Thanksgiving to Christmas

It's been a little bit, so thought I'd give an update. Starting with Thanksgiving in DC with Sandra and all her friends. 

First just a standard photo bomb. Came is last second with the Turkey leg.

From the left, Gabby (Sandra's new roommate, Ines, Gesen, then obviously).

Turned out pretty well for a Safeway turkey. Not as good as my turkey last year, but a lot less work. It's funny to celebrate Thanksgiving with foreigners because they are down for a big dinner, but they don't quite get the significance of Thanksgiving. They were making fun of the neighbours playing back yard football, but it's Thanksgiving! You have to throw a football around, even if you haven't played since last Thanksgiving. I was thankful that the Seahawks beat the 49ers and ate turkey in their new endzone. Overall had an amazing weekend and made me feel like the holiday season had started. Even had dinner with our hosts from Brazil this summer as Joao is a guest lecturer at Georgetown.

Coming back from DC was pretty brutal as I had had two consecutive short work weeks, 4 days and 3 days, and I had to transition back to 5 days plus studying for finals week. My first finals week in 4 years. My law class ended up being a 8 minute oral exam that was worth 70% of my grade. I was pretty nervous for that one and studied a ton. We'll see how I did. Fulbright says I need to have minimum grades of an 8 out of 10, which is actually pretty hard. 6 is passing so I am not sure why I need significantly above that.

The Friday of my first week back was the company Christmas party. Wow, this Christmas party kicked the crap out of Deloitte's Christmas parties where everyone is afraid of getting too drunk and saying something they shouldn't say. The Christmas party was more like a US wedding. It included a 3-course dinner with open bar the whole time, and a firm wide gift exchange. Everyone had to put 3 suggestions of what gift they would like, and I just put "Something typical from Mexico that you can't buy in the US." My wish was granted, when one of the partners got me a nice bottle of mezcal. Still haven't open it yet. The party had a dance floor and after dinner people started getting after it with salsa and whatever else was played.

My new mezcal. 

 

These are my coworkers. Everyone is between 20-35. There are partners older than that, but this is my cohort. Good group.  From left to right back row: Pamela, Taylor, Sabina, intern, Celeste, Carlos, Guadalupe, Fernando, Armando, Ricardo, Chava. Middle row: Ixtchel, Zulima, Monica. Front row: Cohen, Christian. I mostly work with Fernando and Ricardo.

 Even went to go see Wicked with Carlos. It was in Spanish and I couldn't understand some of the songs, but overall quite enjoyable.

 

Took this picture on Metrobus when it was particularly crowded. Accidentally had my flash on so everyone stared at me afterwards. My bad. I actually don't know how to turn off the flash on my Android phone. 

 Then Julianne arrived!! She didn't have the smoothest of trips (got robbed and missed a connecting flight), but she made it. Her first week she would meet up with my coworkers and I for lunch and would work on her applications and explore Mexico City by day. On Friday, we went to a Lucha Libre with my coworkers (many of whom had never been in their entire lives). Sometimes it takes a foreigner to do the things in your very own city. One of the fighters, Guerrero, would do this goofy dance after he did a good move. So we all decided to imitate it.

The next day after Lucha Libre, we took an 8 hour bus to Oaxaca. Oaxaca is a the capital of Oaxaca and is home to a number of indigenous communities in Mexico. During the Fulbright orientation I met a few anthropologists, and they were ALL going to Oaxaca.

Oaxaca has lots of cool little streets like this one. It is extremely colonial. 

All of the streets are decked out for the holidays as well. Hence random hanging piñata.

We explored the city pretty quickly, in about 4 hours, so we decided to head to the nearby Tule to see a giant tree. Apparently someone decided to build a city centred around a giant tree. It worked. Because now the city had tons of tourism and is extremely well kept. That's the tree on the right.

On our way back we found a FREE carnival. Yes, FREE. The government just paid for a carnival and people were going on all sorts of rides, including some pretty epic bumper cars. Mexicans are amazing at bumper cars because they have so much experience being crazy drivers in normal life. They were super good at dodging and weaving. 

 Mexico is super family oriented. Sundays is for families and the number of games, cars, and activities set up for children in the parks is insane. This particular one I had never seen before. It's a water coloring station. You pay to have your kid sit at an easel and paint their hearts out. Then no clean up. It's brilliant.

