Anthropology and Frida Museums - Friday - Jan. 27

 

We started the day exploring the Zona Rosa (Pink Zone),  which is the gay area of Mexico City. 
I thought it was very discreet and I would never had guessed this is the gay area of the city, until David told me. 

We took the double decker bus and appreciated the financial district of Mexico City as well.

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY

FROM WIKIPEDIA: The National Museum of Anthropology is a national museum of Mexico. It is the largest and most visited museum in Mexico. Located in the area between Paseo de la Reforma and Mahatma Gandhi Street within Chapultepec Park in Mexico City, the museum contains significant archaeological and anthropological artifacts from Mexico's pre-Columbian heritage, such as the Stone of the Sun (or the Aztec calendar stone) and the Aztec Xochipilli statue.

The museum (along with many other Mexican national and regional museums) is managed by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (National Institute of Anthropology and History), or INAH. It was one of several museums opened by Mexican President Adolfo López Mateos in 1964.

The space is so beautiful and the weather was amazing, again.

We visited only two of the four exhibits, because its so huge and rich.

Now I have a reason to come back. 

Wanna play a game? If you win, you die!
It's Ball Game Goal, Chichen Itza.

"The object of the Mayan ball game was to drive a rubber ball through the rings high on the ball court side walls. The ball could only be hit with the elbow, waist, and hip. The players wore leather pads to protect those areas of their bodies. The game was quite rough and many players were hurt or killed."

TEOTIHUACAN AND AZTEC 

FROM: http://museu.ms/museum/details/16762/national-museum-of-anthropology

When you enter the museum, the rooms on the right hand side show the cultures that developed in Central Mexico and are organized in chronological order. Start on the right and make your way around counter-clockwise to get a feel for how the cultures changed over time, culminating in the Mexica (Aztec) exhibit, full of monumental stone sculptures, of which the most famous is the Aztec Calendar, commonly known as the "Sun Stone."

For my little Sofia, who is fascinated - and super sacred - of snakes. 

"The serpent was a very important social and religious symbol, revered by the Maya. Maya mythology describes serpents as being the vehicles by which celestial bodies, such as the sun and stars, cross the heavens. The shedding of their skin made them a symbol of rebirth and renewal."

This is the most important and one of the biggest pieces of this exhibition: The Pietra del Sol.

FROM WIKIPEDIA: The Aztec sun stone is a late post-classic Mexica sculpture housed in the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City, and is perhaps the most famous work of Mexica sculpture. It measures 3.6 metres (12 ft) in diameter and 98 centimetres (39 in) thick, and weighs 24,590 kg (54,210 lb). Shortly after the Spanish conquest, the monolithic sculpture was buried in the Zócalo, the main square of Mexico City. It was rediscovered on 17 December 1790 during repairs on the Mexico City Cathedral. Following its rediscovery, the sun stone was mounted on an exterior wall of the cathedral, where it remained until 1885. Early scholars initially thought that the stone was carved in the 1470s, though modern research suggests that it was carved some time between 1502 and 1521.

For my Julia, who is really into fashion! :)

Stamps made with clay.

Unbelievable details of the braids. 

The pieces show their daily habits, like what to wear and domestics activities. 

Oldest comic book of this civilization.

MAYANS

FROM: http://museu.ms/museum/details/16762/national-museum-of-anthropology

On the left of the entrance are halls devoted to other cultural areas of Mexico. The Oaxaca and Maya rooms are also very impressive.
Several of the rooms have recreations of archeological scenes: murals in the Teotihuacan exhibit and tombs in the Oaxaca and Maya rooms. This gives the chance to see the pieces in the context in which they were found.
The museum is built around a large courtyard, which is a nice place to sit when you want to take a break. The museum is big and the collection is extensive, so be sure to set aside enough time to do it justice.

Mayan artificial cranial deformation practices

"Both the Mayans and the Inca shaped their children's skulls, as did the Choctaw and the Chinookan tribes in what is now the United States. Their reasons must have been the same, to allow for the child to fit into the fabric of their societies, and to signify class. For the Maya, it also held a religious significance."

A replica of Mayans temples.
Impressive scale!

I am 5 feet tall, so you have an idea.

The details! Always telling a story.

Tomb of Pakal. 

How did they move this massive piece of stone covering the tomb????

