On Thursday, January 26, 2012, I went to see the Dr. Alt exhibit at the Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco in México City’s Tlatelolco hood, not too far from where I live. I went with some American friends that are now living in México City:  Jim Johnson, Nicholas Gillman and Brad Conrad.

I had heard about the Dr. Atl art exhibit while I was in Dallas and just had to go because not only had I admired Atl’s paintings but I also live in the neighborhood Dr. At lived in, Col. Santa Maria la Ribera, and too, I live on Dr. At street as well.

The is show was great, I loved seeing all the works in one place, in the Museo Colección Blaisten in the Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco.  Andres Blaisten, art collector and connoisseur, and for whom the museum is named after, did a great job in the presentation of Dr. Atl’s works.

As reported in the LA Times:

Dr. At, … was a muralist, an educator and a civic activist who once helped save a colonial-era convent from demolition by moving in and living there. He published books, invented paints and signed his works “Dr. At,” an imaginary honorific using the Nahuatl-language word for water.

Born Gerardo Murillo in Guadalajara in 1875, Dr. At is one of the most accomplished and enigmatic figures from the golden period of modern art in Mexico. …

I say, this is a must see exhibit of one of México’s utmost painters and a big part of Mexican history.  Exhibit runs through April 16, 2012.

click image below for a slide show exhibit of Dr. Atl

Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco
Ave. Ricardo Flores Magón N. 1
across from the Plaza de las Tres Culturas – “Square of the Three Cultures”
Col. Nonoalco-Tlatelolco
Cost is only $20.00 pesos, like $1.50 USD
How to get there

With Michael Parker we didn’t do the Olmedo museum because we were going to spend the whole afternoon on the canals – stopping at the la Isla de las Munecas – Island of the Dolls.

click image above for slide show of my day

Though I had been to the canals in Xochimilco several times, this was the first time I was going to the Island of the Dolls, a place I often heard and read about: and I was looking forward to it.

I won’t say much except to say the island creepy and I wouldn’t want to be there after dark alone.  The time we went, there were no people just dolls, dolls that were slowly deteriorating.  There was a sitting area so all eight of us had tequila drinks!  LOL

click here for a short video of my day visit to Xochimilco

So why the dolls?

The story goes that the island’s only inhabitant, Don Julian Santana, found the body of a drowned child in the canal some 50 years ago. He was haunted by her death, so when he saw a doll floating by in the canal soon after, he hung it in a tree to please the girl. He hoped to both appease her tortured soul and protect the island from further evil.

One doll in a tree, however, was not enough to ease Santana’s troubled mind. He continued to fish dolls and doll parts out of the canal whenever he saw them, hanging each one carefully on the island. There weren’t enough canal dolls to satisfy Santana’s tortured spirit, so he began scavenging more from trash heaps on his rare trips away from home. Later in life, he began trading his home-grown fruits and vegetables for dolls.

Many stories have been associated with the island over the years. A popular tale was that Don Julian had gone mad and believed the dolls to be real children who he pulled from the canal and tried to revive. But the truth, as told by his family members who now run the island as a tourist attraction, is that Don Julian simply believed the island was haunted by the spirit of the little girl. For reasons only known to Don Julian himself, he believed that he could make the dead girl happy and keep evil at bay by hanging discarded dolls in all of the island’s trees.

Info from the Web Urbanist.

Here I am in a group shot

Below is a picture of me with my landlord and friend: Bernardo Plasencia:

Without Bernardo’s help, I wouldn’t be back in Mexico City

While visiting, my friend Bernardo Plasencia, who lives in Col. Santa Maria la Ribera, asked me over for dinner.  After dinner he said, I have something to show you: we went to the roof of his building where he showed me a small apartment he was remodeling.  The apartment had panoramic views of the city and a roof garden.  The evening quite, cool breezes and view of the stars and the moon, was most enjoyable – it felt like sanctuary.  Though remodeling was not completed, what had been done looked great.

I said, this is wonderful and then he says, “I am doing this for you.”  He said he was hoping I would like what I saw and that I return to Santa Maria to live and to WRITE.  I was so honored, how could I say no.  So we made a contract and after my summer visit I return to Dallas to downsize so I could afford the apartment in D.F. and await the completion of the remodeling. And the thought of no more staying with friends and carting heavy luggage around town when in Mexico City sounded charming.

On Thursday evening January 12, 2012, I picked up my keys to once again live in Col. Santa Maria la Ribera on Dr. Atl across from the park Alameda Santa Maria with the Moorish Kiosk.   Having arrived on an airplane, I of course didn’t have much, no bed or furniture: but I did have enough that customs asked if what I was bringing was personal or items to sell! LOL

My first evening in my new apartment I borrowed a pillow and blanket and slept on an air mattress.  As I laid down to sleep, I couldn’t help but think  of the time I first moved away from my parent’s house: with nothing, sleeping on the floor, starting a now life adventure.