Anyway, Julianne and I will spend on more day in Oaxaca and leave tomorrow night on a night bus to Mexico City, then a bus to Guadalajara, then a bus to Puerto Vallarta, then a bus to Sayulita, then a taxi to San Pancho. It's going to be about 20 hours of travel and overall a pretty brutal day.

Lucha Libre, Día de los Muertos, Tequesquitengo, and Bullfighting

Haven't had a chance to update on my activities lately, so this post will be a weird combination of disjointed ideas. 

Lucha Libre:

First up, Lucha Libre, or Mexican Wrestling! Outside of the Arena there were tons of stands selling Lucha Libre masks and people were buying them like crazy. I should have bought one but I thought I would be a poser since I didn't know any of the fighters. I wanted to pick a fighter that I could identify with, not just any joe schmo, or jose schmo as it would be here.  

The whole event was hilarious. I thought it was going to be little kids, but it was full grown men screaming at the wrestlers. I was under the impression that everyone knew it was fake, but enjoyed pretending it wasn't and yelling. Since I went on Día de los Muertos, all the fights were themed Dead versus Living. They would come out in teams of three and do tag team fighting Dead versus Living. Each of the wrestlers had a name and a persona. My favorite was Maximo whose persona was a homosexual wrestler. His signature move was kissing the opponent, which rendered the opponent defeated. Everyone yelled like crazy when he kissed the other wrestler. Mexico definitely has a certain level of homophobia, but at Lucha Libre everyone seemed to think it was funny. Maximo also had a minion which was a midget dressed up as a bird. Everyone loved the minion and apparently he is really famous. At one point the object was the fight was the minion and the Dead and the Living were fighting over him and pulling him in different directions. I thought he might rip apart, but luckily he didn´t. Definitely would not be PC in the US. I'm told there is another wrestler with a gay persona called La Fresa Salvaje, or the Wild Strawberry. The name alone is amazing.

Día de los Muertos

I wanted to write more on Día de los Muertos, but I think this is going to be it. Basically, Mexicans think about death much differently than Americans do. Americans are afraid of death. Mexicans are afraid too, to a certain extent, but it is much less. Death, instead, is viewed as a natural process and progression of life. In the US, the second something changes from alive to dead, it is scary and gross. In Mexico, they celebrate their dead. Día de los Muertos is about honoring all those who are no longer with us physically, but who are still important to us mentally. It is said that people die two times. Once, when the person physically dies. And secondly, the last time that a living person says that person's name. The way you celebrate these people is by remembering them and making offerings, or ofrendas (see below). For the ofrenda, you put everything that the person you are remembering liked. If they like carrot cake, you make them carrot cake. Almost every ofrenda has beer for good measure. 

Here is a really good short film that shows the spirit of Día de los Muertos:

Tequesquitengo:

The most stressful thing about Tequesquitengo is pronouncing it. Tequesquitengo is like the Chelan of Mexico City. It is about 2 hours away and a bunch of rich chilangos (people from Mexico City) have houses there. I got invited to go and stay at the house of a super rich family. They had 2 full time employees at their guest house. Think about that for a second. Guest house. Not house house. It was a great chance to get out of the Concrete Jungle that is Mexico City. Saw stars for the first time in what felt like months. Look at the view from this freaking house:

The only downside, was that Tequesquitengo had a plague of no-see ums. Not sure what they are called, but they are bugs that bite you that are the size of fruit flies. You can´t see them at all. But damn do they leave their mark. I had 63 bites the first day.

We also went water skiing. Got up on my third try, which I feel like is pretty good since my water skiing career is one time that was over 10 years ago.

Bullfighting:
Went to a bullfight at the arena which is like 4 blocks from my house. Bullfights are quite the social event and definitely a place to be seen. It´s less fancy that a horse race, but the same kind of feel with everyone wearing hats. This was the first traditional bullfight I have been to. You may remember my post of Spanish bullfigthing on horses: http://leroyinargentina.blogspot.mx/2012/08/spanish-bull-fighting.html.

