Mexico City (3), Kahlo, Rivera and Trotsky: Part 11 of South East from Mexico City

La Casa Azul, Trotsky's House and Dolores Olmeda

Mexico

Mexico City

We were pleased to see F again, even if he was half an hour late. After apologising and blaming the traffic he introduced his boss who had arrived with him. She apologised for our missed street food tour two weeks earlier - see Mexico City (1) - and promised we would be reimbursed for both the tour and the phone calls and texts on the day. The company, she said, would buy us lunch today in further recompense.

Coyoacán

Coyoacán

Happy with this we set off with F towards Coyoacán, once a Tepanec village on the south shore of Lake Texcoco, now a municipality in the south of Mexico City. The Tepanec had welcomed the Spanish as potential allies against the Aztecs, and Coyoacán became Hernán Cortés’ headquarters in his conquest of the Aztec Empire. From 1521-23 it was the first capital of New Spain and although now absorbed into Mexico City’s urban sprawl, many areas retain their original plazas, narrow streets and colonial buildings.

La Casa Azul, The Frida Kahlo Museum

Frida Kahlo, owner of the world's most celebrated monobrow
'Fulan Chang and I', 1937 self-portrait, Museum of Modern Art, New York

La Casa Azul (the Blue House) in the Colonia del Carmen district of Coyoacán was built in 1904 for German-Mexican photographer Guillermo Kahlo. Frida Kahlo, the third of his four daughters was born here in July 1907 (or perhaps at her maternal grandmother’s house nearby.)

La Casa Azul, The Frida Kahlo Museum, Coyoacán

Frida Kahlo spent her childhood here and then lived here with her husband Diego Rivera from the late 30s until her death in 1954. Rivera died in 1958 and donated the house and contents as a museum in Frida’s honour. The inscription in the courtyard claiming Diego and Frida lived here 1929-54 invokes some poetic license, they lived in rural Mexico and the USA (1929-33) and in Mexico City’s San Ángel neighbourhood for much of the rest of the 30s.

Inscription, courtyard, La Casa Azul

Like most local houses, La Casa Azul is built round a courtyard. The courtyard contains a garden, a collection of pre-Columbian artefacts and other sculptures.

In the courtyard, La Casa Azul

Frida’s life was dogged by misfortune. At the age of six she contracted polio which left her right leg shorter and thinner than her left. In 1925, aged 18, she was returning from school when her bus was involved in an accident. She was impaled on an iron rail which fractured her pelvis, and she also broke several ribs and both legs. Three months later an investigation of her continuing back pain revealed displaced vertebrae. She was placed in a rigid corset and confined to bed for another three months.

Shelving her ambition to become a doctor, she had an easel constructed that allowed her to paint in bed and a mirror positioned to facilitate the first of many self-portraits. She began to think of art as more than a mere hobby.

Frida Kahlo’s paintings are in galleries all over the world but La Casa Azul retains a few, including her (unfinished) family portrait - not perhaps her best work.

Family portrait, Frida Kahlo, La Casa Azul

Frieda y Diego Rivera (Thanks Wikipedia)
The original is in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

In 1927 Frida’s bed rest was over. Ignoring her physical disabilities as much as she could she set out on a demanding social life. She joined the communist Party and in 1928 met Diego Rivera, 20 years older than her, a well-established artist and Communist Party member. She asked him to look at her paintings, his encouragement became a relationship and they married in 1929.

[Kahlo was christened Magdalena Carmen Frida but always used her third name, spelling it Frieda until the late 1930s when (for understandable reasons) she felt  a need to dissociate herself from her German heritage.]

Over the next couple of years Rivera worked on his mural ‘The History of Mexico’ which we had seen in the National Palace ( Mexico City (2)).

The History of Mexico (part). Diego Rivera, National Palace, Mexico City

They spent 1931-33 mainly in the USA. The marriage was tempestuous, Rivera was a ‘self-confessed womaniser’ and Kahlo also had several affairs. Kahlo’s medical history meant it would be unwise or maybe impossible for her to have children. She had two abortions in the 1930s and a miscarriage later and dealt with the problems in her art. A curled foetus appears in many of her paintings, including her family portrait above.

Frieda and the Caesarean, 1931, La Casa Azul

Frida left Diego in 1935 after discovering his affair with her younger sister Christina, but they were soon reconciled. In 1937 they persuaded the Mexican government to grant asylum to Leon Trotsky, and he and his wife moved into the Casa Azul in 1937. Trotsky and Frida Kahlo had an affair, probably among the reasons the Trotsky’s left in 1939.

Leon Trotsky and Frida Kahlo, La Casa Azul

The affair may also have been a major factor (or final straw) in Frida and Diego’s 1939 divorce. The divorce was not a success, they remarried in 1940.

Amid all this mayhem it almost surprising to find their Casa Azul kitchen so very normal – and very Mexican.

Kitchen, La Casa Azul

Most of the remaining exhibits on the ground floor concern Frida's clothing. She favoured the Tehuana traditional dress of the Zapotec woman from Oaxaca. The flowing dresses covered up the physical imperfections caused by polio and her bus accident, but, equally importantly, her maternal grandfather had been a Zapotec, and their matriarchal society reflected her feminist ideals.

