult to take the time to reflect on some of the internal changes of our nation and how nations truly affect each other. i think it is easy for people, especially young people, particularly myself, to become engrained into that fantasy that nothing happens outside of our country, our state, our city. but to be in the very middle of that crowd, to realize the vitriol that we can inspire by the careless actions and words of our lawmakers, i was jolted back into the reality that someone, sooner rather than later, needs to enact a change in the way that our nation relates. in the way that our nation takes for granted and can be abusive. i am hoping that it will be my generation, but i would be so pleased if it were even sooner.
in any case, the show was amazing, and i danced and sang like a total half-mexican dork. but i took the time to think, and i feel that is what matters.
and of course, sunday afternoon, vive latino! happened.
it was huge. 4 stages, with almost 40 bands between them.
after an unfortunate incident of getting caught up in a flash mosh pit against that black box in the center of the crowd, robin and i escaped to the bleachers and took in the sight of thousands of people celebrating music together. always a sight for me.
we didn't know many of the bands, but we had a great time walking around, taking in a surprise show by hello seahorse! and just listened to music.
later, we returned to main stage and watched a show by an incredibly popular ska group called ska-p that i had never heard of before. every single one of the thousands of people around us danced and sang along to every word of their incredibly radical sentiment. it was another one of the those odd reflections of the history we had learned about being projected back into the culture. ska-p led the crowd in a rousing cry of "resistencia!" that never really seemed to end.
we went to go see the famous golden angel that is plastered on the sides of tourist buses and is an icon of the city itself.
it was very pretty, but a little sunny at the time to spend too much time staring into the sky.
what i loved was that, in the 25 or so minutes we spent at the monument, 7 different girls celebrating their quince (in those giant, giant poofy dresses) came with their parties to take photos at the angel. when one left, another giant limo would roll up to take up the space. really funny.
after our friday afternoon of exploring the zocalo, and an early night in to catch up on sleep we knew we'd need, robin and i set out early saturday morning to find frida's house.
it took some searching and map flipping, but we finally found it.
such a cool experience. we were able to see some of the preserved spaces of her and diego and walked through rooms that had been converted into studios to showcase a variety of work of both her and diego from throughout their respective careers.
we saw an exhibit of some of their personal photos and drank coffee and had a snack in a little cafe in their courtyard. it was a really cool experience.
later in the day, we went to the museum of modern art. i turned a corner in one of the salas to find "two fridas." it was a surprise, and it would be a lie if i did not say that being able to see such a beautiful piece of art in full detail did not make me tear up a little bit. because it totally did.
the cathedral downtown was just endlessly beautiful.
i couldn't stop taking photos, whenever we were around it.
inside, it was breathtaking and just humongous.
i walked around forever.
outside, there was this really great statue of pope john paul II that had part of his robe constructed out of old keys, because he "holds the key to the heart of mexico city".
we went to the palacio nacional, which was pretty awesome. a lot of history packed into one huge building. there are two different diego rivera murals there, and as we were admiring this one, we ran into our host brother, pepe, who was in town for a class trip. really funny. but it was really an experience to be in a building that has housed so much of the events we are learning about in classes currently. especially seeing as throughout the weekend, we experienced more of that history through marches to the zocalo (of workers dissatisfied with the current president) and the expression of the musicians at vive latino! a really enlightening weekend as the historic and current sense of mexico.
the single best weekend of my entire time here so far.
we left on friday morning and came back early this morning on account of the festival last night.
in any case.
we stayed in an awesome hostel. kind of far from the centro, but very close to a metro station that got us there in a few minutes. we stayed in the "calavera" themed room.
my weekend consisted of: -five diego rivera murals -frida kahlo's house -an excellent dinner in the hipster district -vive latino! -el palacio nacional -touring the beautiful cathedral downtown -two fridas -random art in random buildings downtown -hello, seahorse!, calle 13 and empire of the sun -a terrible sunburn on my nose -an awesome time all around
(i took almost 500 photos this weekend and also reached the monthly limit on my flickr account, so extensive photo uploading isn't happening until after my mom leaves next week.)
the videos posted below should do their best to explain why i am so excited for this weekend. awesome and weird. i can't wait to see what empire of the sun conjures up on stage and have heard from very reputable sources that calle 13 is amazing live.
