Peliculas Locales

This movie is the work of Paco's friend Diego Pimienta. Pretty amazing. Diego only had 5 hours to make it for some Red Bull contest in Mexico and I love it! Jennifer is so hott!

Guadalajara Day 1

Estoy aquí en Guadalajara ahora! I got here yesterday after 8 hours of bus travel. The family is really nice and the house is great!
They have a scottie dog named Bronson. Yes, hes is named after Charles. He's adorable and pretty feisty...like Charles Bronson. Paco named him Bronson because he thinks the dog looks like Charles Bronson.

Leticia is la Señora of the house. She also seems pretty feisty. She works in real estate and seems to be real no-nonsense, but not in a scary way. Her son Paco, told me she parties with their exchange students. Teaches them salsa and what not. When I went out with Paco last night she told me I had better take good care of her son because he was the only one she had.

Paco is pretty cool too. He used to do Muay Tai, like a bad ass. He took me out with him and his cousin on the Welcome to Mexico tour. They actually said that, "welcome to Mex-ee-co!", a lot last night as they proceeded to get me drunk. The first place we went to was called Wing's Army. It was basically Mojos with an American Military theme. Next time I get homesick, I'm getting some hot wings at Wing's Army. It really makes me wish I had bought a Mojos shirt to represent on this vacation...

We went to this place that served margaritas made out of a new fruit for me, a lima. Different from limón (lemon or lime), it is sweeter, a cross between an orange and a lime. Yum! After that, we went to an "underground bar". It was in a basement, but I got the impression that it was also being called an underground because it wasn't legit. People were smoking in there which is banned inside public places throughout Mexico. I danced with some girl, everyone seemed to think I dance strangely (weird huh?), and these dudes started chanting "besan! besan!" which means they wanted us to kiss. I told one of the guys we would if he kissed one of his guy friends. When he said no, I told him he must not be very comfortable with his sexual self. We left shortly thereafter.

Ok, Bronson is begging to be petted. I'm out!

La Plaza de 3 Culturas

MC and I went to Tlatelolco Plaza today. It is a very interesting place for many reasons.


First of all, the place is called the Plaza of Three Cultures because it is a city block which contains the excavated ruins of an Aztec religious center, Tlatelolco, plus a Spanish Cathedral built in 1531 by Hernan Cortes' conquistadores after they massacred the very last of the Aztecs here, then the square also houses the Mexican Department of Foreign Affairs. So think about it, there are Aztec ruins in the center of Mexico City, preserved, (have I stressed enough that Mexicans rule yet?) and a couple of days ago, Hilary Clinton was hanging out on this same block doing business.



Ok, going back to that massacre (1521), I read that so many Aztecs died fighting against the Spanish, their bodies clogged the canals. And don't get me started on the human lives sacrificed there to nature gods prior to whitey's arrival... I read today they found remains of 2 fetuses in some kind of kiln that the Aztecs probably also used to cook food in. Delicious.

The reason I wanted to visit there today was because of a more recent massacre. In 1968, just 10 days before the Summer Olympics were held in Distrito Federal, University students held a peaceful rally for Democracy (One political party ruled Mexico from 1910 until 2000 under a Democratic façade) in this very square. The Mexican military opened fire on the crowd toward the end of the rally. The whole thing was covered up by the next day; countless people died, were beaten and arrested, and many went missing. Less than 24 hours later, the square was cleaned of the blood and almost no media organizations covered the incident (Media networks were owned almost exclusively by the Government and its friends, not too far off from today). Tlatelolco October 2, 1968 was not investigated by the Mexican government until 2000, when finally, a new Presidential party under Vincente Fox was elected. If you want to read more about the Massacre check this NPR story. It has photos from the 1968 movement and more details.


What luck, in 1985 some 8,000 people died around this square when 2 large housing project complexes crumbled under the force of a huge earthquake. The government was criticized due to its delayed and insufficient aid response. This criticism helped spark real progress toward actual Democratization in Mexican government.

La Plaza de Tres Culturas has seen its share of political turmoil and gore for sure. I feel like it should be one of the most hallowed places in this city. Go there if you're ever in D.F.

Recipie for Chiles Rellenos: Cooking with Pauladina

Karla just showed us how to make chilies rellenos and they were soooooo good!

Ingredients (makes 4 or 5):
Poblano Peppers, 1 and a half tea spoons of butter, small carton of sour cream (200mL), 1 cup of milk, salt and black pepper to taste, 1 cup of pecans chopped, white/soft cheese (we used Oaxaca cheese, the best there is in Mexico!)

Skills:
*place the peppers directly to a flame...not sure if it would work on an electric stove. Turn them often until the skin is black. Not crispy black, just black. When each is done, wrap them in a cloth so as not to burn/melt countertops and then wrap again with a plastic bag to keep in the moisture.

*With the peppers cooling off, make the sauce with the butter, cream, milk, salt, pepper, and nuts by blending them well in a blender. Then, heat the mixture in a pot until it is thick being careful not to burn the dairy products ("No one likes burnt milk do they!? Do they?!")

*Rub off the burnt skin as best you can dry. Put them under warm water after that to remove the rest of the burnt stuff. It should slide off. Karla says the peppers get sticky if you get them wet right away without removing what you can dry, so get your mits dirty.

*Make a slit in the bottom 2/3s of each pepper. Take out the seeds, use water to rinse them out if you have to. DON'T TOUCH YOUR EYES OR OTHER MOIST BODILY ORIFICES AFTER DOING THIS. The seeds are what makes the pepper picante.

