Legendary Chupacabra: pollution

I'm enjoying a sliced up, impossible-to-eat, mango covered in Valentina chili sauce at a park

Last time I wrote I was in Toluca de Guadalupe and the next day I bought a tiny cow skull carved out of bone and put on some twine in the zocolo in Apizaco (the nearby big town). Besides this, the only things I'd bought here are my leather woven old man sandals and numerous baby headbands with bows and such attached. We had our final fiesta in Toluca which marked the end of extreme hospitality and dancing forever. The last morning my host mom must have decided that since I would be leaving before lunch she gave me enough food for both meals. After fruit, yogurt, and sweet bread, I tried to enjoy two chicken tamales and suddenly a plate of chicken and stovetop fries with salsa and a million tortillas appeared. Needless to say, meatfree living has been an easy transition since leaving Tlaxcala.

Goats in Toluca

Pig friend at Kathryn and Delia's house. By the time I have gotten around to post this photo, he has probably been made into carnitas.

Now, we are living in a community in Mexico City (Distrito Federal) on land that was taken over by activists of the Frente Popular Francisco Villa Independiente. The group is a community organizing project and holds about 600 housing units and apartments. They are part of La Otra Campaña or The Other Campaign which, like the other groups I have learned about, means that they are part of the anti-neoliberal, anti-capitalist campaign uniting activists around the country.

Unlike the Zapatistas, the Panchos are not autonomous, but they demand government funding and public programs because they believe they have been deprived of these basic aspects because of their class status, among other things. We recently met with two women from a group called HIJOS. HIJOS is about bringing together the sons and daughters of disappeared people (desaparecidos) (an okay translation of their page here)

I have enjoyed such joys as having to allot at least an hour and a half to get anywhere on public transportation here and intense pollution. But really I like Mexico City. We went to La Casa Azul de Frida Kahlo where she and Diego had lived and I saw lots of their work in person. But some of the most interesting parts was seeing letters from Einstein to Diego, their book collections, their kitchen, and Frida's transformed corsets. The kitchen had tall ceilings and beautiful tiles, intricately painted ceramic dishes and bowls, yellow painted wooden tables, chairs, and cabinets. Frida collected these religious cards which basically were painted anonomously for practical purposes and had different religious texts written. It was clear that she drew some influence from these, particularly with some of her pieces involving bedrooms. She had revamped her corsets with pieces of mirror encrusted within the plaster and paint. They were beautiful.

Diego Rivera and his hairless dog

The Pancho community has different carts that sell tamales usually, and yesterday I was so excited because I thought one was selling french fries! Claudia and I were so eager...chili sauce seemed like a perfect companion to greasy papas fritas. But then, we got closer, and we realized they were chicken feet! My first reaction was to react with the most culturally-insensitive, offensive, mouth-wide-open, Home Alone face. The realization made me nauseous because I was so excited to hand over pesos and eat the most satisfying fries, only to realize the truth.