During the bullfight, I realized I don´t know shit about bullfighting. Yes, the premise is simple, wave red cape, bull charges, move cape, stab with sword, bull dies. But in practice there are all these weird formalities and stages involved. Here are the stages I identified:
1) Bull runs out, runs a few laps to get tired with the help of helper guys on the permiter of the ring who wave a pink flag and then hide behind a wooden barricade.
2) After the bull has done a few laps, the helper guys will actually go out into the ring a little bit and have the bull charge them, and they move out of the way. During this stage the capes are pink not red. At some point during this the lead matador guy will come out and take a few runs from the bull.
3) After the bull has done this for a little while, out come the yellow horses. This part I had never seen before and I thought it was SO bizarre. The horses march out with these yellow skirt things. The bull gets to freaking ram these horses, and while the bull is pushing against the horse, the guy on top of the horse is stabbing the bull in the back. He is called the picador, or picker. The idea is to get the bull tired and bleeding a little bit.

4) The horses march out, and the next stage is stabbing little flags with spears, or banderitas, in the back of the bull. The assistants bullfighters will run at the bull with two spears, juke the bull out at the last second, and stab two banderitas in the bull´s back. The ideal spot is centered on the bulls back and just below the neck. If they do it well, everyone cheers. If it is to the side, everyone heckles or is silent.
5) After 3 rounds of banderitas have left 6 banderitas in the bulls back, it´s time for the matador. It's easy to tell who the matador is because his cape is red, not pink. Red for kill. This is the stage with the most showmanship. The matador takes advantage of the tired and bleeding bull to do fancy dance moves while juking the bull. If the matador doesn't move his feet when the bull runs by, everyone says "Olé!." The best move that a matador can do is have the bull run by, and then circle back around and go back the other way without the matador moving his feet. The matadores would also do the cape behind their back or touch the bulls head. They were extremely close to the bull, but the bull was so tired that it worked. I also noticed that the bull doesn't see the matador as the threat. The bull was focusing exclusively on the red cape. Sometimes the matador would stand between the bull and the cape and the bull's head would follow the cape behind the matador's body. Like, "get out of my way, I'm trying to catch this cape."
6) After the showmanship is over and the bull is sufficiently exhausted, the matador gets his sword out. When the bull runs by, the matador stabs the bull in the back down through the bull's rib cage and ideally into the bulls heart. He doesn't always succeed as sometimes he hits bone. When this happens the crowd gets impatient. The crowd wants a clean kill with minimal suffering (kind of hypocritical given the entire activity of bullfighting in the first place). If the matador successfully put the sword in, the assitants run out and they have the bull stagger around in circles a few more times to let the sword do its work slicing and dicing the insides of the bull with each step. Eventually the bull collapses. A guy with a small knife runs out and hits the bull in the back of the neck in a particular part, and the bull is instantly killed. It's crazy how instant it is. It's like an off-switch.
7) Two horses attached to a cart come out. The bulls horns are attached to cart and the body is dragged out of the arena.

Family Shoutouts:

Congrats to my dad for bagging this year's turkey with the help of our two trusty retrievers.

And a shout out to William! 

Video of Mexico City Protests on 11/21/2014

This video was on the front page of reddit. Thought I would share given its relevance to what has been happening lately. Don't freak out, I am totally fine and wasn't close to the protests in any way. As I mentioned before, foreigners are prohibited from participating in political events by the Mexican Constitution. The video shows a few different scenes. It shows the blockade of the airport by protesters, some random street scuffle, and the Zócalo, or the main plaza, which is like ground zero for the the government and Mexico City. Keep in mind that some of the people in the video are probably agent provacateurs, which I explained in my previous post. 

I sympathize for both sides. On one side you have a populous that is frustrated with narco related violence (around 150,000 killed / missing since 2006), and a government plagued with corruption. On the other side, you have underpaid police officers who are just trying to do their job and keep order. The average wage of a police officer is $350 / month, or $4,200 / year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_enforcement_in_Mexico. It´s no wonder that many police officers ask for bribes to supplement their income. 

Emergency Message for U.S. Citizens: Mass Demonstrations Expected in Mexico City / Country of Mexico

Update 11/21:

Just wanted to provide a brief update on the protests yesterday. First of all, I am completely fine. I live 2 miles away and was in no way affected. There were no deaths at the protests and the media is reporting just 16 arrests, which is pretty good in my mind. Here are some pictures. This first one is in the Zócalo, or central plaza, of Mexico City where the governmental palace is.