The first few days I spent tending to workers finishing up the apartment and getting things for my home.  Then nine days later I had my first soirée.  It was good seeing old friends and to be hanging once again in México City

I do keep getting the question: Are you permanently back in México City?  Well, I don’t see my world as permanent:  wife’s/husbands, lovers and even friends get divorced: people die and I too will one day die, hopefully not soon though LOL!  So to me, it seems, nothing is permanent.

BUT  I do have two places to live now:  I have a small apartment in Dallas’ Oak Cliff in an artist compound with a wonderful courtyard and then I have my small apartment, an art/writer’s studio, on the roof of an apartment building with a roof garden in México City’s Col. Santa Maria la Ribera. Living one day at time, living each day to the fullest in two countries – enjoying my wonderful ride.

photo of Chester voguing on the roof – click image for slide show of apartment

Well yesterday, Sunday, August 28, 2011, I was in México City’s Alameda Central in Centro Historico and I saw that this guy had made quartz crystal rings – I thought cool.  Why not wear a quartz crystal instead of having it in my pocket with my change – always gets in the way when making change; carrying the quartz crystal in my back pocket didn’t work – especially when sitting down, OUCH.

purchased quartz crystal stone ring

Well, I wore my ring with great pride: thought it looked cool.  BUT this morning, I took my laundry to be washed and the laundry lady’s little girl of about five years of age noted my ring.  And in a tiny five-year old Spanish language voice asks me: Why are you wearing that big ring?  At first I ignored her, but she asks again.  AND then I said, because it looks pretty.

Well this tiny little girl cracks my face when she says:  Women only wear big rings like that, men don’t.  Needless to say, I CLUTCHED MY PEARLS: I was at a loss for words — and her mother didn’t say a thing either: like we didn’t hear that. LOL

I loved seeing this old car parked on the street, obviously being driven today.   Was it from a collector of vintage cars?  I don’t think so because it was parked on the street and too, not in mint condition. Had to be someone’s everyday ride.

Note the orange color in the middle of the windshield

Seeing this car, I couldn’t help but remember when I drove an old car myslef, a turquoise colored 1964 Ford Galaxie 500, I would often get comments from Yuppies: cool car, but what’s your other car –- a BMW?  What other car? This is my only car!

But the fun part of finding this car is this: you know how a lot of people like to fancy up their cars by hanging all kinds of things on their review mirror?  Well this driver is no exception – take a look and the orange color dangling from the rear view mirror: maybe this car is only driven on Halloween!

Note the roll of toilet paper on the car seat — yep, someone’s everyday ride.

You get loud peseros (small buses) with their glass pipe mufflers, a loud bell for the trash pick up, a whistle from the man that sharpens knives, a guy selling rico tamales oaxacaños and then the loud speaker sitting on top of a car or truck selling or making announcements.

The other day, here in San Luis de la Paz, Guanajuato, a small town of 49,000 people, we happened to get behind a blazer that had a couple of those big loud speakers making an announcement; this announcement was different from those I often hear – it wasn’t an announcement for a store opening or a politician wanting to get out the vote – this was an announcement for:  Ms. San Luis de la Paz 2011 – a drag show.

Gringos often hear how dangerous it is to be openly gay in México.  But here in a small town, not a big city like México City, was a carload of drag queens making public announcements for their annual Nuestra Belleza Gay 2011 pageant.   As the blazer approached people on the streets the drag queens would get out of their car and pass out flyers to their event.  No one was afraid.

click photo above to see pics of the event Nuestra Belleza Gay 2011 – San Luis de la Paz, GTO

This is the fifth year the gay community has put on the pageant.  All six contestants and their supporters will meet at this small town’s main bus station and caravan to Bar One, where the pageant will be held.

Love it:  these guys are OUT, PROUD and SCREAMING.

I wrote a column about my visit to San Luis.  The article, Small-town gay life, was published in the Dallas Voice.

So here goes:  I have most enjoyed the positive changes in Col. Santa Maria la Ribera; the park, Alameda Santa Maria la Ribera, has been remodeled, there are a couple of more coffee cafés:  and glad to see some old institutions still there, like the Russian restaurant Kolobok, Café Alameda and the cantina Salon Paris.   I have enjoyed Santa Maria so much that I will be taking an apartment in the area once the apartment is finished being remodeled – commuting between Dallas and México City.

Currently I am staying with a friend in Santa Maria and I found Fonda Le Bon Gout – Comida Haitiana during a recent walk.  Yep, a Haitian restaurant that is three months open and one block away from the park Alameda Santa Maria la Ribera.

Fonda Le Bon Gout – Comida Haitiana (Le Bon Gout  = The Good Taste)

As I was taking a walk, exploring my old neighborhood, I ran across a new fonda that was full of Black people.  Blacks, African citizens, are not a common sight for México, so when I saw a place that was full of Black people, I took notice.  I stopped and read the sign:  Fonda Le Bon Gout – Comida Haitiana (Le Bon Gout  = The Good Taste).  As I stopped and looked, one of the ladies invited me in to eat.  I thought, why not?  The food is affordable.

