Chapter X: Getting Acquainted with Mexico City

THE only train out of Uruapan left long before daylight. There was such a crowd of peons about the tiny waist-high ticket window that by the time I got my ticket I felt as if I had played through a championship football game. After traveling for an hour or two across a land of cornfields pink with cosmos flowers, the train began to climb. It went up in great loops to a high station from which I had a wonderful view, and then raced down the other side to beautiful Lake Pátzcuaro. The town of the same name is very old, and lazy, and delightful. The grass grows up between the cobblestones of the streets, but no one seems to care. The people look and act as if they were asking, “What is the use of doing to-day what we can put off until to-morrow?” This philosophy of life seems, to keep them happy, but most of us would hardly be contented to imitate them.

On the edge of Pátzcuaro is a hill called Calvary, the summit reached by a steep and stony trail along which are fourteen “stations of the cross.” The pious people of this region often go up there to pray. From that height the landscape with its mountains and plains looks like a huge brown sun-faded tapestry. In the center, as if it were a great ragged hole in the fabric, lies Lake Pátzcuaro. Sandy promontories and tongues of mountains give it a very strange shape. On the shore of the lake, a few miles from Pátzcuaro town, lies what is left of the ancient capital of the Tarascan Indians.

Tzintzuntzán and Morelia

Tzintzuntzán was the residence of the chief of the Tarascan kingdom of Michoacán, which was not conquered until ten years after Montezuma’s empire fell. To reach it I started out early one morning, while Pátzcuaro was still blanketed with fog. On the way I met long processions of Tarascan Indians with red pottery, of every size from cups to immense water jars, carried in nets on the backs of horses, donkeys, men, and women. Even small children carried loads. Here and there I picked up shining black obsidian, a hard stone used in olden times in place of steel. Some of the pieces were in the form of arrowheads and crude knives.

I had hoped to have a swim in Lake Pátzcuaro. But though the trail often touched the shore, this was so muddy that I should have had a mud bath trying to get in or out of the clear water.

Tzintzuntzán was once an important city, but even the splendid ruins which travelers saw there a hundred years ago have almost disappeared. Now it is really only a poor Indian village, with pigs roaming in the cobble-paved or muddy streets. The bells of the ancient church are hung in near-by trees so that they will be less likely to be shaken down by earthquakes. Inside the church there is a picture, supposed to have been painted by the great artist Titian, which is famous the world over. A queer out-of-the-way place to find a masterpiece!

In the church of the little old town of Tzintzuntzán, former capital
of an important Indian empire, is this famous painting, said to be
by the great Italian painter Titian.
]

The modern capital of Michoacán is the city of Morelia. It lies in a broad rolling plain, 6,200 feet above the sea. Across the town stretches an ancient aqueduct, some of its high arches covered with masses of purple bougainvillea. High above everything else stand the two beautiful towers of the cathedral. Morelia is warm for all its height, and brown with dust, while the country about it is almost treeless. If it were not for _pulque_, the city might be as splendid as Guadalajara, for the region is very fertile. As a matter of fact, the people are so slow and backward that Michoacán is often called “the torpid state.”

The stone chapel erected on the spot where Maximilian, the Austrian
archduke who tried to be emperor of Mexico, was shot by order of the
Mexican president Juárez.
]

On to Mexico City

The railroads from Morelia to Mexico City make a great half-circle through the candy-city of Celaya and the opal-town of Querétaro. The latter is famous as the place where Maximilian was captured and ordered shot by Benito Juárez. Out on a bare stony hillock at the edge of town where the ill-fated emperor faced a firing squad, is a stone chapel dedicated to him. There are fields of corn all about it, as if it were no more famous than any other spot in Mexico.

Photo by Hugo Brehme, Mexico City

The great Spanish aqueduct that brings water to the city of Querétaro.
The huge spiny cactus leaves in the foreground are the kind on which
grows the tuna or cactus apple.
]

At Querétaro I caught a south-bound express train. We zigzagged up through bare, stony country to reach the higher plateau of Mexico City. There were still fields of maguey in long rows, with men gathering _pulque_ in pigskin bags. But the maguey was the only green to be seen, for the great cornfields had dried up that year for lack of summer rain.

I should have preferred to enter Anáhuac, as the Aztecs called the Valley of Mexico in which they built their capital, during the day. But by the time we reached the highest point on the line, 8,237 feet above the sea, the red sun was sinking behind the great peaks ahead of us. The weather was like that of late October in our northern states, and almost the only vegetation was scrub oak. When we reached Tula, ancient capital of the Toltecs, it was black night. Even so, the light of the train gave me glimpses of the great cut in the hills by which modern engineers drained the ancient valley of Anáhuac. The train raced on down into the valley, and soon I found myself struggling with a mob of passengers at Buena Vista Station in the City of Mexico.