 The march started here at the Angel of Independence and then marched down the main avenue in Mexico City called Reforma. It passed in front of the US Embassy, which is on Reforma.

This is the protesters marching down Reforma.

The government planted members of the military in plains clothes, as seen in the back of this military truck. The strategy is called Agent Provacateur. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_provocateur The idea of these plains clothes military is to incite unnecessary violence and to essentially discredit the entire movement as being violent and criminal, when in fact the vast majority of the protesters are completely peaceful. The agent provacateur can also act as a pretext for the police or military to forcibly remove protesters from an area because they are acting violently. 

Although the students disappeared almost three months ago, it appears as though the movement is gaining steam rather than losing it. There were coordinated protests in Times Square and Washington DC. Also, celebrities like Calle 13 (below) and soccer star Chicharito have started to publicly support the movement. 

That´s all for now. But I expect that this issue is just getting started. 

 ________________________________________________________________________

Just received this message from the US Embassy. I thought it was relevant given my last post about the 43 students. Protesters are expected to shut down the Mexico City airport today as well as have several massive demonstrations. The government cancelled its annual military parade for today. One interesting point is that "The Mexican Constitution prohibits political activities by foreigners; such actions may result in detention and/or deportation." So better stay away.

United States Embassy Mexico City

Emergency Message for U.S. Citizens:

Mass Demonstrations Expected in Mexico City / Country of Mexico

November 20, 2014

(La versión en españolsigue la de inglés)

This message is to inform U.S.citizens that several mass demonstrations are expected in Mexico City on Thursday, November 20, 2014 to protest the disappearance of 43 students in Guerrero state.  Beginning at approximately 10:00am, university students plan to blockade all avenues and boulevards leading to Mexico City’s Benito Juarez international airport such as: Circuito Interior, Blvd. Puerto Aereo, Eje 1 Norte, and Calzada Ignacio Zaragoza.  Traffic to and from theairport is expected to be severely impacted by the blockades.  The Embassy has advised personnel to consider changing travel plans or alternate routes toand from the airport, including travel via metro (Terminal Aerea stop on the yellow line).  U.S. citizens arriving into Mexico City’s airport shouldexpect to wait at the airport for several hours for the protest to end. If riding the metro or the city bus system, U.S. citizens should take extremecare with valuables and belongings.  Passengers arriving at any airport in Mexico should take only authorized airport taxis after pre-paying the fare atone of the special well-publicized booths located inside the airport.  U.S. Embassy employees in Mexico City are prohibited from using “libre” taxis (hailed on the street), and are authorized to use only “sitio” (regulated stand) taxis.

Additionally, several social organizations, unions and university students will meet at approximately5:00pm at the “Plaza de las Tres Culturas” (Tlatelolco), the Revolution Monument, and the Independence Monument (Angel) to then march to Mexico City’s central square (Zócalo).  Traffic along the planned routes, Paseo de laReforma (where the Embassy is located), and nearby roads will be impacted by the protest.

There are reports that similar protests may take place in other cities in Mexico. U.S. citizens are urged to monitor local newsoutlets for information about possible protests in their area.

The Mexican Constitution prohibits political activities by foreigners; such actions may result in detention and/or deportation. Travelers should avoid political demonstrations and other activities that might be deemed political by the Mexican authorities.  Even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate intoviolence.  Demonstrators in Mexico may block traffic on roads, includingmajor arteries, or take control of toll booths on highways.  U.S. citizens are urged to avoid areas of demonstrations, and to exercise caution if in the vicinity of any protests.

Review your personal security plans; remain aware of your surroundings, including local events; and monitor local news stations for updates and any news of other protest activity throughout the country of Mexico. Maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to enhance your personal security. 

We strongly recommend that U.S. citizens traveling to or residing in Mexico enroll in theDepartment of State’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) atwww.travel.state.gov.  STEP enrollment gives you the latest security updates, and makes it easier for the U.S. embassy or nearest U.S. consulate to contact you in an emergency.  If you don’t have Internet access, enroll directly with the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.

