The Magic of the Cities.

Zen promotes the rediscovery of the obvious, which is so often lost in its familiarity and simplicity. It sees the miraculous in the common and magic in our everyday surroundings. When we are not rushed, and our minds are unclouded by conceptualizations, a veil will sometimes drop, introducing the viewer to a world unseen since childhood. ~ John Greer

Monday, August 25, 2008

Arcos Bosques Towers


Arcos Corporative Building, known as "El Pantalon" (The Trousers) by Mexican architect Teodoro Gonzalez de Leon.

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Gracias por su visita / Thanks for visiting.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Aquarium Tunnel


Ver. 2


The walls of this tunnel are covered with sea images.

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Gracias por su visita / Thanks for visiting.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Heroes


El Ángel de la Independencia ("The Angel of Independence") and officially known as Columna de la Independencia, is a victory column located on a roundabout over Paseo de la Reforma in downtown, was built to commemorate the centennial of the beginning of Mexico's War of Independence, celebrated in 1910. It is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Mexico City, it bears a resemblance to the Victory Column in Berlin. Next to the column there is a group of marble statues of some of the heroes of the War of Independence, from left to right:
Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Vicente Guerrero y Francisco Javier Mina. The women sculptures are History and Patria (Homeland).

Hero: “a person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life”

Exists heroes in our days?


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Gracias por su visita / Thanks for visiting.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Iglesia de Romita / Romita Church


Detail:


The name of Colonia Roma comes, not from the Italian city, but from a small village located in a corner of what today is Colonia Roma. The Pueblo de la Romita during Aztec times was named Aztacalco and its name was changed after the Spanish conquest when the church N. Señora de la Natividad (Our Lady of the Nativity) was built in 1530. Even if most of La Romita was destroyed in the early 20th century, when Colonia Roma was developed, the church still remains, now its name is Temple of St. Francis.
Antigua Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Natividad, actualmente Templo de San Francisco Javier.

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Gracias por su visita / Thanks for visiting.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Elusive


Afternoon at Chapultepec Park.

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Gracias por su visita / Thanks for visiting.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Posted


Letrero pegado en un semaforo de una esquina cualquiera.
Posted on a traffic light (traffic signal) of any corner and the translation more or less is:
Look for a woman for what she is worth, not only for a butt.

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Gracias por su visita / Thanks for visiting.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Leonora Carrington IV


Detail:


Horno de Simon Magus / Simon Magus Oven. Bronze 2007. From her exhibition on Paseo de la Reforma Ave.

Gracias por su visita / Thanks for visiting.


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Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Leonora Carrington III


"Entonces vimos a la hija del Minotauro" / "And Then, We Saw The Daughter of The Minotaur" Oleo / Oil 1953 from her exhibition on Paseo de la Reforma Ave. (Main Street)
In Greek mythology, the Minotaur (Greek: Μῑνώταυρος, Mīnṓtauros) was a creature that was part man and part bull. It dwelt at the center of the Labyrinth, which was an elaborate maze-like construction built for King Minos of Crete and designed by the architect Daedalus and his son Icarus who were ordered to build it to hold the Minotaur. The historical site of Knossos is usually identified as the site of the labyrinth. The Minotaur was eventually killed by Theseus.
"Minotaur" is Greek for "Bull of Minos." The bull was known in Crete as Asterion, a name shared with Minos's foster father.

Gracias por su visita / Thanks for visiting.


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Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Leonora Carrington II


Back:


La Madre de los Lobos / The Mother of The Wolves. Bronze 2007, from her exhibition on Paseo de la Reforma Ave.

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Gracias por su visita / Thanks for visiting.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Leonora Carrington I


Details:




From her exhibition on Paseo de la Reforma Ave:
Mariposa Mantarraya / Butterfly Manta ray. Bronze 2007 by Leonora Carrington. One of Britain's finest - and neglected – surrealists.
Her importance, lies partly in that she - along with artists such as Leonor Fini and Remedios Varo - opened up a new, and more female, strand of surrealism: in Mexico, Leonora and Varo dabbled in alchemy and the occult, and the work of both was rooted for a time in the magical and domestic elements of women's lives. "One of the extraordinary aspects of Leonora's work is how she draws on so many different inspirations, from the Celtic legends she learned from her nanny, through the constraints of her upper-class upbringing, to the surrealism of Paris in the 1930s - and then to the magic of Mexico," "Her work is evocative of so many things, and it's enormously complex: she hasn't had a massive output because her technique is so meticulous and the work so detailed. She certainly wasn't a Picasso who could churn out several pictures a day; her work would take many months, even years."


