Tag Archives: mexico

Ciudad de México en septiembre 2023

Week 43, 2023
Turku, Finland

It has been a long time since I wrote in this blog.

Today I activate myself to write here, because it is the most suitable space to share my world to the people I care about and are distributed across our amazing planet. Thinking particularly, those of you who do not know Mexico.

From week 34 to 38 I was in Mexico. My mom needed some support. Then, my time was busy at home. I didn’t even have time to see my generational friends.  However, the most important thing is that mom started to recover ??. In this blog post I share some visual highlights of my time back home, which is not tourism, but daily life.  I organize the photos in four categories:

  1. My neighborhood
  2. Food
  3. Daily life – errands
    1. Metro and Downtown Mexico City
    2. Driving and Parking
    3. Church
    4. Hospitals and medical services
  4. Daily life  – grocery shopping

Let’s start by fling to Mexico City. A sign, at least for me, that I am reaching “Aztec land” is when I am reaching Mexico City’s international airport, Benito Juarez, which it is in the middle of the “town”.  The ocean of lights is just something unique. 

Reaching the international airport Benito Juarez in Mexico city

1. My neighborhood

Mexico city is a big metropolis. When possible, you do your activities in the area where you live. In my case, I grew up in Colonia del Valle and during my time there, I was mainly in this area of the city or in the hospital where my mom is treated. The hospital is in the alcaldía Tlalpan.  Here a couple of links of the area of the city where I grow up: link 1 and link 2. Below photos of what I could see almost everyday.

A view of the city within the city

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Walking in the neighborhood

City birds and their facilities

Park for all to enjoy

What surprised me the most during this visit is to realize how many houses, which I saw as a child, now are turned down and instead there are building buildings.  The city keeps growing.
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2.Food

Mexican traditional cuisine was declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO. For me, to share about Mexican food is challenging, because in my opinion all our senses should be involved. Additionally, I am not an expert and I do not know how to clarify certain ingredients which I only have seen in Mexico.

However, in this post, I will share food that I ate.  For example,  each time we were at the hospital, we treated ourselves.  The cafeteria was/is really good. Below some photos of the dishes.

Sandwich

Sandwich 2

Enfrijoladas

On Sept. 15th, Mexicans starts the independence celebration.  Hence, it is common to find diverse dishes or desserts utilizing the independence theme in their decoration. As the following jello utilizing the colors of the Mexican flag.

Jello with the mexican colours

Also in September is quite popular and very special to eat Chiles en Nogada.  My aunt makes them DELICIOUS!

Chile en Nogada

Mexican candies in September are also a must have. We had a beautiful meal on the 15.9. but I do not have photos only from the delicious food. However I have one from the sweets:

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Also we ate at the Parroquia:

La parroquia

and some Tortas Don Polo:

Tortas Don Polo

Well, I could have photos and more photos of food….. of course plenty of fruits were also eaten 😉

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3.Daily life – errands

In this section I share random photos of daily life. During my time in Mexico, I needed to run different errands. A glimpse of those are in here.

3.1 Metro and Downtown Mexico City.

I needed to do some paperwork in downtown, which I could not do via internet. In my opinion, it is faster and more practical to go to Mexico City downtown with public transport. For me the metro is the best.  A trick, or advice, is to avoid the busy time,  even though it is busier most of the time nowadays.  I mainly travel on the female section of the metro.

Metro station

What was new for me this time, which I only have seen in Asia earlier, were the stickers on the floor indicating where to wait for the metro and leaving the space for the passengers to go down.

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To find art or culture in the metro stations is relatively easy. At least in the “old” metro stations.

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Note: things were not that empty all the time, but I try to take photos when there were not people around to respect privacy 😉

Also in this trip I took a metrobus, which now the network is bigger than the last time I was in downtown.

Parada de metrobus

Downtown is BEAUTIFUL and INTERESTING and MAGICAL in its own right.

Next photo is from the main “square” of Mexico City: el Zocalo. Behind you can see the cathedral and presidential palace is on the right. There is a Metro station below so it is easy to come out from the metro and admire this spot of the city.