FROM https://www.tourblink.com/nationalmuseumofanthropologyofmexicocity
1300 years ago an entourage accompanied the mortal remains of the Mayan ruler K'inich Janaab 'Pakal to be deposited in a crypt, inside the Temple of the Inscriptions, in the ancient city of Palenque, in Chiapas. This museum has a magnificent replica of this tomb. The hieroglyphic inscriptions of Palenque relate that the Mayan dignitary, also known as Pakal II, died and "entered the road" on August 28, 683 AD. However, his repose was interrupted a millennium later by the Mexican archaeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier, who after four years of intense excavations, discovered the burial chamber on Sunday, June 12, 1952. As guards, nine warriors modeled in stucco surrounded the extraordinary gravestone sculpted on a monolithic slab of approximately seven tons; 2.20 meters wide by 3.60 meters long. In the 50s it was elevated by the archeologist Ruz Lhuillier to explore the interior of the tomb where the remains of the ruler rest. In 2004, Pakal's tomb was closed to the public as a conservation measure, since the massive entrance caused the increase of the temperature and the humidity of the space.

The museum has some magnificent replicas of templos in an outside area, making us travelling through times. 

This is one of my favourite pieces.
Simple and strong.

The name of tis huge park is Chaultepec, which means  Hill of Grasshoppers in  Nahuatl, the language spoken by the Azrecs. 

FROM WIKIPEDIA: Chapultepec, more commonly called the "Bosque de Chapultepec" (Chapultepec Forest) in Mexico City, is one of the largest city parks in Mexico, measuring in total just over 686 hectares (1,695 acres). Centered on a rock formation called Chapultepec Hill, one of the park's main functions is as an ecological space in Greater Mexico City. It is considered the first and most important of Mexico City's "lungs".

The area encompassing modern-day Chapultepec has been inhabited and considered a landmark since the pre-Columbian era, when it became a retreat for Aztec rulers. In the colonial period, Chapultepec Castle was built here, eventually becoming the official residence of Mexican heads of state. It would remain so until 1940, when it was moved to another part of the park called Los Pinos.

Bosque de Chapultepec is divided into four sections, with the first section being the oldest and most visited. This section contains most of the park's attractions, including the castle, the Chapultepec Zoo, the Museum of Anthropology, and the Rufino Tamayo Museum, among others. It receives an estimated 15 million visitors per year. This prompted the need for major rehabilitation efforts that began in 2005 and ended in 2010. The government has authorized the construction of business, offices, and big parking lots for cars.

COYOACAN

FROM WIKIPEDIA: Coyoacán is a borough (demarcación territorial) in Mexico City. The former village is now the borough's "historic center". The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means "place of coyotes", when the Aztecs named a pre-Hispanic village on the southern shore of Lake Texcoco dominated by the Tepanec people. Against Aztec domination, these people welcomed Hernán Cortés and the Spanish, who used the area as a headquarters during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire and made it the first capital of New Spain between 1521 and 1523.

Iglesia de San Juan Bautista

FROM WIKIPEDIA: The Parish of San Juan Bautista in Coyoacán , is a temple of Catholic worship located in Villa Coyoacán . It is also an emblem of the town itself and a symbol of the beauty of the New Spanish Baroque .

FROM WIKIPEDIA: Barely eight years after the consummation of the conquest, Hernán Cortés generously decided to grant a fairly large piece of land to a group of Franciscan friars. This property, according to the chronicler Salvador Novo , was made up of a cement floor, a red quarry façade, carved volcanic stone walls, and even a shrine decorated with gold plate.

Precisely on this shrine, the monks built in 30 years (1522-1552) the Convent, the temple and the garden of San Juan Bautista, in what covered an area of ​​almost 20,000 m ² of what is currently the park of Coyoacán .

FROM WIKIPEDIA: The village and later municipality of Coyoacán remained completely independent of Mexico City through the colonial period into the 19th century. In 1857, the area was incorporated into the then Federal District when this district was expanded. In 1928, the borough was created when the Federal District was divided into sixteen boroughs. The urban sprawl of Mexico City reached the borough in the mid-20th century, turning farms, former lakes, and forests into developed areas, but many of the former villages have kept their original layouts, plazas, and narrow streets and have conserved structures built from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. This has made the borough of Coyoacán, especially its historic center, a popular place to visit on weekends.

These buildings were from the beginning of the colonization, in the 1500s.

