(Con)fusion de Dos Culturas

Last hours in Guadalajara. We woke up early to take a tour of the city with our new friends from Morelia, Sica and Cristian. They basically led us around the route I took around the plazas. I thought it was strange for them to be our guides, as they weren’t Guadalajaran either. They took us down to one of the buildings I saw at the end of the plazas, but instead of taking us through, they brought us to the side, into the market. At first, I wasn’t too impressed – just a few stores, half of them shoe stores (Mexico seems to have a disproportionate amount of three kinds of stores: zapaterías [shoe stores], tiendas de novia [bridalwear], and corseterías [skank-ho lingerie stores].). We walked past a few of the stores and came upon a decent-sized plaza in the middle of the very large building. It was then that I realized that we had walked straight to the plaza without stopping, and there were hundreds of stores all around the plaza. What’s more, there were several levels of the building, making the entire store count go into the thousands (Adriana later asked and was told there were probably about 3000 total). They sold just about everything: jewelry, leather goods, shoes, dolls, backpacks, candy, shoes, aguas, and even birds. There were lots of parakeets and maybe some parrots, but hands down the most interesting bird had to be a chicken-sized pigeon in a cage.



After the market, we went back to the building and finally went inside. It was originally a church or an orphanage or something, but now it’s a museum. We only went into the first part of the building, but it was amazing. All over the walls and ceiling of the first room were murals painted by José Clemente Orozco, detailing the history of Mexico. It showed the Aztecs, the “discovery” of America, the conversion of the natives, and the revolution. Our guide was really thorough and showed us things that I never would have gotten myself. He explained that the ceilings are domes, and the murals look different from different angles. He also said some insightful things about Mexican history. In a painting of the government palace (where the protest was), the guide showed us elements of Spanish and native culture mixed in the painting, but he said that Mexico is not the fusion of two cultures; it’s the confusion of two cultures. He also said that what Mexico needs now is evolution, not revolution. Mexico’s had enough of those.

Overall, I really like Guadalajara, but I’m excited to meet my host family. Now who’s up for a four-hour bus drive! Me!