La Ciudad de Mexico

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Mexico City in 20 words or less: An incredibly large, absurdly dense, booming metropolis of unbelievable proportion with a history dating back to the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan.

La Ciudad de Mexico was built upon the former Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan (Teh-noh-cheet-lahn'). Tenochtitlan was originally composed of man-made islands in the middle of a lake. See

After a sad goodbye to our host parents, we took a brief flight (one hour) from Guadalajara to Mexico City. The landscape changed from City to Desert to Foothills to Mountains to...Urban Giant. I cannot describe in words how it felt to be flying over 23 million people...I could have sworn I could hear the cars and people below from inside the cabin. As far as the eye could see: buildings...along the horizon the city continued, and then faded into a dense cloud of smog.

We are staying at Hotel Geneva, a hotel in the Atlantan equivalent of Midtown, a hotel that has accommodated every Mexican president since 1907, as well as Charles Lindbergh, William Randolph Hearst and others. The hotel is luxury. We have a sit-down breakfast every morning, room service and wake-up calls, clean towels every day, and air conditioning. I don't even want to know how much we paid to stay there.

We checked in and "hit the streets" at around 12N. We took a brief walking tour of the centro area, and then proceeded to lunch/dinner at 3:00. The restaurant was called Sanborns; it's in a giant building...partially pharmacy, partially castle, partially diner, and partially very nice restaurant. Dr. Fernandez said we MUST go there: it's "a Mexican classic."

Last night I slept from 6:00PM until 7:00AM, and so did my roommate, Elena. We felt bad about missing a night in Mexico City, but we were absolutely exhausted from "living it up" the last few days in Guadalajara. I almost fell asleep in my plate at Sanborns.

After waking up to a wonderful private sit-down breakfast, we headed on a tour of the National Cathedral (the largest cathedral in the Americas), the Governor's Palace (where they had to take our temperature via infrared before entrance), a building called Torre Latino (a copy of the Empire State Bldg) and the downtown area. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves on this one. We then ate at an Indian vegetarian restaurant, and returned to the hotel. Not too sure what we'll get into tonight, but I'm still wearing my Torre Latino entrance bracelet, so maybe we'll ride to the top and check out the city lights!

Even after only 24 hrs in Mexico City, I can tell that it is different. For one, I don't feel like we stand out as "Gringos" here. We haven't really been stared at, and if we have been, it's because we're in a large touring group. My roommates and I no longer cause traffic jams because men are goggling at us. It feels much bigger, much more international...I like it so far. There are rich areas and very poor areas, and there are people here from all over Mexico and the world.

However, I have already heard several homophobic comments coming from the locals. For one, our tour guide actually said: quote: "You guys will be staying in Zona Rosa, which is the Pink Zone. So watch out for the gays." Another guy stopped me at the governor's palace because I was wearing a Chivas soccer jersey. It is pink. He proceeded to ask me if I am gay, and why I am wearing a pink Chivas shirt (Chivas are their Guadalajaran rival) if I am not gay. But it is very confusing, because in Mexico City there are a lot of "gays." There are two guys sitting beside me right now at Starbucks cuddling. And I've seen three or four gay strip clubs already. So I don't understand why some of the men here are so insecure about their "masculinity" if they are exposed all the time to "the gays." In GENERAL, in Guadalajara, it was "American women are easy." In Mexico City, it's "Watch out for the gays."
Gender/sexuality constructions in the US and Mexico are very different.

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Photos

Photo 1
an early morning to say goodbye to our host mama

Photo 3
Our Hotel

Photo 4
restaurant in our hotel

Photo 16
supposed to be a horse...used to be a Spanish sculpture but the Mexican gov't wanted to keep the Spanish out of the Centro

Photo 17
not a statue

Comments

[Larry]

Wow!
This looks like a very cool city. I bet you're having a ball. Love, DAD.