In the Mexican Capital

In 1925 Mexico City celebrated its sixth centennial. It was founded in 1325, almost three centuries before the first English settlement in North America. I have already told how, according to the legend, the Aztecs saw an eagle perched on a cactus and holding a rattlesnake in its claws, and there built the city they called Tenochtitlan. Thus the capital of Montezuma was founded more than a hundred and fifty years before Columbus crossed the Atlantic, and nearly two centuries before Cortés landed in Mexico. The Spaniards tore down most of the Aztec buildings, but they built their own capital on the same spot.

Mexico City is 7,347 feet (nearly a mile and a half) above the sea, yet it was built on a swamp, much of which has now been drained. It stands in a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains. The snow-clad peaks of Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl seem to reach into the sky almost above it. Mexico City has about the same population as Pittsburgh. It is the only really large city in Mexico. Guadalajara, the next in size, has about as many people as Albany, N. Y.

The principal thoroughfares of the Aztec capital radiated from a central point, an immense square in which towered the temple of Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec Mars or god of war. This main _plaza_, now called the Zócalo (an Arabic name brought to Spain by the Moors centuries ago) still contains the main religious building of Mexico, for the great cathedral takes the place of the old _teocalli_. The people to-day worship on the same spot where their ancestors watched the dreadful Aztec priests perform sacrifices. This is the oldest cathedral in North America, having been built between 1573 and 1657. Its walls form a cross 426 by 206 feet.

All about the Zócalo are government buildings flying the Mexican flag, which is red, white and green, and bears the eagle-and-rattlesnake coat of arms. We see many soldiers near these buildings. They look rather boyish and poorly disciplined compared to our soldiers. Military service, by the way, is compulsory in Mexico. Every young man in the country is supposed to serve either in the active army or in the national guard; but many youths manage to get out of it. Among the government offices we find the telegraph department as well as the post office, for in Mexico, as in continental Europe, the government handles telegrams as well as mail. New buildings are still being added by the government. The Legislative Palace on the Plaza de la República will cost millions of dollars. All Latin-American countries have a tendency to spend a great deal on their capitals and little in their provinces.

Underwood & Underwood

The Zócalo, Mexico City’s great central square, on which front the
Cathedral and other important buildings.
]

Although Mexico City is large and modern, with inhabitants of many nationalities, few of its business buildings are more than three or four stories high. Of churches, there are fifty or more. All, except a big American Episcopal church and a few small ones of other denominations, are Roman Catholic.

The principal streets are broad, well paved, brightly lighted and clean. There is an excellent electric street-car service. This will carry us along beautiful _paseos_ (raised roads lined with double rows of old trees) through the _colonias_ (rich suburbs) out into the country. There are many automobiles also. As the drivers are reckless, and the traffic rules and police are more lenient than in the United States, we must be very careful in crossing a street.

Stores and Streets

Looking across Mexico City one sees no skyscrapers, though there are
some large buildings. Most of the houses have flat roofs, which are
often used in the evening as family sitting rooms.
]

Most stores in Mexico City are open from eight to one and from three to seven. During the two hours that they are closed, the town seems almost dead. As everyone goes home for lunch and a _siesta_, or afternoon nap, the traffic is very heavy four times a day, instead of merely morning and evening. In front of many of the stores are _portales_, arcades. Foreign as well as Mexican goods are sold. The latest men’s hats from New York or London may be seen in the same window with immense plush or leather _sombreros_. There are bright yellow _sombreros_, trimmed with silver, costing a hundred dollars; there are huge gray hats, hats as green as the hillsides of Ireland, hats weighing several pounds and worth their weight in silver. The wealthy men of Mexico, especially those who ride horseback in the country, think they are not well dressed unless they wear the most huge, elaborate, and costly hats.

Photo by Hugo Brehme, Mexico City

“Fifth of February Street” in Mexico City. It is so narrow that the
sun shines into it for only a few minutes each day.
]

Many of the stores have fancy or romantic names. The sign on the front almost never gives the owner’s name or any hint as to the kind of goods sold inside. A clothing store belonging to José Caballero may be called “The Eden of the Poor Man,” or “The Ideal of the Future.” You must look inside a store to see whether it sells vegetables or pottery, and inquire of a clerk if you wish to know who owns it. Yet the shop names are easy to remember, and are a kind of trademark.