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Gracias por su visita / Thanks for visiting.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Monday, July 28, 2008

Are You Free ?


Posters and Graffiti on a wall of a building.
Quotes on posters:
Are You Free?
Freedom, even painted is beautiful.
But never you are alone.

Gracias por su visita / Thanks for visiting.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Zapata


Cuernavaca Tourism Office. The figure in the balcony is Emiliano Zapata (August 8, 1879–April 10, 1919) was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution, which broke out in 1910, and which was initially directed against the president Porfirio Díaz. He formed and commanded an important revolutionary force, the Liberation Army of the South.

At that time, Mexico was ruled by a dictatorship under Porfirio Díaz, who had seized power in 1876. The social system of the time was a sort of proto-capitalist feudal system, with large landed estates (haciendas) controlling more and more of the land and squeezing out the independent communities of the indigenous and mestizos, who were then subsequently forced into debt slavery (peonaje) on the haciendas. Díaz ran local elections to pacify the people and run a government that they could argue was self-imposed. Under Díaz, close confidantes and associates were given offices in districts throughout Mexico. These offices became the enforcers of "land reforms" that actually concentrated the haciendas into fewer hands. [Any similarity with actuality?]

Quotes:
¡Tierra y Libertad! (Translation: Land and Liberty)
"Ignorancia y obscurantismo nunca han producido otra cosa que rebaños de esclavos para la tirania" (Translation: Ignorance and obscurantism have never produced anything other than flocks of slaves for tyranny). (In a letter to Pancho Villa)
"Es mejor morir de pie que vivir un siglo de rodillas." (Translation: It is better to die standing than to live a century on your knees.)
"La tierra es de quien la trabaja." (Translation: The land belongs to those who work it). [ Wiki ]

Gracias por su visita / Thanks for visiting.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Handicrafts


Traditional handicrafts in exhibition on a shop window in Cuernavaca, a beautiful town near Mexico City.

Gracias por su visita / Thanks for visiting.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Friday, July 18, 2008

El Gato / The Cat / Le Chat


The cat (Felis catus), also known as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from other felines, is a small carnivorous species of crepuscular mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and its ability to hunt vermin, snakes and scorpions. It has been associated with humans for at least 9,500 years.

A skilled predator, the cat is known to hunt over 1,000 species for food. It can be trained to obey simple commands. Individual cats have also been known to learn on their own to manipulate simple mechanisms, such as doorknobs. Cats use a variety of vocalizations and types of body language for communication, including meowing, purring, hissing, growling, squeaking, chirping, clicking, and grunting. Cats also may be the most popular pet in the world, with over 600 million in homes all over the world.

Until recently the cat was commonly believed to have been domesticated in ancient Egypt, where it was a cult animal. However a 2007 study found that all house cats are probably descended from a group of as few as five self-domesticating African Wildcats Felis silvestris lybica circa 8000 BC, in the Near East. [ Wiki ]

Gracias por su visita / Thanks for visiting.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Cuauhtemoc


Monument to Cuauhtemoc on Paseo de la Reforma Ave.

On August 13, 1521, Cuauhtémoc went to call for reinforcements from the countryside to aid the falling Tenochtitlán, after eighty days straight of urban warfare against the Spanish. Of all the Nahuas, only Tlatelolcas remained loyal, and the surviving Tenochcas looked for refuge in Tlatelolco where even women took part in the battle. Cuauhtémoc was captured while crossing Lake Texcoco in disguise. He surrendered to Hernán Cortés along with the surviving pipiltin (nobles), and offered him his knife and asked to be killed. At first, Cortés treated his foe chivalrously. "A Spaniard knows how to respect valor even in an enemy," he declared. However, he allowed Aldrete, the royal treasurer, to have Cuauhtemoc tortured to make him reveal the whereabouts of hidden treasure. Cuauhtémoc, insisting that there was no hidden treasure, stood up under the ordeal. [ Wiki. ]

Gracias por su visita / Thanks for visiting.