D.F- Mexico City

So… I haven’t written in a week… again. There’s just too much to do around here! It’s super exhausting, but in an amazing sort of way. Last week really drained me because there was so much going on. It got to a point I really just needed some time to myself alone. I’m having a good time with everyone here, but I realized I hadn’t been alone in almost a month so it was needed…

Anyway, we had classes Mon-Thurs as usual… pretty typical stuff. I had to miss class on Monday though because Anna and I had to go to immigration to get our visas renewed earlier than everyone else because when I asked for 180 days on my visa the guy gave me 30 instead of the normal 90 like everyone else got. It was a lot of waiting, a lot of paperwork and a lot of just running around. Everyone else will have to go soon anyway though, so its nto really a big deal… probably easier actually because then there was only two of us instead of the humungo group.

Monday afternoon we had a really great speaker about US intervention in Latin America. He started his talk with Sept. 11 was a very important and sad day. And America was entirely responsible for what happened on that day… Of course we were all thinking of the twin tours, but he was actually talking about a US financed and organized (proven be declassified documents) coup in 1973 of a Chilean democratically elected leader to put in place a dictator that ended up being one of the most opressive dictators of all of Latin America. The US wanted this leader because the current leader was implementing nationalist policies that would affect a huge US copper mining company… lovely huh?

It was hard to listen to all the things that the US has done, completely dominating weaker countries. It made me feel guilty and helpless. It was also hard ot hear about things that have happened concerning our government that I’ve never heard of in the least bit. In class that week we also watched a movie about the School of the Americas (which is now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). It was all from the point of view of veterans who were coming from information within the military. So basically at this school they train scoldiers from other governements. Right now they label it “anti-terrorist,” but it really is training soldiers in corrupt governments to put down social movements that are taking place because people don’t have basic human rights. The amount of civiliians that graduates have killed is disgusting, most of them doing humanitarian work! So.. that was really depressing and I was almost crying. Its all to keep the US in power over the whole hemisphere…. read more here: http://www.soaw.org/new/type.php?type=8 “Consistently the countries with the worst human rights records have sent the most students to the SOA during the peaks of repression.”

So, on a more upbeat note… On Thursday we took off for Mexico City right after Spanish was over. I was a little bit terrified of Mexico City because… it’s only the biggest city in the world, and I’d read a lot about how dangerous it is. Nothing happened to anyone the whole time we were there, though I’d say there were definitely times I felt a bit sketched out.

The first thing we did when we got there was to have a talk with Patria Jimenez who was Mexico’s first openly lesbian congresswoman. She talked about the GLBT movement in Mexico which is pretty similar to that of the United States, except there is less freedom in most rural areas of Mexico when gender expectations are especially strong. We were in a neighberhood of Mexico city called Cayoacan that used to be its own city, but got absorbed my Mexico City’s expansion. We wandered around for a while afterwards and went to the Frida Kahlo museum which is her house. It was really neat.

We stayed in a really nice hostel right in the historic zocalo (center) of Mexico City, behing the main cathedral. The first night we set out on a mission to find some reggae bar called roots that Ashely had been to the last time she was in Mexico City. We walked around for a bit and couldn’t find it, but it was a nice walk. The historic area is so beautiful. It reminded me of Rome a little bit (pictures on webshots soon).

The next day we talked with a woman about the feminist movement in Mexico. It was also really interesting to see the parallels there with the US and hearing how the movement is in conjunction with many of the other Latin American countries.

Then we walked around Mexico’s largest public University- UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autonomous de Mexico). It’s HUGE. It has 250,000 students and tutition is FREE (though it’s really hard to get in). It’s the center of a lot of the liberal thinking and social movements in Mexico. We went to this strange circle that showed all the volcanic rick that the school is built on and it has these strange cement triangle around the perimeter. I can’t explain it very well, but there’s a picture on facebook.

In the afternoon we talked with two young women that are part of an organization called Catholics for free choice. It was really interesting to hear how they were working for rights for young people and especially women within the bounds of rigid Catholicism. The majority of the country is Catholic. They said a lot of people have been exiled from the church though and that it is a very radical topic.

That night we went to the bar on top of the roof of our hostel. It was gorgeous, though a little disturbing to see how huggge Mexico city is. In every direction is just sprawled out as far as I could see. Then we went to the sketchiest place I have ever been. We found that reggae bar… it was like behind a cillard club through a little ally. It was very very creepy. When we got there everyone was smoking pot and this really sketchy group of guys kept trying to get close to us. It wasn’t crowded at all and we’d just move away, but they wouldn’t get the hint at all. There was also pretty much porn playing on a big screen in the front. It was scary so we only stayed a little while.. good music but super creepy place, not fun at all. So we went to bed…

The next day we took a tour of the National Palace, which is more of a symbolic, tourist spot then an actual government function building, though some still goes on there. We got a tour and got to see the huge Diego Rivera mural of Mexican history. Pictures on webshots… It was grogeous and then we just had time to explore around Mexico City which is gorgeous, but so so crowded. We wandered around and went to the art museum which was also really interesting, then back to Cuernavaca….

I relaxed a little in Cuernavaca and just bummed around listening to music. This was the point I really needed time to myself, so it was nice to be home.

That night I went out with a few of the girls here and a bunch of Mexican guys they have been hanging out. The first bar we went to wasn’t letting anyone in even though it was pretty much empty. So we went to another place called Red Blue Lounge which was really fun. It was like a big blacony and it had all these beds around with lots of pillows to sit on. We hung out, talked a bunch and danced a little. It was fun to speak Spanish so much. I think I’m better when I’ve had a drink…

Sunday I surprisingly woke up to go hiking despite being out until past 2. I was glad I did though. We went to Zempoala (the same place we rode horses for the first time). It was really gorgeous and I felt so free being outside.

So, that was my week!