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Walking in downtown Mexico City is to walk through history, a mixing of cultures and one walks having a full sensorial experience including sounds, smells, images, symbols, etc. It is just something to experience.

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In the next photo, one can see the torre latinoamericana.

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Theater of Bellas Artes:

Palacio de Bellas Artes

Reforma, el caballito:

Reforma

In downtown, shopping areas are peculiar. One find the street that focuses on particular category, e.g. of electronics, or tiles, or jewelry, or bathrooms, etc. If you are curious, yes I stop in couple of these shopping areas. ??

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3.2 Driving and parking

To go to the hospital and other errands we needed to do it by car. Traffic is crazy if I compare it to the traffic in Offenburg, Joensuu or Turku (my other hometowns I would say).  It is just not comparison, they are different worlds in our same planet.

Traffic of the first photo was when we were heading to the hospital.  Here you can see a metro station that runs at ground level.

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Each time we were heading to the hospital, we passed through the estadio azteca.

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Parking is an issue in many areas, so they are looking for different solutions constantly, even inside buildings.

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That parking place is from the following building:

Mexico City zona sur

Or those tower parking places also can be found in supermarkets:

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3.3. Church

I also visited the church where my dad is resting.  The Mexican flag is in the altar, because it is September, as I mentioned above, it is a month of “Mexico”.

Parroquia de Jesús Sacramentado

Crypts:

Parroquia de Jesús Sacramentado

I found the following sticker interesting. It reads: “United in the distance.

Actually in the service, when people access the church, they use face masks and wash the hands.

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3.4 Hospital and medical services

In my opinion, we have EXCELLENT doctors in Mexico. We also have very good public hospitals.  A challenge Mexico has, again in my opinion, there are not enough hospitals for all Mexicans. The health system requires a lot of investment.

In our case, we can can do things in public institutions, which my mom has paid through her taxes during her working life. However, we need to complement certain services with private practices. The prices of those private ones can vary.  In the following photos  I want to illustrate architecture of the hospital where my mom was operated as where her rehabilitation is. I really love the Mexican architecture, across time. One can can see  mexican murals, and in my opinion the hospital is EXCELLENT.

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Hosptial en Ciutad de México

 

Hospital en cituad de México

The people must use mask in this hospital. It is mandatory.

The photo below I found it in one of the hallways. It reads: While they said to each other “it could not be done, it was done”.

Hospital en Ciudad de México

The photo below is from another organization, which I discovered because I needed to do some studies for myself. Then, aI was guided to go to Salud Digna.It is a foundation that offers medical studies to accessible prices. Amazing service and also A LOT of people.

Salud Digna

Even that there were plenty of persons at the same time,  the service was quick and good. They also have chairs reserved for different type of groups, as below you can see sits for pregnant women.

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Finally an entrance of a private hospital. Another style.

Hospitales en Mexico

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4. Daily life  – grocery shopping

Before heading to Mexico, I was asked: what type of fish do we eat there?, for example. Which I do not have an answer for. I am ignorant to the topic.  ?  Therefore I decide to share some photos of our supermarkets and “mercados sobre ruedas“.  I will be paying more attention to those important details step by step.

Below is the first supermarket I went right after landing. There the watermelon was huge:

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Here some fruits that we will not find in Finland or Germany, for example: mamey and Tuna (Fruit no fish)

Supermercado ciudad de México

It is easy to find plenty of avocados among other fruits and vegetables:

La comer - supermercado - Ciudad de México

Supermarket fish display:

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Bakery in supermarket:

La comer - supermercado - Ciudad de México

Alcohol is also sold inside supermarkets:

La comer - supermercado - Ciudad de México

Personally, I ENJOY A LOT to buy at the “mercados sobre ruedas“. I was not able to find an article in English clarifying what are “merchados sobre ruedas”, but in brief: they are temporal market installed for one day on specific streets, where one buys closer to the producer. If you want to read more about them, here is an article in Spanish.

Mercadito sobre ruedas - Ciudad de México

I was lucky because there were still some  mangos manila (yammi ??):

Mercadito sobre ruedas - Ciudad de México

Mercadito sobre ruedas - Ciudad de México

One can also eat prepared food at “mercado sobre ruedas”. I found interesting how they keep having covid practices.

