Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Nov 2012: One of the largest squares in the world – the Zocalo

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I had few hours to kill before my flight back to London so decided to check out the city centre. The taxi dropped me off at the Western side of the Zocalo. And Palestina? hmmmw, whats the connection?

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This is one of the biggest squares in the world…The city council on the right

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with a giant flag in the  middle, and the Presidential Palace in the back

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And then the Cathedral on the left. Behind this monument and to the right is the Templo Major, but more on that later

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The office of the Mayor

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Using this rather dingy stone is a bit dodgy, it could do with a bit of a scrub.

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the balconies are lovely

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Christmas is coming. But the funny part is, we haven't seen elephants bringing the wise men, have we?

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Back to the City Council building, there’s the iconic eagle eating the snake shot.

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So the place is called Plaza de la Constitution and is considered to be a historic place. The constitution isn't the modern one but the one called as Spanish Cadiz Constitution signed in 1812. Curious, very curious and ironic to consider that its been named after a constitution which barely survived, was for a foreign country, and that too a country which committed and sponsored large scale genocide and ethnic cleansing with aggressive proselyitisation. But this is something that I realised, the psychic wounds to Mexicans is deep from the decades and centuries of imperialism and frankly constantly getting their backsides getting hammered. Its like an affronted ready to take offence pride, all the time. And then they celebrate their biggest public square with naming it after a foreign constitution? doesn't make sense.

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the balconies and windows are carved out of the familiar volcanic rock

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funny looking bird..

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The great and good of Colonial Spanish greats are recognised by these tiled murals. Columbus, Cortes, etc are all here. Some very good tile ceramic work…

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The ironmongery is also very good..

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Looking back at the corridor. Pretty impressive, eh?

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Looking at the Cathedral

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Looking right at the Presidential Palace

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Another lovely building with an exquisite corridor, this time with a brick roof, quite interesting, you usually don't see a ceiling with bricks now, do you? Fascinating. Bricks dont take lateral compression that well but this corridor roof has these bricks in a gentle arch. 

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I reach the South East

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A flock of pigeons take off

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wheeling over my head

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heading towards the cathedral

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back again

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heading again towards the east over my head while I am busy contorting like an idiot trying to catch them

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I start walking down the east side of the square, the Presidential Palace passes on my side

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Looking back at the building which I passed

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The Mayor Building..

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Back to the Presidential Palace

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The facade has these little sculptures and quite an interesting combination of Mexican and Spanish work there, like this decal and carvings of Rampant Lions in the heraldic manner.

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And then the old eagle and snake motif

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Now this was quite interesting. I have never seen a bell with such kinds of supports. poor babies, they must be sooo tired.

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The main panel above the entrance, you can see the eagle with the snake motif in the middle, but more interestingly, you can see an Eagle Scout from the Mexica on the left and a Spanish Conquistador on the right. Quite interesting.  

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Rows of windows…

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Some rather bored looking soldiers..and a sweeper behind the door cleaning up the floor with a rather interesting sculpture of what looks like Pegasus in the middle of the fountain..

I finish..and then move on to the Cathedral

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I end with this photo of a shop in the airport. No connection, just this photo ended up for some reason in this folder, lol

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