GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH MEXICO CITY
THE only train out of Uruapan left long before daylight. There was such
a crowd of peons about the tiny waist-high ticket window that by the
time I got my ticket I felt as if I had played through a championship
football game. After traveling for an hour or two across a land of
cornfields pink with cosmos flowers, the train began to climb. It went
up in great loops to a high station from which I had a wonderful view,
and then raced down the other side to beautiful Lake Pátzcuaro. The town
of the same name is very old, and lazy, and delightful. The grass grows
up between the cobblestones of the streets, but no one seems to care.
The people look and act as if they were asking, “What is the use of
doing to-day what we can put off until to-morrow?” This philosophy of
life seems, to keep them happy, but most of us would hardly be contented
to imitate them.
On the edge of Pátzcuaro is a hill called Calvary, the summit reached by
a steep and stony trail along which are fourteen “stations of the
cross.” The pious people of this region often go up there to pray. From
that height the landscape with its mountains and plains looks like a
huge brown sun-faded tapestry. In the center, as if it were a great
ragged hole in the fabric, lies Lake Pátzcuaro. Sandy promontories and
tongues of mountains give it a very strange shape. On the shore of the
lake, a few miles from Pátzcuaro town, lies what is left of the ancient
capital of the Tarascan Indians.
Tzintzuntzán and Morelia
Tzintzuntzán was the residence of the chief of the Tarascan kingdom of
Michoacán, which was not conquered until ten years after Montezuma’s
empire fell. To reach it I started out early one morning, while
Pátzcuaro was still blanketed with fog. On the way I met long
processions of Tarascan Indians with red pottery, of every size from
cups to immense water jars, carried in nets on the backs of horses,
donkeys, men, and women. Even small children carried loads. Here and
there I picked up shining black obsidian, a hard stone used in olden
times in place of steel. Some of the pieces were in the form of
arrowheads and crude knives.
I had hoped to have a swim in Lake Pátzcuaro. But though the trail often
touched the shore, this was so muddy that I should have had a mud bath
trying to get in or out of the clear water.
Tzintzuntzán was once an important city, but even the splendid ruins
which travelers saw there a hundred years ago have almost disappeared.
Now it is really only a poor Indian village, with pigs roaming in the
cobble-paved or muddy streets. The bells of the ancient church are hung
in near-by trees so that they will be less likely to be shaken down by
earthquakes. Inside the church there is a picture, supposed to have been
painted by the great artist Titian, which is famous the world over. A
queer out-of-the-way place to find a masterpiece!
[Illustration:
In the church of the little old town of Tzintzuntzán, former capital
of an important Indian empire, is this famous painting, said to be
by the great Italian painter Titian.
]
The modern capital of Michoacán is the city of Morelia. It lies in a
broad rolling plain, 6,200 feet above the sea. Across the town stretches
an ancient aqueduct, some of its high arches covered with masses of
purple bougainvillea. High above everything else stand the two beautiful
towers of the cathedral. Morelia is warm for all its height, and brown
with dust, while the country about it is almost treeless. If it were not
for _pulque_, the city might be as splendid as Guadalajara, for the
region is very fertile. As a matter of fact, the people are so slow and
backward that Michoacán is often called “the torpid state.”
[Illustration:
The stone chapel erected on the spot where Maximilian, the Austrian
archduke who tried to be emperor of Mexico, was shot by order of the
Mexican president Juárez.
]
On to Mexico City
The railroads from Morelia to Mexico City make a great half-circle
through the candy-city of Celaya and the opal-town of Querétaro. The
latter is famous as the place where Maximilian was captured and ordered
shot by Benito Juárez. Out on a bare stony hillock at the edge of town
where the ill-fated emperor faced a firing squad, is a stone chapel
dedicated to him. There are fields of corn all about it, as if it were
no more famous than any other spot in Mexico.
[Illustration:
Photo by Hugo Brehme, Mexico City
The great Spanish aqueduct that brings water to the city of Querétaro.
The huge spiny cactus leaves in the foreground are the kind on which
grows the tuna or cactus apple.
]
At Querétaro I caught a south-bound express train. We zigzagged up
through bare, stony country to reach the higher plateau of Mexico City.
There were still fields of maguey in long rows, with men gathering
_pulque_ in pigskin bags. But the maguey was the only green to be seen,
for the great cornfields had dried up that year for lack of summer rain.
I should have preferred to enter Anáhuac, as the Aztecs called the
Valley of Mexico in which they built their capital, during the day. But
by the time we reached the highest point on the line, 8,237 feet above
the sea, the red sun was sinking behind the great peaks ahead of us. The
weather was like that of late October in our northern states, and almost
the only vegetation was scrub oak. When we reached Tula, ancient capital
of the Toltecs, it was black night. Even so, the light of the train gave
me glimpses of the great cut in the hills by which modern engineers
drained the ancient valley of Anáhuac. The train raced on down into the
valley, and soon I found myself struggling with a mob of passengers at
Buena Vista Station in the City of Mexico.
