Tepotzlan v. Amatlan

One of the great thing about doing so many flashbacks this week is that I can look back at things I haven't covered and try to mix them up in ways that show people the contrasts that exist there.

Tepotzlan is, as I've already said in my facebook album on the subject, a very new-agey town, where hippies and other outsiders have taken over to some extent. It has great mountains though, and some nice ruins. The new-agey thing is kind of fun actually, but...

It was different from my class experience with the indigenous side of Mexico in the same municipality, this time in the city of Amatlan. Visiting the house of Ignacio ("Nacho," a community leader in nearby Amatlan) with him explaining the conquest, the pre-hispanic history, the government's (in his opinion) useless projects and the role of religion, including a trip out to a sacred natural rock arch with pre-Nahua-era petrogliphs was definately one of my favorite experiences connected to classes.

I may have doubts about the fact that the Spanish left them with this land only because they had purchased it back. Like reservations in the U.S., I've since concluded that it is not the best agricultural fields, in spite of its sacredness. Yet somehow at the time I didn't consider such things.

Mexico has a complex relationship with its indigenous past. Often people try to throw it off in order to advance themselves, wanting to be culturally closer to Spain, France, or the U.S., a process hastened by the inquisition and now less violently by migration and globalized trade. Still, it remains among the things I find most appealing (and often hidden to U.S. eyes) about Mexico.

Jesus H. Street!

It's neither the most scenic nor the most ugly street I have seen. It was all orchards once, even Now, the trees all grow behind courtyard walls. Such walls are often guarded here by shards of glass on top. It's not as though people avoid each other though. With sidewalks on both sides of the street, you're bound to meet people anyways.

Such is the street on which I have all my classes, spread out through three buildings. Jesus H. Preciado in full, but H. Preciado to just about anyone referring to it. It sits somewhere in the middle class, or what I might consider middle class, compared to the mansions a ways above and the shacks a ways below. When I use above and below, the terms are almost literal. H. Preciado is the place I will start this blog-tour of Cuernavaca.

The courtyards can be a whole different world sometimes, gardens resembling jungles.

The road is lined with small shops. "Abarrotes," mostly, "corner stores" as one might say (except that they aren't just on the corners). Others specialize in school supplies, perhaps knowing full well that students attend classes here.

The owners live in apartments above. Signs are often hand-painted, with a fair amount of skill, I might add, but still the use of actual paint on walls threw me off at first.

It was once part of its own town. Despite being so close to the center, it was divided by a deep ravine, until Puente dos mil (the 2000 bridge) was built.

The houses are cheaper down in the ravines than up here on H. Preciado. They are closer to a river containing raw sewage and trash from above. Also, they have no road, just stairs, which one has to climb in order to reach the top.

Ravines like this can be seen all around Cuernavaca, a city where nature seems to have decided the zoning laws. Unlike some other travelers, I perfer not to ignore poverty, these barrancas (ravines) remain on my mind.

Many of the people who live there migrated from other parts of Mexico. They may soon find themselves heading to Mexico City, then on to the border, before migrating often to the United States. Such ravine houses are nearly always hidden from view, until you start crossing the bridge. As seen here, trees take over whatever spot the humans don't claim.

Just beyond the bridge is the spot that the orchard town of San Anton once ended.

I wouldn't have recognized it as a significant spot were it not for its almost meaningless marker, the shrine to the Virgin of Guatalupe. In legend, this was a miraculous image of Saint Mary that appeared to an Aztec in Mexico City. Strictly speaking the one here is just a copy, larger than the original, I think.

Some Mexicans call her "Our Mother" or Tonanzin, rather than the more orthodox "God's mother" which explains her psychological appeal. She is sort of analogous to having a mother around to to help you through the tough times. An effective opiate of the people one might even say. She is the symbol that people put in front of towns as protector and welcomer. In the war against spain, Hidalgo, himself a former priest, grabbed the image and improvised by usning it as a flag.

When I came here, I found her to be just another foreign obsession, but now she seems familiar somehow. I can set aside the rather annoying insistance on virginity that for some she embodies. It's probably a sign of how long I've been here.

Hacienda

After visiting the Ixlilco Ejido we stayed at an Hacienda linked to Antonio's family. I did not mention it there becauses that post was too long already. It was a learning experience. Now, haciendas are quaint resorts for tourists. Previously, they were where the upper-classes kept the Indigenas and Mestizos growing shugar for them, often holding them there through debt.

Above: The beginning of the Hacienda system, using "encomienda" slavery (debt came later after slavery was illegalized. Picture by Diego Rivera

In the 1940s hacienda owners had to choose which part of the land they wanted to keep. Usually this meant their house.

It was very luxurious compared to my time in Ixlilco. We still had class sessions though, often talking about what we saw and about the differences in legal systems and what "The Law" means (why, for example "illegales" is considered an OK term here in Mexico by those who have been illegally to the states, but isn't really the best term to use for them back in the U.S.). And of course, Ivan Illych's "To Hell with Good Intentions."

The hacienda was one of the most beautiful places though that I've seen here in Mexico. With cane-warehouses converted into pools, I wasn't sure of what to make of past and present here. They seemed distinct, contradicting, yet both here.

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").

The Ancient Mexico

Some may say that studying in Mexico is strange. Tradition holds that one should study in a country with a long and proud history of artistic and scientific accomplishments, such as Brittain, France, or Italy.

In actuality certain parts of Mexico were indeed centers of learning and power.



















Recently I visited the site of an ancient observatory, a city where Zapotec and Maya studied in ancient times. It included a cave with an ancient ¨telescope¨consisting of an opening to the sky, and (in ancient times) a bowl of water below to reflect. The opening was set up to coincide with the sun´s position at summer solstice.

Despite having no weapons beyond flint, they pulled off some great accomplishments including the invention of the number zero (long before it was though of in Europe) the notion that the Earth goes around the sun, and the ability to design a plaza where the echo of clapping sounds like a sacred cocateil (the last of these has yet to be accomplished by modern people, maybe for lack of trying). To me it seems racist to attribute these accomplishments to aliens, but many people do.

Of course these civilizations eventually ¨collapsed.¨ After the gradual collapse, here in Central Mexico,the Aztecs and later the Spanish conquered the remaining nations. Although many Indians thought the Spanish would be better masters than the Aztecs, they turned out to be just as demanding in some ways.

Mexico´s current rulers also rule from Mexico City. According to my teachers Mexico generally remains a hierarchical rather than equal society (it was hierarchical even in pre-Aztec times). I don´t know if I believe it, I haven´t been here long enough. The language brough by the Spanish doesn´t help much (givden that it distinguishes between tu and usted).