Lunch was in this amazing food market called Mercado Publico de a Coyoacán.

The place is super clean and has a great atmosphere.

Huaraches del Pastor. Delicious!

The coyotes and water, symbols of the neighbour in the main square name Jardin Centenario.

FRIDA KHALO MUSEUM

Now, finally, the most anticipated attraction of this trip: The Casa Azul, or The Blue House, where one of the strongest women of our times was born, lived and died.  It's hard to put on words the resilience and sensitiveness of  Frida Khalo. All my respect for this woman an her history.



I made the mistake of not booking before the visit online and found out in the hard way that tickets are sold out days and maybe weeks in advance. I had to pay three times more for a private tour, in order to get access to the house. I don't regret it, though, because I got a tour of the Coyacán neighbourhood, a tour of the Blue House, a permit to photograph inside (this is extra money) and a lovely tea afterwards in a local coffee shop, plus a great chat with our tour guide. A once in a lifetime experience. And my friend David got to come with me! :)  

The entrance is already a trip into her life and death.

FROM WIKIPEDIA: Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by the country's popular culture, she employed a naïve folk art style to explore questions of identity, postcolonialism, gender, class, and race in Mexican society. Her paintings often had strong autobiographical elements and mixed realism with fantasy. In addition to belonging to the post-revolutionary Mexicayotl movement, which sought to define a Mexican identity, Kahlo has been described as a surrealist or magical realist. She is known for painting about her experience of chronic pain.

The must taken photo.

Right at the beginning of the exhibit, we are inundated with her pain and struggles. 

This painting shows her desire to become a mom, which never happened and the sorrow of losing a baby.

The same pain is described here in a symbolic scene of one of her spontaneous abortions - this one in the Henry Ford hospital in Detroit, where she briefly lived with husband Diego Riviera. 

She was the diva of symbolism.
This paint  says so much about her struggles, political views, way of live, concerns, pains.

This was the last painting she did in life.
She died shortly after this, at age 47, in July, 13 1954. 

VIVA LA VIDA!

She wore openly and bravely her political views.

A gift from Picasso: an earring.

An orthopaedic boot, she wore after recovering from her terrible accident. Tiny feet, like mine. She was also 5 feet tall.

Although she came from a rich family, Frida tried to live a simple life.
Her clothes options were inspired in the indigenous women of Mexico, which caused a discomfort in the people from the upper society at the time.

I love how so many artists still get inspiration from her. 

This piece was designed by French fashion icon Jean Paul Gaultier, inspired in Friday's famous painting: La Columna Rota.

FROM WIKIPEDIA: The Broken Column (La Columna Rota in Spanish) is an oil on masonite painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, painted in 1944 shortly after she had spinal surgery to correct on-going problems which had resulted from a serious traffic accident when she was 18 years old. The original is housed at the Museo Dolores Olmedo in Xochimilco, Mexico City, Mexico.

"Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?"

The famous art and quote , after Frida had to ampute a foot due to a sickness.

Her medical needs. Lots of those instruments are featured in her art.

The beautiful and peaceful outside garden.

Do you think I feel happy here?

The view from Frida's room.

Her studio and library and her last wheelchair.

The kitchen, where she made made the decision to use local simple kitchen ware made with clay, like the native people use.

She couldn't resist the urge to turn everything in colourful art.

She appreciated the art of photograph very much. Her father was a professional photographer. 

Here, she is posing for a very controversial photo nude at the time.

This is the bed she spent a long time recovering from her accident. 

Her father put a mirror on top of her bed, so she could look at herself. 

That's when she made many of her various self portraits, at a very young age.

On her bed, a death mask of Frida.

Her ashes remain in this house, where she was born, lived and died. 

Birth: July 6, 1907 (my little Sofia shares the same birthday)
Death: July 13, 1954

She lived to 47 years old (my age at the moment).

A little fun with Gabi Khalo and David Riviera. :)

Diego built the replica of the Teotihuacan Pyramids in their garden.

The indigenous cultures were  also very present in Frida's art.

The exhilarating tour ended at this local cafe.

Thank you, Fernando, our local guide for such an enriching and soul warming experience!

We ended the day with a wonderful dinner at the restaurant Centenario 107 where I finally met lovely Gloria. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of such a delightful evening, but I will keep the memory saved in my heart and will always be grateful for Gloria's and David's hospitality.