Mercadito sobre ruedas - Ciudad de México

A couple of things happen in my food-hunting trips, which were new for me.

One, I had an earthquake drill in a supermarket. To put some in context. We had very bad earthquakes on  Sept 19th in the past. So we have a National Earthquake drill on this day. At the day and time of the drill I was in a supermarket. So we were to the safe zone customers and employees. It was interesting.

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Another new things for me was to realized how many dogs, as pets, are nowadays. The number has increased so much that even supermarkets welcome them.

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The blog post is a bit long but I hope it transmits a bit of my world in a daily life in Mexico city. Missing other stuff, as we play board games each Sunday  – and some other days when possible- , cleaning the house, etc. However maybe in another post we can talk about other details ??  .

-Yop!

Mexican food day

Week 1
Joensuu, Finland

Winter is here as you can see:

Weather on 8.1.16

Weather on 8.1.16

To cheer me up, today I declared a delicatessen day of  Mexican food.

I started with  tamales Oaxaqueños for breakfast and for lunch and dinner Chilaquiles.

Chilaquiles in Joensuu

Chilaquiles in Joensuu

Lucky me with my kitchen treasures to survive this winter !!!!

 

 

Film review – Los olvidados

Week 10, 2015
Joensuu, Finland

Title: Los Olvidados
DirectorLuis Buñel
Genre: Drama
Year: 1950
Country: Mexico
IMDb: 8.2/10
Thesis: life in the slums of Mexico city.
Watch on 28.2.2015

The film portraits the life of street kids in the 50s for a particular period. The film captures the life challenges of the people living in Mexico City slums. The “lack” of love and communication between these children and their parents and the harshness of their environment. It also portrays a myriad of emotions such as desire, love, anger, hope, fear, lust, revenge.

The narrative focuses on the life of Pedro a youngster that witness a murder of one of his friends and, without planning it, he is also accomplice. The murderer, Jaibo, is also his friend. They agree to do not say a word about this event, but all these happenings really disturb Pedro internally. Pedro has no-one to talk to about this, a tangible distance exists between him and his mother and he has an internal desire to be a “good” person, to be accepted by his mother and a society. However, his innocence, confusion of his young age and Jaibo, did not allow him to take the correct decisions on time. At the end of the film, he is killed by Jaibo and his body is dump at a garbage-cliff near by.

For me, the film is intense, strong, current and real. Unfortunately, I am not a film critic, so I cannot talk about the tecnik. However after watched the film I had been reading some other comments about it and information related to the film expressing that “los olvidados” is a master piece.

Surrealism is used as part of the film’s techniques of expression by Bruñel, according to some specialists. Unquestionably the film is powerful. At moments, I was not able to look a it. It hurt me! I was really immerse/connected to the story.  Others critics mention that this film utilizes elements of  neo-realism. From another perspective, to understand “los olvidados” one has to recognize Mexico in this era, and

For me, as a Mexican ex-pat who just watched the film, it created me an impact. The story of the “los Olvidados”  is so current, and it might be lived nowadays by hundreds of children  in the Mexico.  The stage might have changed because now we live in the XXI century, but all those elements that the film narrate (desire, love, anger, hope, fear, lust, revenge) of people living under poverty line are current, in my personal point of view.  One can immerse in Buñuel’s narrative and connect and feel the story, a story draw in the 50s and also lived in the second decade of 2000s. In my case, after watching “los olvidados” a serie feelings and questions emerged.

Concurring with the words of Alfonso Mejía (Pedro in the “los olvidados”), in the reportage below he mentions: “Now we have more problems than earlier”. He cannot be further away from the truth, and as a generation we have to address them.

There is much to do!

importance of universities, i am inspire by the actual Mexican student movements

Week 20, 2012
Helsinki, Finland

When I read what is happening with the Mexican university students, it moves me.  For decades in Mexico we have been fighting for freedom and equality, or shall I say for centuries? That is a good question.

