dieciséis de septiembre
Mexico City
Susan and I arrived Thursday evening to a heavy rain shower, just at the start of the celebrations for Mexican Independence day. The holiday starts the evening before with the president of Mexico and State Governors repeating the “grito”, the cry for independence from Spain that Padre Hidalgo gave 201 years ago. From what we saw on TV the rain showers didn't dampen the enthusiasm of the people.

Today was the big military parade down the Paseo de La Reforma. It was over two hours long with thousands of soldiers, sailors and air force members marching. It was the longest strictly military parade ever seen, with tanks and guns and armored vehicles of all kinds. Several of the military academies marched in old fashioned traditional uniforms from the 19th century. There were canine units, air force units each with their own live eagle as a mascot, horseback units and commando units in camouflage. We were impressed by the integration of women into all of the different units including special forces and parachute battalions, marching along side of the male soldiers.
Despite all their problems the Mexican people are proud and patriotic, justifiably so. There were flags and banners everywhere, and cheering as the various units marched past, and lots of shouting “Viva Mexico!” “Viva!”.
After the parade we walked down to Chapultepec park . It was really crowded with families enjoying the holiday and picnicking. All the museums were closed but we wanted to go to the Chapultepec castle where “los Niños Héroes” from the military academy fought the United States Army that invaded Mexico in the 1840's. There were long lines so we gave up on that and went for a walk to find some lunch and eventually ended up back in our hotel. Mexico City is very european and it's pleasant to walk along the great avenues in Mexico City, everything is so grand and large scale.
We're staying at a very small scale hotel, Casa Gonzales, just a few blocks off the La Reforma. It's a quiet neighborhood, and the hotel is made up of several old houses that have been combined. The original families were well to do and their art work and furniture is still here. There are nice patios and gardens and they serve meals family style if you want. We'll be here till Sunday when we move out to a business hotel near where we will be working. It's clean and efficient but clearly lacks the charm of this place.
Tomorrow should be fun. We're going early to see Casa Azul, Diego Rivera's and Frieda Kahlo's home in a neighborhood called Coyoacan. It was a small town with a plaza and parks that was surrounded by Mexico City, but still retains its charm. After the visit to Casa Azul we are going to meet a friend from Amextra whom we will be working with and have lunch with her there in Coyoacan. Then later in the day we will get together with Susan's niece Amy English who lives here in Mexico City and works for Mercy Corps. They have a new daughter whom we haven't seen, so that will be nice.
I'm looking forward to meeting with them and starting to talk about our work projects here in the next weeks.