Popular CDMX Tour - Art Scenes

CDMX

Popular

During the Porfiriato and “Mexican Miracle” (1940s-70s) millions of farmers and europeans refugees migrated to the capital looking for opportunities; transforming Mexico City into a chaotic colorful metropolis that absorbed the ancient lake and the towns around it — but not everything it’s lost and you can go back to the rural days of Frida Kahlo.

Time period: 1910-now

Movie/book: Pedro Infante or Maria Felix movies/Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo

Soundtrack: Angeles Azules/Chavela Vargas’ music

Fashion: white and black outfit, guayabera, plus a mimbre hat

Budget:

Joaquin Palacios Roji: Plano de la Ciudad de México para la Guía Roji; CDMX, 1930

Gonzalo Zepeda: Urban Zone; CDMX, 1929

This tour would take you throughout the south of the city: where you can find the remnants of the lake of Xochimilco with its trajineras and chinampas; plus the old town of Coyoacán where rich families built their casonas to escape from the bustling industrial city center. The area is characterized by: colonial architecture, colorful streets with electrical wires going in all directions and handcraft markets. After the Mexican independence the Chichimec towns of: Tacubaya, Mixcoac, Coyoacán and Xochimilco were the villages far from the city where the elite had their haciendas (country side mansions with farms and stables) along side indigenous communities that embraced a more traditional Iifestyle. One of these elite rural enclaves that has been preserved is San Angel with its historical churches, cobble stone streets and mansions. After the Mexican revolution the urban fabric of the city got expanded through the valley reaching these little towns fueled by the massive migration from the provincia into the capital. Economic and political growth got centralized in the city thanks to the new ruling party, el PRI: the far right political party who governed the country for 71 years. The creative burst after the revolution gave us the golden age of Mexican Cinema, where cultural staples like mariachi, tequila and the charro got popularized through black and white movies that glamorized the classist, dramatic, family oriented but machista Mexican society. On the streets it was a period were Mexicans started looking at their ancient past with curiosity and dignity; and another period of cultural mestizaje bursted again in the form of fashion, music and art. Designers like Ramon Valdiosera, composers like Candelario Huízar and José Moncayo plus muralist like Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco are the main examples of this new national spirit (but sadly rejecting its Spanish past and promulgating the post colonial victim mentality of “we got conquered and sacked by Spain”). Artist like Miguel Covarrubias and Frida Kahlo reached international stardom; the first one designing the covers of magazines like Vanity Fair and the latter appearing on the cover of French Vogue. After the 50s the area got even more urbanized: underground canals replaced the rivers, people started driving cars instead of riding horses, and the farmlands got replaced by DYI homes creating the chaotic current urban landscape. Today Coyoacán is undergoing a process of gentrification with concept stores and instagramable restaurants opening up in renovated

colonial houses; bringing new jobs but killing the local/town vibes. The tour suggest spending the morning in Xochimilco with a brunch on top of a trajinera; then go to Coyoacán to visit La casa azul, a handcrafts museum and lunch in a market during the afternoon; and to end the day shopping at Mercado Artesanal Mexicano plus dinner in a cultural center.