Oh Yeah, Baby! Research and Wandering the Streets of Mexico!

     After a morning filled with collecting the necessary supplies (splurged [50 pesos] on some gorgeous fotos tamano infantiles--i.e. small enough to fit on a ID card--pictures, picked up latex gloves from the pharmacy, filled out the application for the Fondos Reservados, and had copies of my passport made). I spent most of my time there searching the database to confirm the few documents I knew I wanted to use and others I am excited to get my hands on. Some of the prospective documents are manuscripts from the mid-seventeenth century from the bishopric of Puebla. They seem to discuss the use of the aging convents by the Nahuas and the transition from conventual instruction to secular parochial education. It was a significant time in Puebla and Central Mexico for popular education. For example, Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza of Puebla, and short-lived viceroy of New Spain, has largely been accredited with education reform and secularization. I'm interested to find any discussion of wayward practices and failed attempts to truly convert the indigenous. That, and I think it's a good starting place. Anyway, it was a good start. I'm guessing that tomorrow will bring more success.

Entrance to BNM @ UNAM, 2014. Finally made it! Oh yeah, and the campus is massive.

     Capping off the day, I spent the late afternoon and evening prowling around the once dangerous part of Mexico City, La Romita--the site of the early-colonial community of Nahuas from Tenochtitlan proper. It was hard to fathom that centuries ago the area was an island in a lake, a stopping point on the way from the city center to the great forested area of Chapultepec (I have to take a trip there asap, by the by). The tight winding streets do make the place a distinct part of the otherwise regularized streetscape of Colonia Roma. According to the few reports, and many of them are recent attempts to refashion La Romita's tarnished image, the community has remained apart physically (the small, colonial-era cobblestone streets) and, in a way, culturally, but you wouldn't really know that from the outset.

The bending streets of La Romita. Everyone seemed very pleasant, and I felt comfortable hanging out in the plaza and taking pictures.

Some of the reawakening of artistic expression in La Romita, this jaguar head is an attempt to (re)claim indigenous local identity.

     As the afternoon deluge poured down on the plaza/courtyard, I decided to attend evening Mass in the ancient Iglesia Santa María de la Natividad Aztacalco. I might stop by to take photos of the interior at a later time. They have a fantastic, though small, reliquary. The baptismal font looked interesting. Anyway, as promised, pictures, finally!

The bell tower of la Iglesia Santa María de Natividad Aztacalco nearing sunset. Imagine many times ringing bells have echoed off the walls of Aztacalco, calling for people with regularizing clarity.

The balcony above the small rectangular door, or the Capilla Abierta of the church, depending on the specifics of construction, was the focal point for many indigenous "students." Assembled in the courtyard/plaza, the locals would listen to visiting priests, and likely Native "church people," explain Catholic doctrine.

Mass on the small scale. I'd seen parts of Mass before, but in the small chapel of la Iglesia Santa María de Natividad Aztacalco, the incense enveloped us in smokey sweetness. The interior is very simple, but for such a small structure, the various levels and balconies inside had an odd effect on me. It felt somewhat like the Escher-styled stairway of the Goblin King. I did not check to see if the priests vestments covered a set of Bowie tights. It really was a fantastic service.