Regularly monitor the State Department's website, where you can find current Travel Warnings, including the Travel Warning for Mexico, Travel Alerts, and the Worldwide Caution.  Read the Country Specific Information for Mexico.  For additional information, refer to “A Safe Trip Abroad”on the State Department’s website.

Contact the U.S. Embassy for up-to-date information on travel restrictions.  You can also call1-888-407-4747 toll-free in the United States and Canada or 1-202-501-4444 fromother countries.  These numbers are available from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.Eastern Time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays). Follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and download our free Smart Traveler iPhone App to have travel information at your fingertips.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City is located at Paseo de la Reforma 305, Colonia Cuauhtemoc, Mexico, D.F. and is open 8:00am to 5:00pm, switchboard phone number (dialing from the United States) 011-52-555-080-2000,http://mexico.usembassy.gov/eng/eacs_hours.html.  If you are a U.S. citizen in need of urgent assistance,please dial the main switchboard number and ask to speak to an American Citizen Services staff member for assistance.

Beyond the Tacos: Political Turmoil in Mexico

I love Mexico. The food, the people and the culture are absolutely amazing. However, Mexico does have some structural problems that impinge on my ability to fully enjoy the country, and deter me from wanting to live here long term. Here are three examples of recent political events that highlight what I mean: 1) Metro Line 12, 2) Bullet Train Bid, 3) 43 Normalistas. The three examples go from meh, to UGggh, to WTF IS GOING ON!!

Metro Line 12
The Mexican government wanted to expand the subway system in Mexico City in the south. It was a very important project for the government and they spent 70% of the Subway system's annual budget on constructing Line 12. One government body was in charge of the trains and another government body was in charge of the tracks and stations. That proved to be a poor method of management as the two entities didn't communicate with one another properly, and the trains purchased, ended up being incompatible with the tracks.

Second problem, the tracks ended up being laid down and designed outside of the technical specifications of the contract, but the government signed off on the work anyway. The result was that the corners were too tight and a train derailed, which closed half of the line indefinitely until the turns are made within specifications. The problem is that legally since the government signed-off on the non-complaint work (probably a bribe or two), they have no legal power to sue the track developer to fix the non-compliant turns. As a precaution for the half of the line that was not closed, the trains now travel at just 35 kilometers per hour (22 mph), instead of the designed 55 kilometers per hour (34 mph). I have taken the train at 22 mph and it is absurdly slow and makes the whole system (or the half that is open) inefficient.

The fate of Metro Line 12 is still in discussion. There is no budget left to make the needed modifications AND the government can't force the developer to make the changes. What was supposed to be Mexico City's new modern metro line, the first in many years, has ended up being a nonfunctional example of cronyism in public sector works.

Bullet Train Mexico City - Querétaro
In September the Mexican Government announced that a $4 billion dollar bullet train to be built from Mexico City to Querétaro (210 km) had been awarded to China Railway Corporation.

The problem was that China Railway Corporation was the only bidder on the project, which had initially had several dozen interested firms. So what happened, why did all the other firms drop out? Turns out for this $4 billion dollar project, the government only had a period of 2 months for interested firms to make their proposals, which include binding terms on project costs. In other words, firms had just 2 months to find partner firms, perform studies, calculate estimated project costs (including the cost to operate the rail line for 10 years), and submit their proposals. During this two month process, the Mexican government was continually changing significant aspects of the bid including technical specifications and other terms. The result was that almost all of the firms made requests to extend the deadline for proposals given that they didn't have adequate time to prepare and modify their proposals given the complexity of the project. These companies were not newbies either- Bombardier of Canada, Germany’s Siemens and France’s Alstom  These requests were denied and the project was awarded to China Railway Corporation.

 A little more about China Railway Corporation, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto had met with executives of China Railway Corporation privately months before the public bidding for the train was announced. China Railway Corporation also partnered with a Mexican company that had built a $7 million dollar house for President Enrique Peña Nieto´s family. Some suspect that Enrique Peña Nieto discussed the project ahead of time with these executives in order to give them sufficient time to prepare their proposal.

Two weeks ago the government announced that the bidding award had been revoked from China Railway Corporation in order to ensure “absolute clarity, legitimacy and transparency”. President Peña Nieto is having political problems associated with the third example, and he didn´t think he had sufficient political capital to let this project go to the only bidder amidst so many questions. A new bidding process with a longer deadline will start at the end of this month.

