Back to the Shining City on the Hill

I’m seated at the airport in Mexico City, waiting to fly home. When I left Minnesota a month ago, it was in the midst of roaming masked government death squads killing my neighbors. As I fly home, we’ve pivoted to killing Iranians. Same shit, different day.

The last couple weeks have been lovely. Mike came to town and I got to play tour guide. We mostly just bounced around cafes with our laptops, but had a chance to do a few tourist activities. We visited the Frida Kahlo house, which was lovely to explore. Although I already knew her story, seeing her body casts, prosthetics, and assistive devices was powerful.

We also visited the Museum of Modern Art in Bosque de Chapultepec, which had been high on my list – I really loved seeing the work by Remedios Varo and other 20th century Spanish and Mexican surrealists. The museum grounds themselves have some gorgeous new sculptures as well, though many of them have projection-based elements which would be best to see at night.

Before and after Mike’s visit, I also ticked a few other museums off my to-do list. Perhaps the highlight was the Museo Numismático Nacional, which is housed in the old mint. It’s a very nondescript place – you knock on a nearly unmarked door. After some security checks, they let you into the museum (for free!). I was able to join a tour which had just started – only in Spanish, but I got the gist. The mint itself is in an old villa, with huge foundry spaces, and rooms full of coin-making equipment. They were able to go from raw metal to finished products, and operated in this space up until the early 1990s.

Other museum highlights were the Museo Kaluz, which featured an exhibit of Jose Maria Velasco, a Mexican landscape painter and scientific illustrator who worked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Other exhibits featured other science illustration and even had a shoutout for the Bell Museum at the University of Minnesota. My final museum visit of the trip was Museo Franz Mayer. Notionally it’s a collection of textiles and other objects from the 16th – 19th centuries, but the current exhibit features the work of Pierre et Gilles, French artists doing surreal combinations of photography and painting. An amazing setting for the work as well, intermixed with the permanent collection.

Other than museums, I spent the last few days just enjoying the life of the city. I love the energy, the hustle, the greenery, and the friendly people. This morning, I did a lap of Parque Mexico and watched people playing with their dogs, crossfit classes, boxing classes, dancers, musicians, all happily sharing the same space. That type of thing is nearly unimaginable in the US, where everything needs to be in a particular box and we need structure to avoid any risk of conflict. I’m excited to go home and see my friends and loved ones, but in other ways it feels like a return to a lonelier life.

Good month then.