In the Mexican Capital
In 1925 Mexico City celebrated its sixth centennial. It was founded in
1325, almost three centuries before the first English settlement in
North America. I have already told how, according to the legend, the
Aztecs saw an eagle perched on a cactus and holding a rattlesnake in its
claws, and there built the city they called Tenochtitlan. Thus the
capital of Montezuma was founded more than a hundred and fifty years
before Columbus crossed the Atlantic, and nearly two centuries before
Cortés landed in Mexico. The Spaniards tore down most of the Aztec
buildings, but they built their own capital on the same spot.
Mexico City is 7,347 feet (nearly a mile and a half) above the sea, yet
it was built on a swamp, much of which has now been drained. It stands
in a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains. The snow-clad peaks of
Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl seem to reach into the sky almost above
it. Mexico City has about the same population as Pittsburgh. It is the
only really large city in Mexico. Guadalajara, the next in size, has
about as many people as Albany, N. Y.
The principal thoroughfares of the Aztec capital radiated from a central
point, an immense square in which towered the temple of Huitzilopochtli,
the Aztec Mars or god of war. This main _plaza_, now called the Zócalo
(an Arabic name brought to Spain by the Moors centuries ago) still
contains the main religious building of Mexico, for the great cathedral
takes the place of the old _teocalli_. The people to-day worship on the
same spot where their ancestors watched the dreadful Aztec priests
perform sacrifices. This is the oldest cathedral in North America,
having been built between 1573 and 1657. Its walls form a cross 426 by
206 feet.
All about the Zócalo are government buildings flying the Mexican flag,
which is red, white and green, and bears the eagle-and-rattlesnake coat
of arms. We see many soldiers near these buildings. They look rather
boyish and poorly disciplined compared to our soldiers. Military
service, by the way, is compulsory in Mexico. Every young man in the
country is supposed to serve either in the active army or in the
national guard; but many youths manage to get out of it. Among the
government offices we find the telegraph department as well as the post
office, for in Mexico, as in continental Europe, the government handles
telegrams as well as mail. New buildings are still being added by the
government. The Legislative Palace on the Plaza de la República will
cost millions of dollars. All Latin-American countries have a tendency
to spend a great deal on their capitals and little in their provinces.
[Illustration:
Underwood & Underwood
The Zócalo, Mexico City’s great central square, on which front the
Cathedral and other important buildings.
]
Although Mexico City is large and modern, with inhabitants of many
nationalities, few of its business buildings are more than three or four
stories high. Of churches, there are fifty or more. All, except a big
American Episcopal church and a few small ones of other denominations,
are Roman Catholic.
The principal streets are broad, well paved, brightly lighted and clean.
There is an excellent electric street-car service. This will carry us
along beautiful _paseos_ (raised roads lined with double rows of old
trees) through the _colonias_ (rich suburbs) out into the country. There
are many automobiles also. As the drivers are reckless, and the traffic
rules and police are more lenient than in the United States, we must be
very careful in crossing a street.
Stores and Streets
[Illustration:
Looking across Mexico City one sees no skyscrapers, though there are
some large buildings. Most of the houses have flat roofs, which are
often used in the evening as family sitting rooms.
]
Most stores in Mexico City are open from eight to one and from three to
seven. During the two hours that they are closed, the town seems almost
dead. As everyone goes home for lunch and a _siesta_, or afternoon nap,
the traffic is very heavy four times a day, instead of merely morning
and evening. In front of many of the stores are _portales_, arcades.
Foreign as well as Mexican goods are sold. The latest men’s hats from
New York or London may be seen in the same window with immense plush or
leather _sombreros_. There are bright yellow _sombreros_, trimmed with
silver, costing a hundred dollars; there are huge gray hats, hats as
green as the hillsides of Ireland, hats weighing several pounds and
worth their weight in silver. The wealthy men of Mexico, especially
those who ride horseback in the country, think they are not well dressed
unless they wear the most huge, elaborate, and costly hats.
[Illustration:
Photo by Hugo Brehme, Mexico City
“Fifth of February Street” in Mexico City. It is so narrow that the
sun shines into it for only a few minutes each day.
]
Many of the stores have fancy or romantic names. The sign on the front
almost never gives the owner’s name or any hint as to the kind of goods
sold inside. A clothing store belonging to José Caballero may be called
“The Eden of the Poor Man,” or “The Ideal of the Future.” You must look
inside a store to see whether it sells vegetables or pottery, and
inquire of a clerk if you wish to know who owns it. Yet the shop names
are easy to remember, and are a kind of trademark.