so. robin and i are heading out early tomorrow morning for our trip to mexico city. going to stay in a really pretty hostel in the centro and spend our first two days eating good food and finding as many art museums as we possibly can. diego rivera murals and frida kahlo artifacts are sure to abound. then sunday, we have vive latino! which starts at 1ish. gonna try and get there for the mid-afternoon, walk around and find some interesting music to take in. and then in the evening, camp out around the main stage for the one-two punch of calle 13 and empire of the sun. i am incredibly excited. can't wait to take pictures, assuming i can smuggle my little camera in. gonna be so much fun, not inluding the bus ride home at 5 in the morning on monday, getting back to the ibero just in time to take a test in our literature class. i think i'll just ignore that part for the time being....
went to an incredibly fancy restaurant called gaia on saturday night. robin and i both felt like we stuck out a bit in the gorgeous, ambient restaurant, but had to stick out paying 150 pesos on cake a a margarita because..... the pool that our table overlooked had a tile mural on the bottom that was designed by diego rivera. so awesome to look down on the mural and the stunning sunset as we ate cheesecake, creme brulee and drank margaritas that were well worth their price.
we went to the jardin borda near the catedral and stumbled across a beautiful rose garden within it that had a variety of art pieces dedicated to the virgin. borda, with it's trees and fountains and flowers and art galleries, was really beautiful. the rose garden in particular reminded me so much of my abuelita, who would have loved the small loop of flowers. it smelled beautiful and was incredibly picturesque. we also encountered the little cat there that followed us around for awhile, weaving around out legs. our own little feline tour guide.
there was a trio of lovely churches a short walk outside of the zocalo. all gorgeous, but the older, main catedral was absolutely stunning. i saw it from the view outside the palace and made robin go there immediately. so beautiful. afterward, we went to a cafe near the churches and had our first encounter with grumpy cuernavacan waiters and the delicious food that they begrudgingly serve.
we were surprised to discover that the american ambassador in cuernavaca has commissioned a diego rivera mural in el palacio de cortes. amazing stuff. and a total surprise. the mural is gorgeous, striking, and sad. it depicts amany political and revolutionary leaders and serves as an indictment of the spanish of conquest of mexico, as reflected in the pain and anguish of the indigenous struggle that is painted in the mural. seeing this work of art was a perfect cap to our course in latin american history and perfectly evoked my feelings about what we had learned.
the town was so gorgeous and lots of fun. we went to the pyramids of teopanzolco, the palacio of cortes, a really fancy restaurant, and a lot of super rad churches. there was a lot of statues and art devoted to people like emiliano zapata, benito juarez and jose maria morelos throughout the city, this being due to the historical positioning of the city with many leaders throughout mexico's history having come through cuernavaca.
the only problem with our trip was the unfortunate timing. there have apparently been some murders related to the drug wars in morelos, where cuernavaca is located. the violence from the drug wars in mexico have spread into this state as well. the first night we were there, one of the women in the hostel warned us that there had been a threat that something would go down that night in the zocalo and just to be careful. we didn't quite know what was going on and took a taxi with a latvian girl from the hostel (having a very fun conversation in spanish on the taxi ride there) and found that everything in the town had shut down that night because of the threats. nothing ended up happening, and robin and i got some well needed rest because of the lack of salsa club to go to, so everything was alright. but the next day we saw processions of federal police and army trucks that kept vigil, driving through the zocalo. during our dinner on a restaurant patio, we counted over 10 trucks with heavily armed police creep slowly through the street in front of the palacion de cortes. insane. we're lucky nothing like this is happening in puebla.
we went to cuernavaca this past weekend, leaving right after our final for spanish 315. the town is about two hours away from puebla, in the state of morelos. robin and i stayed in this awesome hostel that doubled as a spanish school for language students. it was an awesome set-up, with a pool and a really cool layered appearance. the walls on our way outside were covered in photos of emiliano zapata and subcomandante marcos (one of the major figures from the ezln). it was pretty interesting to have some basis of understanding of the political leanings of the hostel owners after taking the class. kind of cool to be in the space.