Mexico´s 43 Student Tragedy
This last example is truly tragic. On September 26th, students from a rural college that were training to be teachers in rural schools (think schools without electricity), went to protest a dinner party being held by the Mayor of Iguala´s wife. The Mayor´s wife was the sister of the founders of a drug cartel called Guerreros Unidos, The students were protesting the policies of the governor. As context, Iguala has a population of 110,000 and is not far from Acapulco. The Mayor´s wife didn´t want the students to ruin her dinner party so she made a call to the police to "take care of the situation." The police showed up and killed 6 students right away, and rounded up the remaining 43 and put them in buses. The students have been missing ever since. Their fate is not confirmed, but 3 witnesses have emerged with the following story. The police delivered the 43 students to the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel. The drug cartel drove the students into the wilderness and tortured and killed them. They then piled the bodies up with rubber tires and gasoline and burned the bodies for 14 hours. The ashes and bones were gathered and put into garbage bags, and then thrown into the river.

While "authorities" were looking for the students they discovered multiple mass grave sites that they believed contained the students. Forensic tests later determined that each of these mass graves sites containing charred bodies came back negative. It would come out in the newspaper that the students´ bodies might have been found, to later come back and say "nope, nevermind, wrong mass grave." The media presented it as good news that the students were maybe still alive, but Mexicans felt disgusted that there were so many of these mass graves containing who knows who. How can that be good news?

The reprecussions of the incident have been big, but not as big as you might expect. The Mayor and his wife immediately went on the run, but were found a few weeks later thanks to a hefty ransom. The governor of the state where Iguala is, was forced to resign amdist public pressure. There have been huge protests in Mexico City for the 43 disappeared students. The Mexican government is eager to put this event past them, and they hoped that the testimonies explaining the fate of the students would do just that; however, the families of the students, in an excellent political calculation to maximize the impact of this event, refuse to acknowledge that the students are dead until they have their bodies. The effect of this is a lingering political nightmare for the government.

Prior to this event, the foreign media was in love with Mexico. The government had passed some much needed constitutional reform opening up the energy sector, breaking up telecommunications monopolies, and breaking up corrupt and powerful teachers unions. Everyone referred to this reform as "Mexico´s Moment." Now the media is seeing that perhaps Mexico wasn´t as modernized as everyone thought. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to remove corruption and cronyism from a society in which it has existed for a long time. It doesn´t happen in a few years, it takes decades. It doesn´t help that the American drug market is $40 billion annually, which is fuel on the fire as it creates the perfect opportunity for rich criminals to bribe underpaid officials and law enforcement.

It remains to be seen what will be the long-term effects of the 43 normalistas. The President and ruling party, PRI, has certainly taken a tremendous hit to their political capital, but the Presidential election isn´t until 2018, so people could forget by then. Here are some articles about the 43 students if you are curious.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/crisis-mexico-forty-three-missing-students-spark-revolution?intcid=mod-most-popular

http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2014/10/mexico-s-student-tragedy

http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/10/10/355140186/43-missing-students-1-missing-mayor-of-crime-and-collusion-in-mexico

http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2014/11/mexico-s-missing-students

Overall, Mexico is amazing culturally, but if it is going to take off as one of the top 10 most powerful nations, which it easily could, it needs to shore up it´s systemic corruption and increase it´s accountability of public officials.

Cervantino, Guanajuato

Last weekend I went to Guanajuato, Mexico for the Cervantino Festival and I found my favorite city so far in Mexico. That is no light statement. So far I have already visited Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta, Guadalajara, Oaxaca, Puerto Escondido, San Cristobal de las Casas, Veracruz, Puebla, Cholula, Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Cuerna Vaca, and Sayulita. Guanajuato is a Mexico I haven't seen before. It is a super colonial town that was founded for mining tucked in a valley. It has all of these little tiny streets and alleys lined with brightly colored houses. It reminds me of Lisbon meeting the Santa Teresa neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. The town is also obsessed with Spanish writer Cervantes, hence the festival being named Cervantino. Consequently, there are tons of references to Don Quixote throughout the town. Here are some pictures to show what I mean: 

Main Plaza

Teatro Juarez

Don Quixote

Random plaza

The famous callejon del beso, "kissing alley", which has a story equivalent to Romeo and Juliet where a poor miner lived on the house on the left, and a rich upper class girl on the right. As they were forbidden to see each other, they would sneak kisses across the alley.