In the stores all the people, except high-class ladies, smoke if they
wish. Even the clerks do so when waiting on customers. Mexican
cigarettes being very strong, the air in a busy store soon becomes hard
to breathe. In all but the best department stores and foreign-style
shops there is bargaining over prices. A clerk who can sell something
for more than the fair price gets a part of the extra profit. But we
have not always had fixed prices in our own American stores.
In Mexico, and the other countries south of the United States, the
streets sometimes bear names that seem fantastic to us. We would think
it very strange to find a “Fourth of July Street” or “Labor Day Avenue”
in an American city. But our southern neighbors often name a street for
their independence day, or for some other holiday or saint’s day.
Another interesting feature in Mexico City is the “Mount of Piety.” This
is a municipal pawnshop, where those who need money can borrow it at one
per cent a month interest by pawning what they can spare.
City Houses
We have seen the _adobe_ huts that Indians and peons build in the colder
parts of Mexico; we shall see reed and branch hovels in the warmer parts
of the country; and you will recall that in passing through Laredo we
glanced at some typical houses. (Chapter II.) It will be interesting to
explore a better-class house in Mexico City. It is two stories high. The
stone or mud-brick walls are three or four feet thick, and tinted a
bright color. The inside walls are not papered, but are painted or
kalsomined. About the _patio_ or courtyard, which is the daytime living
room, is a tile-floored, covered walk or half-open corridor. The front
door is a heavily-built, metal-studded affair, secured with enormous
iron bars and huge padlocks.
[Illustration:
The great Cathedral which faces the central square in Mexico City is
one of the oldest, largest and finest churches in the New World.
]
The owner lives on the second floor. The ground floor is occupied by the
servants and may contain a stable or garage; or it may be rented as a
store. The family rooms open on a balcony overlooking the _patio_. The
ceilings are very high. The roof, thick, heat-proof, is flat and paved
with bricks. This style was brought to Spain by the Moors of sunny
northern Africa. The roof is used as a playground and is the place where
the family gathers in the evening. As a flower garden it rivals the
_patio_ below. A parapet guards the roof’s edge, but neighbors may step
from roof to roof. Water runs off through tiles that project beyond the
walls, emptying directly into the street or the _patio_. During a
shower, if you are not careful, you may find yourself beneath a small
Niagara.
[Illustration:
Photo by Hugo Brehme, Mexico City
This splendid old house in Mexico City was built by Rodrigo de Vivero
y Velasco about 1596. Its many _azulejos_ or colored tiles have made
it known as the Tile House. The builder’s father once said to him,
“My son, you will never build a house of tiles.” He meant that the
boy would never succeed. However, the young man did prosper and
built this residence which is now the Jockey Club.
]
The house, no matter how fine in other respects, has few modern
conveniences. The brick floors are very cold in the morning, though they
may be warm enough by noon. Sometimes there are rugs, but very rarely
carpets. In Mexico City even millionaires seldom have their houses well
heated. There are probably not a hundred homes in all Mexico with
furnaces or other central heating plants. Since we Americans often go to
the opposite unhealthful extreme of over-heating, the Mexican way seems
especially uncomfortable to us. An American family who wish to live in
Mexico as they do at home have almost to reconstruct their house to
install stoves, perhaps running pipes out the windows. Few Mexican
houses have chimneys.
Mexicans Have No “Servant Problem”
Servants have always been so plentiful in Mexico that only the poorer
Mexican women ever do any cooking, though they are all excellent workers
with a needle. Cookstoves are usually crude, even in the best houses.
They are often made of mud-bricks, with small charcoal holes to cook
over. As the servants will not use American ranges or other
“new-fangled” things, the old style still prevails even among the rich.
Servants in Mexico are much like those in China. Four or five can be had
at the cost of one American servant. As a matter of fact, one _has_ to
have four or five servants. The cook will do no washing or sweeping, and
even the _mozo_, or “man of all work,” has very limited duties. The
_mozo_ usually serves as _portero_, a combination of doorman, guard, and
janitor. He sleeps, often on the floor, just inside the big front door.
Knowing that the _mozo_ will open the door, the family, when they go out
for the evening, do not have to carry any of the huge old Spanish keys.
Unlike the custom in China, Mexican servants are given either their food
or an allowance of money for board. The cook often feeds all her own
family from the household supplies of her employer. The lady of the
house usually does not go to market, but sends her cook or another
servant. Just as in China, the servant entrusted with this duty often
“squeezes” a few cents on each purchase; that is, he takes a little
commission for himself.
[Illustration:
Mexican 20-peso bill, issued in 1914 by the Provisional Government
from its headquarters in Vera Cruz. Notice that although the word
“peso” is used, the dollar sign is given interlocked with “20.”
]