In the stores all the people, except high-class ladies, smoke if they wish. Even the clerks do so when waiting on customers. Mexican cigarettes being very strong, the air in a busy store soon becomes hard to breathe. In all but the best department stores and foreign-style shops there is bargaining over prices. A clerk who can sell something for more than the fair price gets a part of the extra profit. But we have not always had fixed prices in our own American stores.

In Mexico, and the other countries south of the United States, the streets sometimes bear names that seem fantastic to us. We would think it very strange to find a “Fourth of July Street” or “Labor Day Avenue” in an American city. But our southern neighbors often name a street for their independence day, or for some other holiday or saint’s day. Another interesting feature in Mexico City is the “Mount of Piety.” This is a municipal pawnshop, where those who need money can borrow it at one per cent a month interest by pawning what they can spare.

City Houses

We have seen the _adobe_ huts that Indians and peons build in the colder parts of Mexico; we shall see reed and branch hovels in the warmer parts of the country; and you will recall that in passing through Laredo we glanced at some typical houses. (Chapter II.) It will be interesting to explore a better-class house in Mexico City. It is two stories high. The stone or mud-brick walls are three or four feet thick, and tinted a bright color. The inside walls are not papered, but are painted or kalsomined. About the _patio_ or courtyard, which is the daytime living room, is a tile-floored, covered walk or half-open corridor. The front door is a heavily-built, metal-studded affair, secured with enormous iron bars and huge padlocks.

The great Cathedral which faces the central square in Mexico City is
one of the oldest, largest and finest churches in the New World.
]

The owner lives on the second floor. The ground floor is occupied by the servants and may contain a stable or garage; or it may be rented as a store. The family rooms open on a balcony overlooking the _patio_. The ceilings are very high. The roof, thick, heat-proof, is flat and paved with bricks. This style was brought to Spain by the Moors of sunny northern Africa. The roof is used as a playground and is the place where the family gathers in the evening. As a flower garden it rivals the _patio_ below. A parapet guards the roof’s edge, but neighbors may step from roof to roof. Water runs off through tiles that project beyond the walls, emptying directly into the street or the _patio_. During a shower, if you are not careful, you may find yourself beneath a small Niagara.

Photo by Hugo Brehme, Mexico City

This splendid old house in Mexico City was built by Rodrigo de Vivero
y Velasco about 1596. Its many _azulejos_ or colored tiles have made
it known as the Tile House. The builder’s father once said to him,
“My son, you will never build a house of tiles.” He meant that the
boy would never succeed. However, the young man did prosper and
built this residence which is now the Jockey Club.
]

The house, no matter how fine in other respects, has few modern conveniences. The brick floors are very cold in the morning, though they may be warm enough by noon. Sometimes there are rugs, but very rarely carpets. In Mexico City even millionaires seldom have their houses well heated. There are probably not a hundred homes in all Mexico with furnaces or other central heating plants. Since we Americans often go to the opposite unhealthful extreme of over-heating, the Mexican way seems especially uncomfortable to us. An American family who wish to live in Mexico as they do at home have almost to reconstruct their house to install stoves, perhaps running pipes out the windows. Few Mexican houses have chimneys.

Mexicans Have No “Servant Problem”

Servants have always been so plentiful in Mexico that only the poorer Mexican women ever do any cooking, though they are all excellent workers with a needle. Cookstoves are usually crude, even in the best houses. They are often made of mud-bricks, with small charcoal holes to cook over. As the servants will not use American ranges or other “new-fangled” things, the old style still prevails even among the rich.

Servants in Mexico are much like those in China. Four or five can be had at the cost of one American servant. As a matter of fact, one _has_ to have four or five servants. The cook will do no washing or sweeping, and even the _mozo_, or “man of all work,” has very limited duties. The _mozo_ usually serves as _portero_, a combination of doorman, guard, and janitor. He sleeps, often on the floor, just inside the big front door. Knowing that the _mozo_ will open the door, the family, when they go out for the evening, do not have to carry any of the huge old Spanish keys.

Unlike the custom in China, Mexican servants are given either their food or an allowance of money for board. The cook often feeds all her own family from the household supplies of her employer. The lady of the house usually does not go to market, but sends her cook or another servant. Just as in China, the servant entrusted with this duty often “squeezes” a few cents on each purchase; that is, he takes a little commission for himself.

Mexican 20-peso bill, issued in 1914 by the Provisional Government
from its headquarters in Vera Cruz. Notice that although the word
“peso” is used, the dollar sign is given interlocked with “20.”
]