The Ethiopia-Mexico Connection

Did you know that Haile Selassie I visited México?!?! In Mexico city there is a metro station dedicated to his visit to Mexico in 1954. Every metro station has a symbol and that of "Plaza de Etiopia" is the lion, which can be seen on the tiles that make up the walls of the station (Pictured second row). There is also a "Plaza México" in Ethiopia, which Selassie had constructed after he returned from Mexico. Plaza México is the only Plaza in the Ethiopia which is named after a different country. As a result of this historical connection, México and Ethiopia consider themselves to be sister countries. Pictured above is a photograph of his Majesty trying on a sombrero during his visit.

Frida Kahlo's Hood a.k.a. Coyoacán

Día de los Muertos is almost here and you can feel it in the air. There are flowers every where and I've come across people setting up altars around every corner. In the spirit of honoring the dead, I went to visit Frida Kahlo's house because she has always been a role model for me. Her home was beautiful, it has some of her and Diego's paintings as well as her personal items such as books, art supplies, clothing and her bed. There was also an exhibit of her personal photograph collection which included pictures of her family and photographs that were gifts from other artists.

After Frida's house I took a stroll around Coyoacán, I had some yummy quesadillas de pollo at the mercado de Antojitos. Something I found interesting is, although Halloween is not a national holiday in Mexico there are plenty of people who get dressed up, and Halloween decorations are just as common as the altars for día de los muertos. I took a picture of this cute little girl pretending to be a zombie. Above right is a picture of the symbol on the benches. Tomorrow I'll be going to check out the altars in the city's center, the Zocalo, I can't wait!

Can You Say Xoloitzcuintles?: Museo Dolores Olmedo Patiño

Now that I am settled in my new apartment (which I am sharing with a very nice student from Japan), I decided it was time for an outing. Since it's Sunday I knew it would be super crowded heading into the city's center, so I went to Xochimilco, the home of Museo Dolores Olmedo. Once I figured out how to get there, I was very upset to find out the collection of Frida Kahlo paintings are currently in Europe! Luckily there are plenty of other places in the city that have Frida's work, including her house in Coyoacán. I did get to see plenty of art by Diego Rivera as well as a lot of pre-colombian reliefs and ceramic work. My favorite part of the museum was the garden, where I got to see the Xoloitzcuintles (pictured below), hairless dogs that have been Indigenous' people's best friends (as opposed to man's best friend, I know, I'm corny) before colonization. I also got to catch a show of ballet folklorico.

These pictures are in the garden, on the left are the Xoloitzcuintles kickin it with a statue of themselves.

Heres a couple of pictures of Indigenous art, there were really beautiful ceramic pieces inside the museum but they didn't allow pictures.

A sign outside that in short reads: I leave this house with my collection of art, the product of my life's work, so that all of Mexico can enjoy it.

The dancers gettin' down!

Mexico City Shock!

So my first few days here in the city have definitely been challenging to say the least. The place I'm currently staying is far from everything and the bus system is pretty wild. Slowly but surely I am getting the hang of things. Yesterday I enrolled in school and I am now officially a student of UNAM! (hence my ID pictured above) I'm so excited to start school because I will be able to meet people from all over the world. During registration there were people from Africa, Japan, Korea, Australia and the U.S. I even met a girl who went to Berkley, what a small world!

Long Story short, I'm working on relocating closer to the school. Once my housing is settled, I can start to fully see all the gems of this city. This is only the beginning.

Queens

Today I left Manhattan and spent some time in the borough better known as Queens. I really like Queens! First I went to 5 Pointz, which is a huge building covered with graffiti art from local and international artists. Across from 5 Pointz is PS1, a contemporary art museum housed in an old school building. PS1 is a three story brick building complete with old creaky wooden floors. The museum had a maze like quality with lots of rooms, displaying art of all different mediums.

After tripping out on modern art for a couple of hours, it was lunch time. I hopped on the train to Jackson Heights, a neighborhood where Indian and Latin American culture mix and mingle. There was taco trucks and Cumbia music blasting on one block and then I'd turn the corner only to be confronted with sari shops and the lovely smell of Indian spices. After surveying several restaurants, I settled on a yummy Indian buffet for lunch. It was a good day.

The African Burial Ground Monument.

I made it safely to New York! Yesterday, I spent most of the day strolling around the city feeling incredibly jet lagged after a red eye flight. Today I ended up waking up later than I had planned so I had a breakfast of champions, a slice of pizza and a coffee, and then I headed to lower Manhattan to check out the African Burial Ground. In 1991, in the midst of the bustle of lower Manhattan, not far off from Wall street, a construction crew found more than 400 wooden caskets with the remains of enslaved Africans. In honor of our African ancestors the African Burial ground is now marked with a monument and is a designated National Historic landmark. There is also a visitor's center that opened this year, which had a lot of information. It has video footage of the inauguration of the monument that showed the passion that the African/African American/Black community showed in honoring their ancestors. It was extremely powerful! Bellow are some pictures of the monument and visitor's center.

Here is a close up of the monument, next to this there was a symbol of Sankofa which was the overall theme of the monument. Sankofa is from the Akan people of West Africa, it stresses

that we must go back to our roots in order to move forward into the future.

The Circle of the Diaspora and the Ancestral Libation Court. The Circle represents the African diaspora with different symbols from native African, Latin American and Caribbean peoples who were forcibly subjugated during the colonization of the Americas.

I didn't take this picture, but here is an aerial view of the monument

This an opening inside the Ancestral Chamber, it serves as a pathway for the spirits of those who are buried under the monument to rise up to the heavens.

A photograph of the excavated remains, found inside of the visitor's center.

A snap shot that I took of a video in the visitor's center of Maya Angelou speaking at the inauguration.

Time to Pack!

A week from now I will be going on city hopping adventure. The plan is to spend five days in New York City, followed by about a month and a half in Mexico City! I went to New York for the first time in July of this year and I loved it, I just had to go back to experience some more of what the city has to offer. The last time I was in Mexico City I was only 16 years old, so I am looking forward to seeing Mexico City aka D.F. with a whole new perspective. In Mexico City I will be taking a 6 week intensive Spanish language course at the University in Mexico City better known as Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). I'm also looking into possibly taking some classes in the Indigenous languages, Náhuatl, Mixtec and Otomí at the Centro Cultural Tepeticpac Tlahtolcalli. This Blog will serve as a virtual journal where I will share what I'm up to and what interesting food, art, museums etc. that I come across on my adventure. Now its time to pack!