On and off the wall

I've been sick and sick-ish for several weeks -- Wilhelmina, too -- so we've stayed pretty close to home. I went through some of Sean's computer folders and found some photos to remind me that there are walls other than the ones we've been staring at. 

Perennial leftie favorite. 

Lots of fighting...with paint. 

A lover AND a fighter. (Where have we seen this guy before?)

I think I already shared this, but it's so cool it deserves
another look. The jaguar eats your gun for lunch.

Colobri! There's a lot of ugly, sloppy graffiti on the walls,
but there's a lot of this beautiful stencil work, too.

This is across the street from our house. If you have had
a fever recently, you may have seen these, too.

Fly on the wall.

Marching stencils.

...and  NO to quasiparamilitarizacion, too I bet.

Fighting and speaking out.

When we first arrived, we saw a lot of graffiti protesting
violence against women. I heard there had been an incident
somewhere in Mexico that had prompted a lot
of outcry, and I supposed that
these stencils were part of that.

I like this one (it rhymes and I bet works great as a
chant at rallies): Neither submissive nor devoted--
woman free, beautiful, and crazy!

The hashtag #yosoy132 was a big
deal last summer; it began as a
protest against (then-candidate,
now-president) Pena Nieto.
Wikipedia explains.

Another big source of leftie outrage: genetically modified
crops. This shows corn getting an injection and
rhymes, "Without corn, there's no country."

I didn't really get the corn-country association
until we went to a show based on on
Mayan creation myths. It explained that
the first humans--the first Mexicans--were
 born from corn.

Here are a few other things seen about town.

Everyone warned us about traffickers. 

Do-it-yourself 30-second nose job!

I suppose you can also do this yourself
(give your finger a massage, I mean). It's a
good thing this product is readily available
in the pharmacy, right next to the sunscreen.

Maybe our taxi drivers have only been
pretending that they don't speak English.
(Actually, we have already been to the
Pleasure Palace; it's in Utah.)

School newspaper, in case you missed
this particular edition.

Seen in one of Don Sergio's patients' homes.

Look at the size of the family! I think there
would be even more people, if they
hadn't run out of window-room.
Eso es Mexico.

Escenarios

Scenes and shrines, enactments, collections, worlds within worlds. I won't hazard the metaphysics that underwrite Mexico's beautiful profusion, but I love it. Here are some local examples. 

Good Friday. Many of the homes had these
altars outside on the sidewalk or street.

Pine needles carpeting the ground: this is
common in churches and homes here; it's
a Mayan practice.

This man was greeting everyone with
a blessing.

Good Friday: you knew it would end this way....

On the Saturday between
Good Friday and Easter, churches will hang
and then blow up/burn  effigies of Judas. This is
a political Judas effigy, made for a contest.

Another of the political Judases displayed in
the town center. The ass is Peña Nieto; the
woman is the head of the teacher's union. (?)

When we were packing up to come here, several people mentioned (hope audible in their voices) that when we come back, we might not want to re-cram certain areas of our house (the mantel, e.g.) with so many objects (statues, medals, pictures, images, animals, toys -- all the weird little things we've picked up everywhere over the years). Perhaps we'd want to go minimal, contemporary...?

Well, I doubt it. I feel less modern than ever after our time here. And the aesthetic is not conducive. It isn't simple, spare, clean, lean, or remotely Scandinavian. It's ridiculous--in the best sense of the word. 

A taxista's dashboard. 

In the hospital's maternity ward.

In a different clinic: Dr. Baby Jesus and his toys.

In a shop window: lucha libre masks. 

In one of Don Sergio's patient's homes. I like the
way the TV is integrated.

A view of same, sans TV.

Another patient's home.

Shelf in a restaurant.

Shelf 2.

A bigger shelf, this one in el Cañon del Sumidero. Sean
took this photo from the tour boat. The guide would have
you note that the mineral-caused colors in this grotto are
 Mexico's and La Virgencita's colors: green, red, and white.
(I know: it's subtle. Gotta use the old imagination.)

The fair! Because, por favor, we desperately need more
light, color, and sound in these parts!

Oscar's friend Ricardo is a love bug, like Oscar is. At the fair
he spent his own money on one of these birds, then came
back and bought him/her a friend the next day. 

And besides the riot, some quiet.

Two little boys from next door shoved this
pajarito under the door to our house. (Ouch.)
They said it came from our garden into
their house and we should take care of
it and NOT let our cats eat it. We created
a little sanctuary on the upstairs patio.
We think it figured out the flying thing
and flew away; anyway, it was gone
after one day; so fast!

Wilhelmina at the rim of the  Sima de las Cotorras,  a
massive hole--deep and steep, no way to go down in there--
with puro jungle at the bottom. Thousands of small
green parrots live there. At dawn and dusk you can see them
spiraling in and out of their sanctuary. They are flying
away to middle school, high school...away away. So fast!