Obviously, just the few pictures in the Mexico City (2) entry are not going to be enough to demonstrate the beauty of the work of Mexico’s muralists, the painters who are responsible for the many large frescoes in several public places. From the early 1920s onwards the big three, Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco and … Read more
And then, suddenly, everything works. On our last day, we once again focussed on the murals, but this time in the museums. The most impressive collection is inside the Palacio de Bellas Artes, a building that in itself deserves a visit, because of its exquisite architecture as well as its Art Nouveau inside, an enormous … Read more
It is not that we weren’t prepared. I had read extensively on where in Mexico City we could find the murals of Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros, and what needed to be done to visit them. Not all of them are in museums, some of the most famous ones are in the National Palace – where … Read more
Time for an intermezzo. Hernan Cortes defeated the Aztec emperor Moctezuma in 1521, and was subsequently appointed governor on behalf of Spain, from then on the colonial power for the next three hundred years. Spanish success was relative: thousands of churches were constructed, hundreds of towns built. But at the beginning of the 19th century … Read more
It took us some four hours to drive from Xalapa to Mexico City, on a comfortable toll way, called ‘cuota’ here. And the dreaded traffic, arriving into town, was in fact a piece of cake, on a Saturday around lunch time. We dropped the car, and teamed up with our friends again – the same … Read more