Nevertheless, this post focuses on our latest fight, which from my perspective started in 1968. University students from that time were fighting against the current government, which was some kind of dictatorship, we were ruled under the political party of the PRI.  During the time in which the PRI was in power, the seed of A LOT of the actual problems was sown as corruption, lack of education, drugs,…..

In October 2, 1968, the government committed a massacre, which until now has not been punished. The open wound is open in our society.

The general elections of 2000 had a massive participation and we finally changed of government. I am so happy I was able to vote in those elections. Since then we have 12 years with the PAN.

Now we have elections again. The context of this election is very challenging, I would say, and it is full of LIES.  Additionally, our educational system has been in decay, there is not media literacy in the country and the mass media does not want to inform objectively the society. In few words, the syndicate of teachers and the owners of the mass media have their own political agendas, which they are following carefully instead to serve the society. *sight*

In May 2012, the candidate of the PRI visited the University Iberoamericana – my alma matter btw –  and the students demonstrated their opposition towards the candidate. However after the visit the publicity of the candidate’s party  and the mass media did not acknowledge this event and modify it, diminish the students demonstration. Consequently, the university students react and published a video specifying that they were participants of the protest (video below).

Octavio Rodriguez Araujo wrote in his column the article entitle Los jovenes de ahora, mentioning that the actual generation we are defining as Ni-Ni because we perceive them as passive, conformist, apatic,  are actually showing us that in peace, they are demanding a change. For example, they are creating a movement towards impartial media.

Unquestionably, for the actual political movements that are taking place in México, as in other countries,  social networks are fundamental. The university students are putting their face, replying and questioning to politicians. They are expressing their truth and fighting for their rights. Unfortunately the Internet penetration in Mexico is low and very expensive. But things are advancing, somehow.

All these events reaffirm that Universities transpire life, they are generators of change and innovation. Universities have an important role in our societies.

Each one of us, as researchers, lecturers, teachers have an important commitment with our universities and with our youngsters. We shouldn’t transmit only collections of facts, instead supported by the subject matter of our expertise we should promote: critical thinking, questioning, search for evidence, tolerance,…. Each generation have to live what they have to live, but we have to offer them the tools for them to walk their own path!

books in your professional life

Week 3, 2012
Joensuu, Finland

My memories tell me that I always have liked books. However, books for study are another issue. In my first semester on my first University (yes I have been in several of them 🙂 )  my Dad did something I will always be thankful for. He bought me ALL the books I needed for my studies that semester: the text books and the reference books.  Crazy? perhaps. I bet they were no cheap.  Also, I remember he told me something like: now you have all what you need for your studies,  you cannot quit this semester.

At the time I was studying Electronic Engineering at ULSA. The first semester was very hard for me. It is the only semester I remember some part of the schedule:  Monday, Wednesday and Friday my mornings were full: 7-9 Physics, 9-11 Calculus and 11-13 Algebra. Of course I had other lectures at the afternoon, and on Tuesday and Thursdays. But that triplet was unforgettable for me.

I must confess that my Dad did the correct and very intelligent thing getting me the books, because I recall that more than once, when I came back home after that triplet I was ready to quit. But then I looked to the books he bought me, they  REALLY helped me to pass the courses and I felt supported by them. I must acknowledge I also had a very GREAT group of friends 🙂  . But the books played a role in no quitting that specific semester.

Since then, books related to my studies acquire a special meaning. It is as having wise people next to me, explaining me things. Books are just special.

My Dad turn to be an angel in 2011, and still I am digesting his transformation.  In reference to his profession, he was a GREAT civil engineer and passionate learner.  As you might imagine he had a very special library about his profession. We decided to canalise his library so it could support others to learn by spreading knowledge. Some books are actually gems in his field, according to diverse engineers.

My dad was active at the CENAPRED, and we decided they will be at charge of indexing the volumes and canalize them properly.  They just reported us that my Dad donated 746 volumes. Wow! I am so PROUD of my Dad! and very thankful you for this knowledge-addiction that he somehow seed/share/promote with me.

No wonder why I love so much the books in my profession! 🙂 Now, I think I will start to share more about them.

Dad's books donation

Dad's books donation