one well-needed break during the chaos of a three week crash course in latin american history and politics was my downtime last weekend of seeing "date night" on saturday (it's called "un noche fuera de serie" here, but is just as cute and hilarious with subtitles) and then bowling on sunday. such fun. i ended up doing pretty well. i think i bowled around an 80 for both games. pretty pleased with myself considering my usual inconsistency with the game.
so. this has more or less been the culprit behind my two week absence from blogging. an insane amount of homework. somehow, in the planning for this trip, i had forgotten that there would be school involved. and how. luckily, our first class is over with (i thinkk i did alright--high b to a low a, which is more than respectable considering the amount of work and my problems with grammar) and next week we start literature. our literature class should be amazing, and even if i hate the teacher, i will still love doing the work. the only catch is that i need to try and get most of the work done ahead of time and get some presentation dates switched around, because... (pause for drumroll effect) my mom is coming to visit on the 29th! i am so excited and have been devoting my bored-in-class-time to making lists of things i want to do during the week that she is here. expect another week of silence as my mother and i traverse cinco de mayo celebrations, climb pyramids, and drink wine and eat tacos. there will be lots of work, but at least i have vive latino in d.f. next weekend and my mom's visit to make up for it.
today was my first day of getting sick here (a result of probably finally giving in to the dietary changes) and also marks my first ever day of skipping college classes due to illness.
way fun.
i got sick in the middle of the night, thought i was good, went back to bed, got up, got ready, then realized while staring painfully at my breakfast that i probably couldn't handle anything today.
so i stayed in bed and slept for four hours.
still have a bit of homework, but i'm feeling better, and blanca was nice enough to prepare "sick person food" for lunch along with providing some stomach enhancing medicine. so things should be good.
to make myself additionally better, i am going to watch this video. (going to be seeing these dudes in a little over two weeks..)
guanajuato also hosts a cervantes festival, so there were these assorted don quixote statues and references (and a theatre), as well as crazy amount of souvenirs in his likeness.
am even more inspired to get my spanish together enough to read the beowulf of latin america (except more entertaining, i assume).
it was just a museum full of dead bodies. some more frightening than others.
the museum also boasts the 'world's smallest mummy', which was an infant child that had been preserved with it's mother. i didn't quite have the heart to take a photo.
ended up leaving puebla on wednesday morning and making the 5 hour trip (gratefully, in christian's car) to guanajuato, a gorgeous city.
this was the view from the hostel balcony.
the town is full of beautiful architecture, winding cobbled streets, and hills decorated in an array of brightly-colored houses. and every landmark has a story.
my new favorite cafe. it is a bookstore/cafe by day and a club with live music by night. and also appears to be owned by cuban-mexican socialists. it's open air in parts and has a wonderful feel, as well as really interesting art work.
i drank a rompope latte with some fresas con crema. a delightful meal.
but later that tuesday, robin and i returned to the excellent pizza place amalfi's and were insanely popular. our waiter flirted like crazy and the owner came by and introduced himself. and we ended up getting complimentary dessert. i'm not sure if we looked pretty or maybe just ended up being charming, but apparently they can't wait for us to return...
here's the front of our house, which i think is very cute. our room is to the far left, behind the cars, separate from the house. i adore this space, except for the past few days. before we left on wednesday, we realized that the sink wasn't running and the toilet wasn't flushing. so we go to use the facilities in the house and lo and behold they're not working either. apparently, our host mom accidentally left the garden house on and used ALL of our water. the family promptly left for vacation, promising it'd be fixed by the time we got back from guanajuato. we're back early, they're not here, and now our room smells like pee. beh.
i loved this dude. he was far too handsome for a mask (clearly). and it was super obvious that the ladies loved him. he didn't do as many flips as i would have wanted though...
so much fun! it was super packed and really cheesy and just like a baseball game in the states but hilarious and entertaining the entire time as opposed to only some of the time.
all i could think throughout the four bouts was that if i had been a little kid growing up in mexico, this would have been my most favorite thing in the whole world. it was goofy and awesome and surprisingly acrobatic.
i loved seeing all the little kids with their masks on (they sold lucha masks like candy at this venue) and when i later asked christian if he went to watch the luchas when he was a little kid he gave me the equivalent of "duh!" in spanish. i wouldn't have expected anything different.
