[Continuing journal written by Chiripa partners on a recent buying trip.]
August 21
The town of Dolores Hidalgo is important in Mexican history. There, in 1810, the radical priest Father Hidalgo launched the Mexican rebellion against Spain with his famous cry of rebellion (“grito”) in the parish church. These days, Mexican presidents are still obliged to shout a symbolic “grito” every year on independence day.
Things did not go well for Father Hidalgo. He was captured and executed, and his head was publicly displayed for 4 years as an example to other would-be rebels. But the rebellion eventually succeeded, and Mexico won its independence from Spain.
Today, we were in Dolores Hidalgo to look for high quality Talavera-style ceramics for Chiripa. Dolores is a ceramics center, and one of our favorite producers is the Liceagui (Lee-say-ah-GHEE) family.
Estella, Gerardo, and Maria
Beth checks our sums.Today, we returned again to their pleasant shop to personally select the charming and useful pieces that our customers enjoy (including the popular “fish plates” that always make us smile).
It was nearly 3:00 PM when we finished our order, and rushed to the Dolores bus depot to begin our 8-hour marathon bus ride to the city of Puebla (where we hoped to find a hotel). We caught the bus with 3 minutes to spare. Two hours later, after a violent electrical storm, we got off the bus in the booming city of Querataro. There we caught another bus (with 5 minutes to spare) for the 3-hour trip to Mexico City.
Mexico City is an unfolding drama. It was the site of the epic encounter between Cortés and Moctezuma -- between the Old World and the New – that is still playing itself out today. When Cortés arrived in 1519 (after burning his ships so he couldn’t turn back), Mexico City was already one of the biggest cities in the world (bigger than any city in Europe at the time). The population collapsed after the Spanish conquest (mainly the result of smallpox and other diseases brought by the Spaniards). But today, it is again one of the world’s biggest cities.
The city sits in the high central valley of Mexico, at an altitude of 7,400 ft. (over 2,000 ft. higher than Denver), and is prone to earthquakes. When Cortés arrived, the city was built on an island in the middle of a lake. The lake is gone now, but the earthquakes remain. Huge volcanoes loom over the valley, and sometimes you can see them when the view is not obliterated by smog. This is a place of raw natural forces and raw human struggles. A taxi driver in Michoacán once warned us to be careful in Mexico City – it has a reputation for danger, even among Mexicans.
As our bus approached the megalopolis, farm and ranch scenes gave way to the gritty reality of urban life. There were recently-constructed ghettos of identical, bleak, wall-to-wall cement houses, intermingled with makeshift tin, wood and cardboard shacks. Smoke rising from the shacks confirmed that people were, against all odds, living within.
Children from the shacks played in streets strewn with rubbish, between walls covered with graffiti. Their parents probably came from some famished village, looking for a better life. I wondered: what kinds of bathrooms do these people have, and what happens to the waste? There are people who scratch out a living by combing the dumps for useful trash items. But you can also find wealth, refinement, learning, elegance, lovely buildings and parks, fine museums and restaurants, and friendly neighborhoods in this great city.
We arrived at the bus terminal in Mexico City, and eventually got on another bus for Puebla. It was dark now, and the city lights stretched on forever. Our bus traveled, in reverse, the original route taken by Cortés when he crossed the high mountain pass and first set eyes on the Aztec capital.
We arrived in the big city of Puebla after 11:00 PM, without a hotel reservation. But a friendly taxi driver took us to one of our usual hotels near the Zócalo (central plaza), where we found an available room. We were glad to have a bed.
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