A Fabulous Museum!

 

Hola!

Up this morning around the usual time, and had a lovely, relaxing soak in the tub!  I do miss my own bathtub when we travel, for sure! Upstairs for breakfast about 7:30 am. As the two sites we wanted to see don’t open until 10 am and 11 am, respectively, we were able to get a little “down time” before heading out.

Rivera Mural

Left side of mural

Right side of mural

Metal backing on mural

Chinese mural from Beijing

Anahuacalli Museum

Entryway and stairs in museum

Temporary exhibit celebrating the Dia de los Muertos

Corn Goddess

A mosaic ceiling depicting a monster

Stunning painting on brazier

Rivera had an incredible collection!

More cylinder seals

Huge 2nd floor reception floor with murals and artifacts

Chest containing death offerings

Another mosaic ceiling

Me on porch, with Mexico City in the background!

Shrimp tacos at El Cardenal

R's sea bass in spinach and masa sauce

My wonderful chicken breast with mole poblano!

Our first stop was Museo Mural Diego Rivera, which is actually right across the street in Alameda Park.  We hadn’t really noticed the building before, because after arriving on the Day of the Dead, booths had been occupying the park until this past Sunday.  So, truly steps away, and there was Rivera’s mural Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda.  There was also a temporary exhibition of Chinese mural work that was fascinating!

So … first, the Rivera mural.  I think I mentioned earlier, when we looked at the murals at Palacio de Bellas Artes that I had never been one much for symbolism … but this mural was really very interesting!  It was originally painted in 1947 for the restaurant of the Hotel del Prado, which was right across the street from Alameda Park.  It was moved in 1967 into the lobby of the Prado Hotel, at which time they (fortunately) placed a metal structure on the back of the painting to prevent damage during the move.  This was where it was in September, 1985, when an 8.1 earthquake struck Mexico City.  The Prado was basically destroyed, and it took an exceptional effort to extract the mural from the rubble and warehouse it until a suitable structure could be built to protect it.  That is today’s museum.  

Around the main gallery are photos beginning with Rivera originally designing and subsequently painting the mural, followed by earthquake photos of the Prado and Alameda Square, and finally, the installation of the mural in the museum.  

The mural, painted in three sections, is basically an imaginary walk on the Alameda, including childhood memories through people whom Rivera knew.  At the same time, he makes a synthesis of Mexican history, including everyone from Cortes on the far left to the French-installed Maximilian in the middle, and finally, the heroes of the revolution on the right.  There are also images of Rivera’s two daughters, as well as at least three of his four wives!  Quite a story!

The Chinese mural upstairs in a separate gallery was also very interesting.  In the 1920’s and later, the communist Chinese and the communist Mexican artists began to cooperate artistically.  A large group of Mexican muralists visited China over a period of years, and with their influence, several large-scale murals were produced for places in the Beijing airport and train station.  Really some interesting work!

From Alameda Park, we crossed back over to the Hilton (which has the wonderful advantage of having benches out front for people to enjoy!  We called Uber and in just a few minutes we were being whisked out to a far-flung suburb to visit the Museo Anahuacalli– a fabulous museum!  (As we had missed this during our first week in Mexico City, I am really thankful that we had a second opportunity to see some other things – as Robert says, this is truly a jewel of place, and we both actually preferred it to the National Anthropological Museumin Chapultepec Park!)  If you ever find yourself in Mexico City, VISIT this place!

It probably took 20+ minutes to get there – Robert was making Oaxaca-related remarks, but there in a quiet neighborhood suddenly appeared Museo Anahuacalli!  I really didn’t know what to expect – but the building and grounds of this place are amazing! Rivera started collecting pre-Hispanic items somewhere in the early 1920’s, and he designed his own museum for the 50,000+ pre-Hispanic pieces which he bequeathed to the Mexican people.  It is an incredible collection in an equally incredible building!  

The Anahuacalli is built of black volcanic stone, obtained from the Xitle volcano eruption, and it takes the form of a pyramid.  Its shape was influenced by the Teotihuacan culture, and there is a fair amount of English explanations along with the Spanish which is really nice of them!  In addition to all the ceramic and pottery pieces Rivera collected, each room was designed specifically for the pieces to be housed there, and each room had a separate mosaic ceiling; they were all pretty much amazing!  The museum itself, made of the black rock, is fairly dark, and the lighting is subdued.  Fortunately, our camera (and Robert!) can do wonders with low-light photographs.  

The only critical comment we could find to say about the museum was that they don’t really have any sort of bookstore or anything available to sell.  We would have loved to find a good site map in English to be able to put all of the pieces we viewed in some sort of order.  However, we will look on-line and see if we can find something!  At any rate, Anahuacalli Museum is superb, and we both can’t recommend it highly enough!

By this time, it was beginning to look as if the rain predicted for this afternoon and evening may be getting closer.  I was a bit concerned about how long it might take Uber to reach us, but true to form, Hugo was there in about 5 minutes, and the rain actually held off until we part-way back to the hotel.  We have decided to go back to El Cardenal for dinner this afternoon (4:30 pm) and at 6 pm we have to pick up our last load of laundry!  Yeah!! Clean clothes!!

So!  More later after dinner and laundry pickup!

m

xxx

Dinner was at 4:30 pm at El Cardenal – and it was fabulous once again!  This time, we split an appetizer of shrimp tacos.  Very good, although without guacamole, I preferred Sunday’s steaks!  For mains, Robert again had sea bass, this time in a masa and spinach broth.  I had chicken breast with mole poblano – it was fabulous!  No dessert, as there was no room!  Then, we went across the street to pick up our laundry.  Of course the man made the “I’m not sure it’s ready” noises, but it was … I think he does that just to upset me!  Honestly!  Now in the night.  Tomorrow we will be transferring to the Hilton Airport for our flight out on Thursday morning!

More tomorrow!

m

xxx