I ordered the Plat Creole with chicken; they have it with beef and pork.  As I waited for my order, I enjoyed sitting there admiring all the Black ladies and their children of five or six years of age speaking French.  In fact when they spoke to me, it was in Spanish but with a French accent.  I learned the place does not have one owner, but is family owned.  There were only a couple of family members living in México City for awhile, but after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, other family members came to México City – and then the restaurant was opened.

Plat Creole with chicken

My food arrived, and there was lots of it: rice and beans,  fried banana, fried chicken, red sauce, with Haitian potato salad and what appeared to be coleslaw.  The coleslaw is HOT, spicy HOT, but good.  Though I am calling the food coleslaw and potato salad, they do have proper names; though I don’t remember how to pronounce much less spell their names.  It was all-good – home cooking: Haitian Style.

I just had to see what I had been missing for the last nine months that I have been in Dallas.  As I walked up Dr. Atl to Salvador Diaz Mirón I could see water shooting high from the fountains at the park — they never worked the whole time I lived there.  The park was now clean and the trees trimmed so one could see the centerpiece of the park, the Moorish Kiosk, Kiosco Morisco as it is known.  As I walked toward the park, I walked in front of the Russian restaurant, Kolobok, one of my favorite places I used to eat.  It was wonderful to hear kitchen help ladies holler at me:  Que Milagro, What a Miracle: a miracle to see me because to them I had just disappeared. We chatted a while, told them I had moved and was only visiting and that I would return to eat.  I cut my conversation short because I just had to see, walk and sit at the park – like I used to do.

click photo above for slideshow

When I left Col. Santa Maria la Ribera in September 2010 the park and the Kiosk were a mess because of remodeling.  Now the park looked so fresh and inviting.  The Kiosk, built like in 1884, was now clean and had freshly painted. The old marble floor in the middle of the Kiosk was gone, replaced with a wooden floor that looked great with the pattern design.  The park has four fountains at each corner of the park and they were all spewing water high into the air – beautiful.  The benches that had been removed from around the park, because they had built concert-sitting areas, had returned too.  It made my day, it was all lovely.  After enjoying the park, I walked the neighborhood and saw my old barber and the ladies that did my sewing.  It was great seeing old faces.  I never ventured to my apartment that continues to sit empty:  Not going back.

After visiting Santa Maria, I went to La Zone Rosa where I bought a spiral notebook to write my thoughts:  I had so many things I just had to write down.  As I was sitting at a sidewalk café this 80-year old lady had some straw donkeys she wanted to sell.  She held them for me to see and told me the donkeys were for feast day of Corpus Christi.  What?  She tried to explain what the ritual was about, but I was just not getting it so she gave up:  LOL.  Well, the lady was so cute, I bought two.  I love my treasures, folk art, I bought from that lady, but what I never did find out what donkeys had to do with the feast day.

(untitled)Jesus Chairez

I left Sunday morning, June 19th – Fathers Day, for the airport, excited to be leaving the Dallas summer HEAT already breaking 100º degrees.    At the DFW airport, everything is so automated.   I stuck my passport into the self-check in.  That machine knew everything about me.  It asked if I wanted to upgrade my seat to First Class and I thought, hell why not.  I have never flown first class so I upgraded.  And wow, the service I got was wonderful: free drinks, hot nuts to snack.  They even brought a small warm wet towel to clean my hands – for lunch was being served.  Sitting in the back all those years I didn’t never know how special it was to be in a seat up front:  treated like a rich white woman – and it felt good.  I even got real eating utensils though the knife and fork were small – I guess so they couldn’t be used as weapons.

When we landed in México City, it felt kind of weird to be one of the first to get off the plane instead of being one of the last.   I made it to the immigration check ahead of all the other folks on the plane.  The immigration officer was nice and at first thought I was Mexican until I opened my mouth and spurted Spanish in my Texas twang.

Mary, my British lady friend that lives in México City was waiting for me.  She was easy to spot as I left customs because she towered over the Mexicans waiting for their arrivals.

We went to the taxi stand and the guy at the window was charging me too much, though I didn’t know, but Mary knew.   She told the guy it was too much to pay and he said no and she said yes.   Then the guy pretends to be looking at some book guide and told Mary she was correct.   As I left I told the guy, she is my bodyguard and he said a good one.

Driving through the city did not feel strange at all — in fact it felt like I never left for so long at all.  I was back on the streets I used to travel and I was with Mary, it seemed like I had just been gone a long weekend.

I made it to Mary’s apartment in Col. Vallejo, close to the Basilica, and we had Thai food for dinner.  And of course drank wine and talked.  That’s all we did was drink red wine and talk to Mary.  It was good catching up with an old friend.

Today, I get out and about and start another round of México City adventures.

Jzs