Try saying out loud: Cuauhtemoc, Huitzilopochtli, Chapultepec, Quetzalcoatl, Itzacalco, Itzapalapa, Huitlacoche. If you managed to, then perhaps you’re prepared to meet a city that’s only understandable through the use of all the five senses.
Estimados pasajeros, en breves minutos aterrizaremos en Ciudad de Mexico; por favor, abrochense los cinturones de seguridad y…and the journey begins. That’s the moment when everything turns upside down. Once the lights of the city appear on a background with the snowy caps of the Popocatepetl and Itzacihuatl volcanos, every preconception you had about Mexico, like “a desert land with lots of cactuses and coyotes”, is erased.
Of course there are cactuses, coyotes, tequila and chili but all of them a little bit…different. The cactuses are in the delicious salad you eat, coyotes are made of wood and aligned with other handicraft products on the booths of Indians from Zocalo Square (the central square in Mexico City), tequila is inflected as masculine and treated like an old brandy and chili is found virtually at every street corner but in ice cream which is locally called “snow”. The Mariachi are present in all major square and also they’re for rent: if you like a certain group they can follow and sing for a fair price. If you ask for a “poncho” you may get a cup of ponché, a delicious juice made from fruits and sugar-cane served in the city’s monasteries.
The city is at 7347 ft (2240 m) and it’s hard to believe you’re so high when you walk on imposing boulevards such as Paseo de la Reforma which unites through all his eight lanes the Chapultepec Palace- renaissance building of “enlightened” dictator Porfirio Diaz- with Torre Latinoamericana, once the tallest skyscraper in Latin America.
To the east of the Chapultepec Palace is the Anthropology Museum where, wandering through it’s 26 halls one can see gigantic Olmec stone heads, Maya jewelry and ancient Aztec relics, all of them proofs that Mexico’s history begins 20,000 years ago. With Tlaloc, the God of rain, and Quetzalcoatl, the feathered snake. And long after them with Cuauhtemoc and Hernan Cortes.
The Metropolitan Cathedral, styled between baroque and neoclassic architecture, is a fascinating mix between colonial and pre-hispanic heritages: the foundation of the Cathedral was build on Templo Mayor, who’s ruins mark the island where in 1325 the tribe of “Nahua” founded Aztec’s civilization capital: Tenochtitlan (with 200,000 inhabitants it was at that time one of the largest cities in the world). Mexico City’s present-time historic center was at the arrival of the Spanish colonizers an archipelago of small islands based in the waters of Lake Texcoco.
Anyway it’s hard to say who conquered who when you dive in the over-crowded streets from Roma or Condesa (one of the most vivid districts of the capital), where the green houses with walls of azulejos (ceramic tilework) and wrought iron balconies intertwines with ArtDeco buildings and modern coffee shops. In every square you can find a church decorated with Moore stucco brought from Spain and ceramic figures painted in the raw colors of the Nahua Indians.
You all know those images with the swinging doors after an edgy cowboy enters the saloon. Well, you can still see them at any Mexican cafeteria. Here one can find delicious enchiladas, quesadillas, tacos and guacamoles either if he is in a quiet suburb like San Jose de Teotihuacan, the few houses at the footsteps of the Teotihuacan pyramids, or in the center of the colonial district of Coyoacan, where the walls and colors of the houses provided inspiration for the famous Frida Kahlo.
So, at the end of the day you can tie at the wrist of your hand an Indian talisman and hope that in a city with 19.2 million inhabitants (2nd largest), 161 museums, 2.6 million vehicles and hundred of Gods you may find one to guide your steps.
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