Chapultepec: Mexico City's urban forest
City parks were not an important part of my life when I was a child. I was raised in the country on a farm which, for all practical purposes, was a park. Growing older, though, I learned to appreciate ...
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Mexico's lucha libre: Street art in a Coyoacan museum
A new exhibit running through January at the Museo de las Culturas Populares in Coyoacan, Mexico City, celebrates the "wow" factor of the wrestling phenomenon known the world over as lucha libre (free ...
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Christmas in Mexico City
The flash of skate blades against gleaming ice. A cold-edged wind that creeps into your bones. The sharp, metallic smell of snow in the air. Winter.
These are the images that most of us connect to our...
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Mexico City's Revolution Monument: Monumento a la Revolucion
An icon in Mexico City, the Revolution Monument or Monumento a la Revolución is also known as the Arch of the Revolution. It is located on Plaza de la Republica between downtown Reforma and Insurgente...
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Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes
While perfect storms have been ravaging parts of America north of the Mexican border, Mexico itself — and especially Mexico City — is currently enjoying idyllic weather, a veritable Indian summer a...
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Mexico City legends: City of ghosts
Are there ghosts in Mexico City? Built on the ruins of the grand Aztec City of Tenochtitlan, its history can be traced from the prehistoric past. Legends of murder most foul suggest ghosts abound in this ancient city with its long and troubled history.
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Mexico's lucha libre: Dreams of professional wrestling
It's surely one of the coolest jobs in the world — donning a glittery mask and playing superhero or villain every night, flying around a packed arena. These are the men and women who aim to make thei...
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Mexico City Airport
Mexico City report
Mexico City: Forward looking city with a pre-Hispanic past
What can one say about Mexico City? It's the capital of Mexico, the biggest metropolis in the Western Hemisphere and the world's eighth-richest city. It's also a first-rate tourist attraction.
Locat...
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Down and Delirious in Mexico City: Memoir by Daniel Hernandez digs deep into youth culture
Mexican-American author Daniel Hernandez has hit a fresh nail on an old head by exploring different youth cultures in Mexico City. Youth is a favored subject for a modern mass media obsessed with this ...
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Infernal Drums
"He found a cheap room at a dive called Hotel Milan in Old Town — the historic center of a coastal metropolis split into neatly demarcated districts of progress and poverty on a peninsula snaking up the coastline of Nayarit."
In Mazatlan he joins up with three New Zealanders, harmless jerks, introduces himself "and played at acting the chum." In San Blas — "on a spit of white land divided by estuaries, surrounded by jungle" — they buy some cheap dope, but the transaction turns out to be a set-up read more
Mexico City's Modo Museum whets the collecting appetite
I once lived next to an elderly woman in Mexico City whose home was a veritable museum of unique and occasionally bizarre collectibles. Her living room was given over to the collection and there was ba...
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Mexico City's San Fernando Cemetery for famous sons, present or not
The San Fernando Cemetery first began operating in 1713. The poor were first buried there, in the section known as the "Panteón chico." Later, aristocrats nudged their way in, and then in 1835 the "Panteón grande" was constructed and it became an all-purpose public bone yard.
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Leonora Carrington in Mexico City: perspective of a person, place, and time
Anthony Wright pens his first Mexico novel: Infernal Drums
I first came to Mexico in early 1992, and it was very much a deliberate choice since it is obviously a long way from Australia. Not exactly a run over the border. My plans were to travel around the world for a year and return to Australia. I was determined to write in Mexico because I was interested in the Beats and the fact that William Burroughs wrote Junkie in Mexico City.
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Graffiti: Mexico City's wall art emerges from the shadows
In Mexico City, graffiti is a bit like prostitution. Nominally, it's illegal — carrying a $1,000 peso fine or a day in jail. But the rule of law doesn't seem to stand in the way of anyone with a can of spray paint inclined to deface a wall.
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Child heroes and Mexico myths
Mexico has many myths but this was a wonderful truth, six military academy cadets, in defiance of Gen. Nicholas Bravo's order to retreat, choosing to fight to the finish. They were lieutenant Juan de la Barrera, 20, Agustin Melgar, Vicente Suarez, Francisco Marquez, Fernando Montes de Oca and Juan Escutia. One by one they were struck down.
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Graffiti: the wry humor of Mexico City street stencil art
Most modern art aficionados know that if mysterious British artist Banksy didn't create the urban world's love affair with quirky riddles in stencil art on public walls, then he certainly spearheaded i...
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Graffiti: the Estadio Azteca and Mexico City's new wave muralists
Increasingly here in Mexico's capital, the graffiti mural is coming to represent what some local experts feel is a new movement in mural art in the great tradition of early 20th century Mexican muralists such as Diego Rivera and David Siqueiros. Mexico City's largest sports stadium has allowed graffiti murals to adorn its many outer walls, entrance gates and car park enclosures.
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Tourism in Mexico City, Cancun and Ajijic
Mexico's economic downturn may be worse than those of other nations, because so much of Mexico's economy depends on tourism.
Entrance to Mexico City
© Anthony Wright, 2009
Mexico City is desper...
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Vintage cars in a Mexico City museum
El Museo del Automóvil in the south of Mexico City houses more than a hundred painstakingly restored cars. In existence since 1991, the Museo del Automóvil is unique to Latin America and was the fruit of the labors of a group of vintage car lovers, who exhibit their treasures for the joy of it. While it is basically a permanent exhibition, around 30 cars are rotated every three months to allow other collectors to also display their wheels. All the cars are registered and in fine working order, and the engines are turned over once a month to keep them that way.
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Did you know? The Green Revolution began in Mexico
Most people probably have a vague idea that the Green Revolution was something to do with improving crops in the developing world, but how many realize that it began in Mexico? In fact, the Green Revol...
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Swine flu at Ground Zero (Mexico City): life in a masked city
People are still going about their business as usual, only we're all wearing surgical facemasks. I can't decide if this whole fear campaign is a massive media beat-up or if it has some credence.
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Cinco de Mayo celebrations in Mexico
There are Mexicans these days who have never attended a Cinco de Mayo celebration. The holiday has taken a back seat to the many saints' days and other festivals.
The growth of celebrations in the Uni...
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