There are so many little stairways and alley ways like this. 

Enjoying a Michelada from the view at the top of a hill over looking the town. I have grown very fond of Micheladas. It is beer, lime juice, tomato juice, chili pepper, and salt. 

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This is the main plaza. Seriously, tell me this isn't beautiful.

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One of the things that makes the city unique, is that is built on top of a network of tunnels for cars and pedestrians. You would take a taxi, and all of a sudden you would dip down underground into a tunnel like you were in the Indiana and Jones ride at Disney Land. This is a picture of me with the other Fulbrights that also attended. 

Famous steps leading up to Guanajuato University. Notice yet another tunnel in the bottom right. 

Since it was the Cervantino Festival, there were a bunch of events happening all weekend, some free, some not. My favorite event was a play about the life of Cervantes that was a series of short stories. The theater was outside in front of a super old church where they erected a grand stand to one side. It was the most amazing set-up I've ever seen for theater. The environment was perfect as the 400 year old church fit the environment perfectly. At the end of the play, of course Don Quixote came out on a white horse with his faithful servant Sancho Panza behind. Everyone went crazy like it was a Justin Bieber concert. The whole play everyone was talking with a Spanish accent and conjugating verbs using vosotros. Some of the Mexican actors did it pretty well, but for others it was kind of funny. 

And we got a picture with Cervantes

Since it was Cervantino, the whole town was decked out like it was Spain. People were wearing Spanish tunics with those frilly neck things. This photo opportunity said "No os olvideis subirla al Feis," which is conjugating using vosotros. Mexicans would a) never use vosotros, and b) would never say Feis to mean Facebook. Mexicans usually make fun of Spaniards for mutating English words into Spanish. Instead Mexicans prefer just to use the English word. 

Other random things I noticed:

The whole age limit on relationships is very weird in Mexico. Look at the age gap between Albert Einstein and his wife. I watched them closely, he was NOT her dad. Note the young children. 

Since Cervantino is a mining town, I thought it would be appropriate to visit one of the mines. This is one of the mines we visited that went about 60 meters down into the ground, about 20 stories. It was kind of terrifying to be in the mine thinking that if a earthquake were to occur, you would be completely f'd. We also learned that the mine originally exploited natives who worked 15 hour days in exchange for 35 mexican centavos, which is like 3 cents per day.

I also visited the Torture Museum. Turns out that the Spanish Inquisition's headquarters in Mexico were in Guanajuato. They had all kinds of fucked up stuff. Here is a sample of the crimes and the corresponding sentences:
1) Abortion: A metal helmet was locked onto your head with a tiny slit for you to eat. The slit was not large enough to actually feed yourself, so the women would slowly die of starvation and malnutrition.
2) Treason: A helmet with a tube is attached to your head. The tube fits securely over your nose. A carnivorous worm is placed in the tube and sealed. The worm then proceeds to climb up your nose and slowly feeds on your brain until you die, usually from seisures.
3) Having red hair: burned at the stake for being a witch. If you confess they burn you with dry wood. If you don't confess, they burn you with green wood so that the process is slower and more painful.
4) Reading banned books: Boiled in a pot of half water and half oil.

5) Homosexuality: Placed on top of a metal pyramid that has been lubricated with butter. The tip of the piramid is put in your butt and your torsoe is secured with straps.

So ya, some seriously messed up stuff. To lighten up the mood here are some more pictures.

This is my desk where I study.  

Coca Cola has an amazing marketing strategy in Mexico. They just put people's names on Coke cans and people go crazy. I'm not sure if it would work in the US given the greater diversity of names than in Mexico where 90% of the population is Jose or Carlos. Totally kidding, haha. 

Saw this in a bar for the first time. These guys will circulate bars and people will pay them to electrocute their group as a game. The group holds hands in a semi circle with the people on the ends holding onto metal handles connected to this machine. The guy slowly increases the current and the person who can't handle it lets go. The game continues until there is a winner. Doesn't seem like a very fun game to me, but they love it.