Nov 2012: Visiting the Museum of the Revolution in Mexico #3

 

While walking down the Reforma Avenue, I turn left to see this very curious building.

fingers of shadow

  

its a very strange looking building, consisting of these four massive pillars and capped with a cupola. The statues on top are fairly representative of those huge blocky Soviet statues. Or you can also see them in some of the giant Art Deco buildings in NY.

The building was originally supposed to be the legislative palace but then money ran out and then it was abandoned and then even demolition was considered.

 

the open plaza in front of it was quite nice, with some canoodling couples caressing in concert.

looks like it has been recently refurbished.

these are the architects. Wikipedia says that the style is an Art Deco and Mexican Socialist Realism Style. What on earth is that?

 

So you can take the elevator up to the skies..

the poxy occupy guys are all around the base of the monument.

The hero’s of Mexican revolution are buried here, there’s Pancho Villa…

I head into the basement where the National Museum of the Revolution is hidden away.

Looking up into the cupola

its a nice little museum, would have helped to see the display in English as well, but I suppose you cannot have everything.

 

whoa

 

its a sculpture…i love their hats..

pistols

 

Decrees

talks about what i guess is how the revolution happened.

celebrating the virgin. Flags of the Revolution. 

 

now that’s a serious chair, throne almost.

 

Mexican history reminds me a bit of Russian History, full of doom and gloom. But there’s your proclamation for the arrest of Pancho Villa.

 

More on him

an old old fading yellowing newspaper

rather static displays, of outfits, guns

saddles, hats, and other paraphernalia

 

rifles used by the revolutionaries.

 

nice outfits and revolvers

 

Zapatista

 

And then I see the tableau of the revolutionaries. Nice moustaches :)

 

Documents, photographs, rifles

 

big famous murals..

front pages of the newspapers

 

nice headgear

 

some of the communications equipment used during the revolutionary times.

 

Looks like one of those emperors…man, you have a weirdass beard. This chap is Maximilian I. Who was shot for his sins. This is the wiki entry. One bit caught my eye

The sentence was carried out in the Cerro de las Campanas on the morning of 19 June 1867, when Maximilian, along with Generals Miramón and Mejía, were executed by a firing squad. He spoke only in Spanish and gave his executioners a portion of gold not to shoot him in the head so that his mother could see his face. His last words were, "I forgive everyone, and I ask everyone to forgive me. May my blood which is about to be shed, be for the good of the country. Viva Mexico, viva la independencia!".^[30] The two Mexican generals shot after him both died shouting, "Long live the Emperor."

heh, not much life left there guys but I appreciate the sentiment.

 

the flag and rifles with bayonets

the constitution

  more text..

ceremonial swords

more newspapers and photographs

so this is how it was supposed to look.

  

I wish they had made it, it looks seriously massive and imposing..

And on the other side of the scale model, you can see the girders and foundations of the building.

And then the monument from afar. Reading wikipedia, some interesting snippets on the revolution.

“

A likely electoral fraud that led to Diaz' fifth reelection sparked the 1910 Mexican Revolution, initially led by Francisco I. Madero.

Díaz resigned in 1911 and Madero was elected president but overthrown and murdered in a coup d'État two years later directed by conservative general Victoriano Huerta. That event re-ignited the civil war, involving figures such as Francisco Villa and Emiliano Zapata, who formed their own forces. A third force, the constitutional army led by Venustiano Carranza managed to bring an end to the war, and radically amended the 1857 Constitution to include many of the social premises and demands of the revolutionaries into what was eventually called the 1917 Constitution. It is estimated that the war killed 900,000 of the 1910 population of 15 million.^[61][62] Assassinated in 1920, Carranza was succeeded by another revolutionary hero, Álvaro Obregón, who in turn was succeeded by Plutarco Elías Calles. Obregón was reelected in 1928 but assassinated before he could assume power.

Confusion or what?

 

Territorial evolution of Mexico after independence, noting losses to the US (red, white and orange), Chiapas annexed fromGuatemala (blue), the annexation of the Republic of Yucatan (red) and the secession of Central America (purple).

One doesn't usually hear about this, at least I didn't hear about it that much, that’s a serious amount of territory to lose for Mexico, they got topped and tailed. No wonder they are a bit prickly about USA. I didn't also realise that they annexed Yucatan or they lost central America or that it was part of Mexico in the first instance. Very interesting..