Historical & Hip: Mai Tai Tomás Travels To México City
Day Three: A Gran Tiffany Stained-Glass Ceiling, Los Tres Grandes, At The Crossroads, Hey Mr. Postman, Azulejos Restaurant, Is He Taking A Selfie?, Waiting For The Room, Carnival At The Cathedral, Champagne Welcome, Cocktails With Friends Up on The Roof, Looking Out At “The Birthplace Of The Constitution” and a Históríco Meal
It was time to switch hotels, but not before gorging on another Red Tree House breakfast, this time some tasty enfrijoladas.
From breakfast to the Happy Hours to the artwork and stellar staff, The Red Tree House should definitely be on your list of places to stay in Mexico City.
We Ubered to the heart of Centro Histórico arriving near the Catedral Metropolitana, located on the edge of the Zócalo, Mexico City’s main plaza.
The Segundo Festival de las Flores was taking place on this weekend, making Zócalo even more festive and colorful.
La Bandera, the gigantic Mexican flag flying above the plaza, is raised every day at 8 a.m. and lowered at sunset. Tracy took this photo later in the day when the wind unfurled the flag.
Just around the corner was the Gran Hotel Ciudad México, where we would spend the next four nights. If you want a “wow” factor upon entering a hotel, Gran Hotel Ciudad México is the place. Looking up, we admired the stunning tiffany-style stained glass dome which is one of the four largest in the world. It was created by the workshop of Jacques Gruber, a famous French woodworker and glass artist, in 1908. The colors are dazzling. We met Stephen underneath this masterpiece.
Speaking of Frenchmen, Sebastion Robert purchased the historic building, whose origins go all the way back to the 16th century, in 1895 and turned it into Mexico City’s first department store. It became a hotel in 1968 and still maintains many of its original accoutrements, including the cage-like iron elevator which was the “first of its kind in Mexico City.”
It was too early to check in, so it was off to see the sights of Centro Histórico, many of them within a short walking distance from the hotel.
We passed the Iglesia Metodista Episcpal 1873 and the nearby Sociedad Bíblica de México, which had this sculpture out front.
As we walked toward the Museo Palacio de Belle Artes, we also passed Iglesia de San Francisco, which was located on the site of Mexico City’s first convent. Only the church remains.
Directly across the street is the Casa de los Azulejos, which was originally built in 1596. The façade is covered in those blue and white tiles (made in Puebla) that we loved so much in Portugal last year. It was occupied by the Counts of the Valley of Orizaba and their families from the 17th to the 19th century.
Dueling stories are told about its origin, but it is the one described in Altas Obscura that I like the best… “The tiling was the result of a dispute between a father and his son, who partied too much.” According to the story, “When the young man’s father told him he was good for nothing, he cleaned up his act, grew his fortune, and covered his family house with tiles to prove to his papa that he was at least good for making beautiful buildings.” I’ll go with that version. It now houses a Sanborns restaurant, which is a popular chain in Mexico City.
We crossed the street to the Museo & Palacio de Bellas Artes, a gorgeous neo-classical and art nouveau building from the early 20th century. In front of the building stands the Pegasus statue, which originally stood on the Zócalo.
Another statue is situated between the palace and Alameda Central, the historical park we’d stroll through later in the week, of Francisco I. Madero, a revolutionary, writer and statesman in the early 20th century. He served as president, but only for a couple of years before he was overthrown in a coup d’état. Subsequently, Madero and his vice president were kidnapped, tortured and killed.The park Alameda Central is adjacent to the statue.
The revolutionary spirit still seems alive today as we read the words spray painted on his statue “No Vamos de Claudigar.” Although it needed some spell check, it means, “We are not going to give up.”
Entrance to the museum was free (minimal charge to take photos) since it was Sunday. It didn’t take long for Tracy to find the ceiling. Once again, things were looking up.
Downstairs was an exhibition of works by Federico Silva who began his career as an assistant to one of the Tres Grandes, David Alfaro Siqueiros. Silva painted murals …
… sculpted …
… and was also a pioneering artist in kinetic art.
I wish there had been some explanation of these. I did decipher that the one on the left is about Ezequiel Padilla Peñaloza, who was Secretary of Foreign Affairs during World War II. Many people disliked him because he was perceived as being “too pro-American.” Obviously the guys on the right weren’t very popular either.
But it is on the next floor up is where you will find the murals of Los Tres Grandes … Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco, among others. Those three are the most important Mexican muralists, and they all offer their views on Mexican history among other subjects. The first mural we saw was Rivera’s controversial and famous El Hombre Controlador del Universo (Man, Controller of the Universe). (The below photo is of the entire mural, which we got from Wikipedia).
The frescoed mural depicts the conflict between capitalism and communism, with the man in the center pondering which to choose. He’s a Man At The Crossroads, which is another name for this mural. It was commissioned to be installed in the lobby of Rockefeller Center in New York City. After Rivera infuriated the Rockefellers by including a picture of Lenin, a Soviet May Day parade and John D. Rockefeller holding a drink (gasp! he was a teetotaler … he’s behind the women playing cards), Nelson Rockefeller had the mural plastered over and destroyed.
One year later, in 1934, Rivera created a second version of the three-paneled mural as “part of the inaugural program of the Palacio de Bellas Artes.” Holding the red flag are Leon Trotsky, Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. We would visit Trotsky’s home where he was assassinated later in the week.
It’s an amazing mural, and we would be lucky enough to see many more Rivera murals throughout the week. The guy in the gray beard next to the skull is supposedly Charles Darwin, which proves how this mural evolved.
David Alfaro Siqueiros created Nueva Democracia in 1944. It commemorates the end of World War II and celebrates the Allied Forces victory. The model for this mural was Siqeiros’s wife. The mural has been interpreted as “liberation from oppression.”
Then it was back to Rivera and his Carnival de la vida Mexicana (Carnival of Mexican Life).
Originally, this was created to be placed in the Hotel Reforma, but was removed for its political content “satirizing the political and social landscape of the time.”
The big three was rounded out by José Clemente Orozco’s Katharsis, a “
