Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Tlatelolco and a Happy New Year!



We just got back on the 29th from San Antonio where we spent Christmas with James' family and the very same day we arrived he suggested that we visit a place which is historically very interesting and also very close to one of the archives he goes to (of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). This place is called Tlatelolco and it is north of the center. I knew the name because we saw a documentary earlier about a terrible massacre that happened on this big, empty square in 1968. Lots of people, many of them students died or disappeared in the violent confrontation just a few days before the Olympic games started in Mexico City.

Since the documentary discussed the space and the architecture in detail (the square is surrounded by a sea of high apartment complexes where mostly working and lower middle class people live) I was very curious to see it. What I did not expect is that this very same place is also sight of an Aztec heritage and an incredible colonial church which was built using the bricks of the Aztec pyramids. In the ancient times it was supposed to be the largest market place in Mezoamerica, and we could still see the remains of 7 different layers built on top of each other to produce larger and larger sacrificial pyramids.

The large modern square on the side of the Aztec ruin is called Plaza de las Tres Culturas to signify the coexistence of the Indian, colonial and modern/socialist architectural and cultural heritage. It is all too ironic that all three of them are heavily linked to human sacrifice, murder and bloody violence...

With this last short tale I wish everybody all the best in the coming new year!

No comments: