Viernes de turistas

Es viernes, viernes Hay que bailar los viernes Muchas ganas de que llegue el fin de semana…                                                                               
Divirtiéndo(¡nos!), Divirtiéndo(¡nos!),
Tenemos muchas ganas de que llegue el fin de semana— translation of Rebecca Black’s “Friday” by Zachary Jones (he’s this Spanish teacher who makes really awesome pop culture worksheets for high school Spanish. He’s basically who I would want to be if I desired to teach Spanish. His translation is awesome, the video is not so great– the translation is below it)

So Lindsay and I have sort of gotten into a schedule where I spend the night on Thursday night at her house and then join her for whatever tourist excursions she is going on Friday before returning to my own church duties. It’s been terrible weather here lately so Thursday I met up with her and we were going to see las mullas (“the mules”) in the Zocalo for Corpus Christi (apparently in the past the people from rural towns would bring large offerings on mules to the Cathedral). Due to the rain there were no mules to be seen, but earlier in the morning they had a blessing of little children by the bishop. The kids are dressed in traditional indigenous clothes and they have a big parade. There were still a few kids in Cathedral so we got to see them all dressed up. Afterward, we ate pozole with a family from the church and then I went back to Lindsay’s church to see what a service at her church is like. Thursday we got up bright and early to Skype with 2 friends from Duke and then we went to the gym. We had this horrible dance class that was absolutely ridiculous. Even funnier than the moves though was the fact that the playlist was almost identical to the music we dance to at cardio dance at Duke (Lindsay and I are big cardio dance fans)! Guess some things are international. We also rode the metro back all by ourselves and didn’t get kidnapped or mugged!

We were lame and took a picture in the metro to try and stand out even more.

Next Jose Luis came and picked us up and took us to the Museo del Arte Moderno. It had 2 really awesome exhibits that I was all about:

The first was one on Neo-Mexicanism. Neo-Mexicanism is a term to definite a type of art that seeks to reinterpret and reinvent traditional notions of what it means to be Mexican. To do this it takes traditional cliches and icons from everything from the commercial to the traditional mural and reinvents them to create a new aesthetic. A lot of it had to do with the nation-state and taking things that are traditionally consumed and exported especially in terms of identity, sexuality, and gender. For example, a lot of them used traditional Catholic iconagraphy to make a statement about the role of the religious in the current economic and social crisis (especially the Virgin Mary). There was even a room entirely dedicated to Frida and her role in traditional Mexican art. It was a really interesting exhibit as it used many of the images we see so often here in Mexico but reinterprets them in ways that you would normally never see.

I wish I knew the artist's name but this is "Persistence of Memory" (like the Salvador Dali title). I really liked the juxtoposition of the prehistoric religion with Christianity (and the volcano reminds me of Malcolm Lowry's "Under the Volcano".

The second exhibit that I liked was more “fun”. It was a whole bunch of piñatas that were created by local artists. Some of them were fun, others scary, a few were racy. Overall, it was just an enjoyable exhibit to walk around in.

After the museum we went to the castle in Chapultapec Park. Chapultapec is the equivalent to our Central Park– it’s HUGE and has museums, a theatre, a lake to go paddle boating in, etc. The castle was the home of Maximilian I after France took over Mexico. Because of this it is very European and reminded me of the castles that I used to see in Europe. After all of our exhibitions I had to go to Gante (it’s the big downtown Methodist church here) because they are having a youth conference all this weekend. My church is cooking the meals for the conference from Friday night to Sunday afternoon in order to raise money to re-do the social hall. Of course after 5 minutes of “helping” when I arrived I sliced open my finger cutting break and began bleeding profusely. That’s certainly a way to look incompetent while trying to help. We are preparing the meals again all day today and then tomorrow is Zuri’s baby’s dedication. It’s also gay pride this weekend in Mexico City (as well as in many US cities)! I really want to go (the parade passes very close to the church we will be at) especially in order to celebrate the good news that gay marriage has been legalized in NY. However, the Mexican Methodist church seems to be even more conservative when it comes to the issue of homosexuality in the church than the American Methodist church. I have been meaning to blog about this issue, especially with the trial of Rev. Amy DeLong this past week, however I don’t feel that I understand the issue well enough to write a fair and honest summary. So, until I understand the general Mexican sentiment both secularly and in the church I will wait and keep serving Mexican food to young teenagers.