I'm really starting to enjoy Mexico City or D.F. as it is known here. It is a huge bustling place, like nowhere I've been before and full of a million contrasts. There is old and new, rich and poor, beauty and ugliness, corruption and people who will go out of their way to help you. There is violence and compassion, dense concrete mazes and wide-open plazas & parks, throngs of bustling humanity and places of quite relaxation. Passion and optimism for their city and country go hand in hand with despair and worry for what the future holds. Then there is the culture and the history of the people and of the place. What Mexico City hasn't got, pretty much doesn't exist anywhere in the world.

The Mexican people left there home in the Northeast and wandered nomadically looking for the place legend told them would be the next site for their civilisation. In a swampy valley in what is now central Mexico they saw the eagle, perched on a cactus, eating a rattlesnake. This had been the given sign. On an island of about 1.5km square surrounded by a shallow lake they built their city, Tenochtitlan around 1325. The valley was 2,300m above sea level, measured about 100km by 60km and was surrounded by mountains and angry volcanoes. They built long walkways and bridges linking the island with the rest of the valley and that gave them means to trade and the city grew and prospered. Soon it became the capital of the Aztec Empire that would stretch from middle Central America right up to what is now the southern United States.

There had always been a prophecy about Quetzacoatl, an Aztec God, saying that he would return from the East. The timing of the arrival of Spaniard Hernan Cortez in 1519 coincided with this prophecy and Moctezuma, II the then Aztec Emperor was afraid that the prophecy was unfolding and so greeted Cortez warmly and with gifts. Cortez of course not being the great Quetzacoatl then went on to conquer the Aztec Empire in 1521, but it did take time and the loss of many of his troops.

...the equivalent of smoking almost 2 packets of cigarettes a day by just being there. .

Since then the city has grown and grown, covering the whole valley. Many people argue that it is the largest city in the world. Official estimates put the population at around 22 million, Unofficial at over 30 million Even with the problems that always face it, like volcanoes, and earthquakes such as the one in 1985 that devastated much of the city, Mexico City continues to be, if not the, then one of the fastest growing cities in the world.

As well as the natural menaces, the effect of human population is devastating as well. Being so high, the lack of oxygen makes burning inefficient and therefore the fumes from the millions of cars and hundreds of industrial buildings in the valley collect and hang in a thick yellow/brown cloud of smog on top of the city. Breathing is difficult at this altitude anyway, but with the added pollution that cannot go anywhere because of the surrounding mountains it amounts to, some say, the equivalent of smoking almost 2 packets of cigarettes a day by just being there.

It is a dangerous city, taxis at night should be used with great care, the subway system has had to resort to having 'women only' carriages at rush hour to curb sexual assaults. It is uncommon if I don't hear of at least one person a week coming back into the hostel saying they have been pickpocketed. The streets are lined by security guards wielding shotguns and machine guns to protect banks, shops, apartments and even car parks.

...there is not much stopping for red traffic lights except on the most well lit and busy routes...

The streets are crowded and dirty, paving stones cracked and torn, potholes in the pavement and road, bits of old foundations sticking up randomly. Men, women and children huddle for shelter on the cold nights and beg or perform circus acts at the traffic lights during the day for money. Of course at night, there is not much stopping for red traffic lights except on the most well lit and busy routes.

Aside from all this there is an amazing amount of optimism and beauty in Mexico City. Take a stroll around the Zocalo, said to be the worlds largest square, surrounded by beautiful colonial buildings and the Presidential Palace. A massive flag, bigger than I've ever seen flying high in the centre. It's design, two red vertical borders with the eagle and the snake in the middle. Take a stroll in Parque Chapultapec on a summers afternoon and escape the noise and the hustle and bustle, or go on a weekend and see Mexicans in their thousands playing walking, chatting and enjoying life. Visit the Palacio de Belles Atres, the fine art museum and see the amazing murals of Diego Rivera and other Mexican artists. Take time in the Parque Almeda for a game of chess with the locals or revel in the history and culture that is Mexico City and its surrounding areas. Go shopping for handicrafts and sit around the square in Coyocan for a quite beer. And then there is the nightlife, the sexy dancing of salsa, the clubs and bars that come alive almost every night of the week.

One particular bar that I frequent along with friends from the Casa de Mi Amigos Hostel is the Oxford (or Oxfort, depending which sign you read!). It has absolutely nothing to do with the well known Oxford back home, quite the opposite but almost every time I go in there I experience something of what the people are about.

The Oxford is a dim place, Formica slats line the walls up to about waist height, from there mirrors, criss-crossed with lead complete the walls up to the nicotine coloured ceiling. Basic wooden tables and not so comfortable hard-backed chairs are arranged inside, a hard tiled floor complete the scene. Seedy is what you would call it I suppose, but after a few nights in there we were as welcome as the locals and never felt any threat.

 

©Ian Picken 2004