This is a different post from the ones intended for this blog, nevertheless I felt driven to include a post about my beloved city especially after the recent events happening in it.
It has passed more than a century since the last time Mexico City had to be "shut down" because of a disease. I have never lived anything like this and never thought I ever would, but inspite of the seriousness of what an unknown infectious virus means in a city of 28 million inhabitants, I am also concerned about the image being portrayed of our capital city throughout the world. Aside from the news broadcasted during the last year of the fight against mexican drug cartels, we now have to see our city portrayed in the international news as a virus hazard. I was particularly disturbed at the views and images taken by CNN international of different places in my city, I mean, couldn't they find uglier places? No wonder why whenever we mexicans travel abroad we are frequently viewd either "to tall, to educated, to solvent..." We obviously don't fit the image they have in their minds.
The pictures included in this post belong to my good friend Paolo from Italy, who by a glimpse missed out on visiting Mexico City because his tour of Mexico did not contemplate it. (!!!) I am glad that he gave me the chance to be surprised by showing him what Mexico City is. The above image is the main square of Mexico City, named "Zocalo". After the Red Square in Moscow, it is the second largest square in the world. Its beauty not only resides that it is the heart of my city, but also because of the immense history that it has where you can find ruins of the aztec pyramids with one of the best prehispanic museums in my country "El Museo del Templo Mayor", but also the Cathedral or "Catedral Metropolitana" built between the 1500's and 1600's, right after the Spanish Conquest.
The next image is the university's central library (in fact one of the three similar in dimension) that the UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico), my university, has on campus, and it is home for more than 400 thousand books. This picture was taken late at night when it is light up to show the incredible mosaic decoration of its walls.
This is just a very little glimpse to let you know that we are much more than drug cartels, poverty, illegal immigrants to the US, dead women in Juarez, and the latest, swine virus.
Thanks for reading.
