First, a clarification. In yesterday’s blog post I wrote about the tunnels of the pyramid in Cholula, imagining they were built for some sort of ritual purpose, but some reading on Wikipedia today tells me that in fact they were excavated by archaeologists. I am joined, I’m sure, by the archaeologists of the future, post global civilisational collapse, who will assume that that they had a ritual purpose.
This morning we went to Puebla, the main city of the region. The historic centre was built by the Spaniards and is in strongly European style. There are tall imposing buildings, wide boulevards, squares and tree. An immense cathedral dominates. Its main altar is the altar of the Spanish kings, which tells you what you need to know: it’s a monument to empire and religious dominance. It was impressive and beautiful but left me cold.
But that was later in the afternoon: our first stop was to view one of the only Cinco de Mayo celebrations in Mexico. This commemorates the victory of the Mexicans over the French at the Battle of Puebla (hence its prominence in this city) but in the US is rather like St Patrick’s Day, as promoted by (I understand) Corona beer. The battle is commemorated here by a parade, which featured tanks, bands, floats, etc, seemingly every school in Mexico had sent a battalion of students in costume with their teachers marching, also in uniform, behind them. Of the floats the most impressive was crowned by a twirling horse with the Mexican hero Zapata on it: a young man wearing an immense false moustache. The runner up had a sort of ferris wheel with four young men in feathered head-dresses fixed belly-down at the spokes so they rotated with it. Actually, maybe that was the best float. Every now and then scantily clad women on stilts walked past; once, a helicopter flew overhead with people hanging out, waving at the crowds.
I tried a mole poblano for lunch. It was pleasant enough but I am yet to be converted to the ways of the mole or indeed to tell the difference between one and another. This one was, perhaps, lighter than others I’d had.
In the afternoon we also popped into the museum which was (as seems to be the way things are done in this country) excellent, with great permanent and temporary exhibitions, good interpretation and guidance, and a beautifully designed and maintained building. Although it was a bit like a labyrinth: at every corner we were firmly guided to the next room and the only way to get out seemed to be to go all the way through. Towards the end, I did feel a bit of claustrophobic panic, not unlike in the tunnels yesterday, so we rushed past the last few rooms (a shame, as it was a very good show of contemporary Latin American art) and escaped for some churros before returning to Cholula.