*Stuff the peppers with small cheese slices as much as you can while still being able to close the pepper. Close it after by spearing the opening's edges with tooth picks.

*Wrap the chilies in plastic wrap so as not to lose any moisture and heat in microwave until the cheese feels like water inside when you poke the pepper. It took ours about 2 minutes on high, but do a little at a time so you don't burn the hell out of it.

*Pour the sauce over the chilies and enjoy! They are delicious!

The whole thing took about 20 minutes but your friends will think you are a culinary genius, you genius you! Us gals did the whole thing in Spanish! We're geniuses too!!! Pomagranites aren't in season yet (Decemberish), but Karla says it tastes and looks even better if you put some on top of the sauce at the end.

I LOVE MEXICAN FOOD!


In other news...

Dia de Los Muertos 2009 is officially over in an hour and a half, but the kids were in costume from Friday until today! Here is a link to my Day of the Dead photo album. Use the slide show feature. My camera takes awesome pictures!!!

Last night Polka Madre played a show at El Centro Cultural de España. They played with Dolomites- dude looks like a taller, crazier Curtis Grimstead:

Whoah. Dolomites sang the old Lizzie Borden had an axe, gave her mother 40 whacks song, but added that she cooked her mom's tits (he called them amigas!) in garlic and her dad's huevos in paprika. If you ever have the opportunity to see this guy, do it, he puts on quite a show. He used to be in Golgol Bordello and is playing with them in D.F. while I am in Guadalajara. Que lastima!

Check this cartoon I saw on MTV Latino yesterday. Super Mosca Bonzai!


Hermana grande and I are about to head out to the cemetery for the last day of the dead. Then we might check out the Mexican Comic Book Museum in the Zocalo. Is my trip ever gonna not be awesome??

La Santa Muerte

Just got back from Tepito- its the birthday of the Santa Muerte. So amazing! There was this huge block party by her shrine and everyone was carrying around their own Santa figures for people to bless with oils, candy, money, and cigarettes. There was a bunch of people smoking weed and I guess trannies really like Saint Death because we saw a few of them all dolled up. I saw a guy shotgun his cigar in the face of people's Santa statues. The whole thing was amazing. I got a really good air-brushed baseball hat with her on it in a graveyard. It says "Santisima Muerte" on the front and "Madre Mio" on the back. Hot. I'm not sure if its kosher to wear it in Mexico. The "Culto de Santa Muerta" takes her very seriously and a gringa sporting Muerte attire may be offensive or absurd for some Mexicans.

Worship to her used to be banned by the Catholic church. Apparently she is a favorite among gangsters and other seedy types. I am lucky to be in D.F. right now because the largest group of people who worship her are here. Her shrine is near the Piratereria- the section of town with a huge market selling pirated goods. What a good day!

Tonight I am going to see Polka Madre with my sister and her friends Lorena, Jerry, y Jorge. Hells yea!

First Few Days

My Spanish is coming back quickly. Tequila helps, but I'm trying to slow down on the sauce while I'm here. Last night, Halloween, was an exception. MC and I met these guys who own the Mexico division of Skull Candy (headphones and speakers and such) and they just kept buying us mojitos, supposedly on the company dime (...their company). They were super nice, not creepy. Much of my experiences with Mexican men is that if you pay them just a little bit of attention, they follow you around the rest of the night like puppy dogs and it gets pretty frustrating. These guys were really chill and fun to talk to. One of them, Aurturo, kept dropping the word "huey" which is the same thing as "dude" more or less and I about lost it a few times. This was the first year I didn't dress in costume for Halloween, but las hermanas gringas still got in the spirit! Here are some photos of us.


Yesterday morning I went to my sister's English conversation club to see her in action. She wanted the group to talk about Dia de los Muertos and Halloween and ghosts and purgatory ect. One of her students said she hated Halloween because a few years ago, as she was putting makeup on her son for Halloween, he started throwing up blood. She took him to the emergency room and he ended up staying in the hospital for over 40 days due to some kind of infection. She said the nurses told her it was her fault her son got sick- she made him look like a demon and the spirits made him bleed. Wow. Mexican healthcare workers believe in boogeymen over science. I got a kick out of that.

I saw La Danza de los Muertos yesterday. It was rad. This guy was dancing around in a skull head looking really creepy. The way I interpreted it, he was at first confused about the fact that he was dead, but then he got really into it and seemed happy to be a badass skeleton-man. I wish I could describe it better than that. It was pretty spooky.

I went to el Museo de las Bellas Artes and saw a Goya exhibit and another exhibit by Pedro Friedberg. I never knew it, but Goya was a pretty non-conventional painter for his time. I really liked Friedberg's stuff. He studied to be an architect when he was young and decided against actually going in to the field. Instead, he drew these crazy, highly detailed and non-functional buildings with all sorts of tantric, Aztec, and even Masonic symbolism within them. His stuff kind of reminded me of Monty Python cartoons. He's also that guy who made those chairs shaped like hands so that he could cop a feel while you sit in his art work. This guy rules. Check him out. If you ever win a million dollars and want to buy me a gift, get me one of his drawings.

Enough. My head feels like someone is stabbing me in the temples. Mary Claire made pancakes. Happy Dia de los Muertos! Oh and hey, check this contradiction out real quick. Illegal aliens with green cards? If you're going to be witty, think it through a little. Orale.