Mexico City

A few blocks away from Frida and Diego's house, you can find the Museum of Trostsky, in what was to be the last house of the Bolshevik leader:





The Russian politician is buried here:



I guess you all know that Trostsky sought refuge in Mexico and was murdered by a Stalinist agent, Ramón Mercader, A.K.A Jackson Mornard, on August 1940.

Before that, he suffered another murder attempt by the Stalinists, led by painter David Alfaro Siqueiros.
On this attempt -the rounds of fire caught Trotsky's feet, but no other part of his body, an American bodyguard was abducted and killed (allegedly by Siqueiros). There is this plaque at the museum:

Coyoacán is full of cultural centers. One of the bigger ones is Casa de la Cultura Jesús Reyes Heroles (concerts, all kinds of courses. etc...)

After walking through the center of Coyoacán, what better than a refreshment at classic Cantina La Guadalupana?

Thanks for all these recent posts. (I'm sleepy or I'd go on and on about them)

Also in Delegación Coyoacán we find the old former convent of Churubusco. It was later a fort, and the place where the most important battle of the Mexican-American War was held. I did not need to say that the 'Muricans won over the Mexicans and the gallant Irish.



The former convent is now the site of the Museo de las Intervenciones, the Museum of Interventions, with stuff mainly from the french Intervention and the Mexican-American War:





John Reilly can explain you why he formed the St. Patrick's Batallion and fought on the Mexican side:



And some sundays you can hear Mexicans perform the gaits, in honor of the Fighting Irish.

Near the fortress-convent lie the Estudios Churubusco, our movie Mecca (just sayin')

And, not too far away, the National Centre for the Arts (Cenart), which houses not only a place for academics, but also theatres, movie theaters and other stages for eevery type of spectacle:

Right next to Cenart remains what's left of Canal Nacional, one of the channels that were common in the city until the early XX Century:

While most of the center of Coyoacán is very posh, the colonias around Churubusco (Campestre Churubusco, Jardines de Coyoacán, Campestre Churubusco) are as middle class as you can get:



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Churubusco is east of downtown Coyoacán; west of Colonia del Carmen lies a lovely, and expensive, neighborhood, with cobbled roads, Chimalistac:





http://www.eluniversaldf.mx/fotos/chimalistac4.jpg

Those Chimalistac places are quite beautiful.

Those Chimalistac places are quite beautiful.

South of Chimalistac, and next to Copilco, we find Ciudad Universitaria, the main campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

I consider CU the most beautiful campus in the world. I may be biased. I studied at UNAM, so did my wife (and my ex-wife) and my two sons. My daughter now studies at UNAM.

This is the Dean's building.

As you see it has a mural by Siqueiros in the middle:



...and two other ones in the sides:

This one is self-explanatory (IMHO). Its title: "The People to the University and the University for the People"





The dates on the last one refer:
1520, Spanish Conquest
1810, Mexican Independence
1857, Liberal Constitution
1910, Mexican Revolution
19??, Socialist Revolution

I saw it, and thought it was wonderful. A friend who went there showed it to us.

Not all of it.

Perhaps the most beautiful and representative building of CU is the Central Library, with complex murals by Juan O'Gorman.





I'll go later through the four panels.

Oh, yeah ---- said in the voice of some music I remember.

Southern wall, the Colonial past.
It's presided by the sign of the House of Habsburg, who ruled in Spain, the Church is the basis of all things (the hands of Christ are getting out of it), the diffrences between Ptolemaic and Copernican visions, and below the discs, a map of old Tenochtitlan and a fallen eagle (the last Aztec emperor), angels against devils... and the whole wall looks like Tláloc:

Northern wall, the Prehispanic past.
Tláloc, but more clearly, since it has a body of water. The foundation of Tenochtitlan (the eagle devouring the serpent in the middle of the lake), the surrounding cities. Dancers, rulers and god (specially Quetzalcóatl, on the top left):

Western wall. The University and today's Mexico (1952):

The emblem of the University, and those of the National Library (it finally never moved to the UNAM Central Library) and the National Hemeroteca (newspapers and magazines library, which is now in another part of CU).
On the left, the popular origins of the University; on the right, it's activities in science, arts and sports (notice the guy with an American football uniform).