Good Indian, bad Indian

The picture above is by Siqueros, one of Mexico's greatest muralists, alongside Orozco and Rivera. I actually saw this mural. Some of this posts other pictures were not taken by me though.

(Note, I didn't put this when it happened, but at this point I do not care. My composition class is over now, but I'll mention a few more stories from it probably)

As my Spanish class with Rosalva was one-on-one, we got into some odd conversations. We read a piece in the textbook (for our reportage unit) on one indigenous Mexican town's "Dance of the Conquest," unusual in its portrayal of Malinche as a heroine (people in the town claim her as one of their own).

We got onto the subject of one of America's Malinches: Pocahontas. Rosalva said that in America we love Indians only to bury them (also referring to the portrayal in Dances with Wolves). I asked her whether it was true in Mexico as well. She said "yes." It's funny how the whole "good indian" v. "Bad Indian" thing works out, at least in "traditional" histories (just as racist in both countries perhaps, but still interesting, things are beginning to change in both countries). Here's the U.S.A.'s "Good Indians":

here's our "Bad Indians" :

I realize this is starting to change, with the current work on the Crazy-Horse monument. The 19th century view is still alive to some people though. What we put on pedastals does not necessarily jive with our present-day reality. It's more our version of where we came from and what we choose to define as "national."

Anyways in mainstream Mexican History, it's just as racist...

Good Indians:

(The statues were taken by me, the other one of Cuahtemoc, I got from a web search.

Bad Indian:

That last one was Malinche, Cortez's translator and mistress. She's also in that first picture, but I couldn't blow it up big enough to accurately show her making out with a suit of armor. Oficially she's considered the reason for the downfall of the Aztec Empire. Rosalva said that it was just another myth like Cleopatra or Eve, that was intended to put women down. She claimed some Meztisos (mixed-race Mexicans, the majority of the country) hate her because they blame her for creating the Meztiso race ("Hijos de la Malinche"). They'd rather be 100% Spanish.

As for Rosalva's opinion, she sees her as a curious victim caught up in Cortez's plan.

I'm not sure I agree with her version or the old version. The fact is that many nations in what is now Mexico were tired of paying tribute to the Aztecs and thought the Spanish were there to help them (they were wrong, the conquistadors demanded more). Rosalva gets offended though when people insult pre-Collumbian nations (she has problems with Apocalypto too).

As far as present-day Mexico goes, Rosalva's statement that I pass for an upper-class Mexican probably says something about the current upper-class. I've found people who look like me more at the top of the hill than at the bottom (upper and lower are literal here in Cuernavaca) I'll get to my environmental racism observations later (or seeing how this blog is going, "earlier").

Sightseeing in Mexico City

A group of us decided to go sightseeing in Mexico City. We walked down the Paseo de la Reforma, passing a statue of an Aztec hero (I've forgotten which, I have photos of two different ones this one came out better) and an office buiding with huge white wings painted on its windows

...before stopping for breakfast at Sanborn's, a place that was owned by Carlos Slim , the world's richest man, who currently also owns Mexico's telephone company, and apparently an insurence company as well. Basically he grabbed up a monopoly on the telephone company after it was privatized, thus defeating the whole presumed purpose of privatization (more competition).

We then headed to La Plaza de la Constitución , passing the Torre Lationoamerica. Not knowing its history, some of us called it "the knockoff Empire State Building." To many of us (including myself) it seemed a particularly ugly building. However, the purpose of this blog is not to insult Mexico (many other people are already doing that). After all functionalist architecture was ours before it was theirs, and the building has held up through earthquakes.

The Plaza looked more like Europe than like New York City. It was a wide plaza, with detailed Colonial-Era buildings, not overcrowded or invaded by modern skyscrapers. The buildings here were built mostly by the Spanish on top of Aztec ruins.

All that remained of the Aztec Plaza was the Templo Mayor's ruins. The Spanish seemed to have literally ripped the top of it off, but it still had one or two Quetzicoatl heads still in good condition. We were too cheap to pay to go down into the ruins. It was supposedly the site where the Aztec empire began, where the ancient wandering Aztecs saw an Eagle standing on a cactus (which is now the national symbol on Mexico's flag).

Instead we went to the Metropolitan Cathedral located right next door, and looked at the very impressive arched ceiling and various golden facades honoring saints. It was such an impressive building that it probably would not have been free if it had been built to honor pagan gods instead of Catholic saints. Actually it wasn't entirely free for me. I was required to take off my hat. I set it down and lost it for all eternity (as happens with all objects misplaced in big cities).

I saw some people dressed up as Aztecs outside of the Cathedral, including one person who was performing sagegrass clensings. I did not think that was an Aztec custom. It could just be for the benefit of North-American tourists.

It was very crowded. People were on stage outside in the middle of the square playing music at a free concert. I was not there at the moment when the kissing record was broken, but even when I was there locals held signs reading "besos gratis." I took a few of them, although as Mexico is a Mediterrainean-settled area, kissing on cheeks is probably not as much of a statement as it is in the U.S. I also got a picture taken with a group of people dressed up as various Johnny Depp characters, and one as the Joker.

We then stopped by the Palacio de Bellas Artes where we saw spectacular murals by Orozco, Rivera, and Siquieros, including the famous "Man at the Crossroads" At first I though it an irony that the museum required 40 pesos for entry and 30 extra for photos if so many of the most famous artists were socialists. Actually, as I later learned Mexicans can now get in free. I loved Orozco's execution of Cuatemaloc mural, but the most interesting as far as this blog is concerned was Rivera's "Carnival of Mexican Life," depicting in its first pannel the pre-conceptions of tourists and foreigners, which are not the full story. If it were painted today, Rivera would have ironically had to include a stuffed Frida Khalo doll.

We headed back through a few market stalls. Some sold souveniers for tourists, or food. Others sold knockoff or bootleg products to Mexicans, including the laughable G.U.S.S. jeans and Versacci brand T-shirts (Versacci does not make T-shirts).

That evening after dinner at McTaco's (I'm not making that name up) and a terrifyingly fast taxi ride, we took the bus back while two girls stayed in town for a free concert. They were playing a dubbed-over American movie starring Nicolas Cage as some sort of magician in Las Vegas. I was too tired to really pay attention.

Coming soon to this post: Photos