Frida Kahlo's dresses

Always frail, her medical problems continued throughout her life - she had an appendectomy in the 1930s and two gangrenous toes were amputated at much the same time. In 1950 she had more back surgery, which resulted in an infection, after which she spent much of her time in a wheel-chair. Gangrene caused the amputation of her right leg in 1953.

Frida Kahlo's medical appliances, La Casa Azul

Upstairs is her studio with her wheel-chair in front of her easel.

Frida Kahlo's studio with her last still life on the easel, La Casa Azul

In 1954 bronchopneumonia led to a pulmonary embolism and Frida Kahlo died on the night of 12th of July aged only 47. Her death mask rests on her bed….

Frida Kahlo's death mask, La Casa Azul

…while her ashes sit in a pre-Columbian urn on her dressing table.

Frida Kahlo's ashes in the urn on her dressing table. La Casa Azul

During her life Kahlo was largely known as Diego Rivera’s wife. Her work was reassessed in the 1970s and she is now regarded as a serious artist in her own right. Whatever her quality as an artist, it is impossible not to admire the spirit and commitment with which she lived her life.

Frida Kahlo in her corset with hammer and cycle (and a foetus), La Casa Azul

La Casa de Leon Trotsky

F drove us the short distance to the Leon Trotsky Museum on Avenida Vienna. He dropped us off and we waited for him, thinking he had gone to park. It was a surprisingly lengthy wait - he thought he was waiting for us to see the museum. We discovered the misunderstanding when he returned, sent him away again and entered the museum.

Museo Casa de Leon Trotsky, Avenue Vienna, Coyoacán, Mexico City

The display had some interesting photographs, but was mostly documents. We can read Russian, spelling out the words like a six-year-old but understanding nothing, and although our Spanish is better, it is not good.

We moved quickly through to the house. It is less forbidding seen from the garden but the watch-tower, top right, is an obvious reminder of Trotsky’s priorities.

The courtyard of the Trotsky House

Leon Trotsky had been a leader of the Russian revolution and in 1918 was head of the Red Army. When Lenin died in 1924 Trotsky was his natural successor, but he was outmanoeuvred by Josef Stalin. Intolerant of all opposition Stalin side-lined and demoted Trotsky and in 1929 exiled him from the Soviet Union. As a political hot potato Trotsky was a largely unwelcome guest in Turkey, France and then Norway where he was placed under house arrest. The Norwegians were delighted when Mexico offered him asylum in 1937.

After spending two years at the Casa Azul, having an affair with Frida Kahlo and so falling out with Diego Rivera, he had to move. Knowing Stalin wanted him dead he needed a house with better security and moved to the Avenida Vienna house in March 1939. He lived and worked here with his family and entourage.

Trotsky's bedroom

An ineffectual attempt at his murder in April 1939 led to increased security. The thickness of the doors shows how worried Trotsky was….

Security door and bullet holes, Casa de Trotsky, Coyoacán

…and the bullet holes in the plaster show those worries were justified. In May 1940 painter and muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros led an assault group comprised of men who had served under him in the Spanish Civil War and members of the Miner’s Union. They broke into the compound, sprayed the house with machine gun bullets, lobbed in some grenades and withdrew confident that nobody had survived. In fact, all survived uninjured except Trotsky’s grandson who was shot in the foot. That grandson, Vsevolod (later Esteban) Volkov, now in his 90s is still a trustee of the museum.

The Assassination of Leon Trotsky

Guile succeeded where brute force had failed. The American lover of long time NKVD agent Ramón Mercader, infiltrated Trotsky’s entourage as a secretary. Once she had his confidence, she introduced Mercader who posed as a Canadian sympathiser.

Sectretary's office, Trotsky's house, Coyoacán

He entered Trotsky's study on the pretext of showing him a document. As Trotsky perused the document Mercader took an ice-axe from under his coat and struck Trotsky on the back of the head. Trotsky fought back, his bodyguards rushed in and overpowered Mercader. Trotsky was taken to hospital where he died the next day and Mercader was removed by the police. He was convicted of murder and served 20 years. On his release in 1961 the USSR awarded him the Order of Lenin and he lived in retirement in Cuba until his death in 1978.

Trotsky's study, where the fatal blow was struck, Coyacán

Trotsky is buried in the garden of his Avenida Vienna house.

Trotsky's grave at his house in Coyoacán

The Dolores Olmeda Museum

F was waiting outside when we emerged. He drove us to the Dolores Olmeda Museum, not far away but just outside the borders of Coyoacán.

The museum is housed in a hacienda with extensive gardens giving a feel of the countryside, although it is well within Mexico City’s urban sprawl.

Garden, Dolores Olmeda Museum

Xoloitxcuintlu Dogs and Other Creatures

Outside there are geese, ducks and peacocks….

Peacock, Dolores Olmeda Museum

…and Xoloitzcuintli dogs. ‘Xolos’ are a native Mexican breed and are generally (though not exclusively) hairless. They were favourites of Dolores Olmeda and appear in photos with, and paintings by, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. I find them extraordinarily ugly – but I am no dog lover.

Xoloitzcuintli dogs sleep beside a statue of one of themselves

Dolores Olmeda's Diego Rivera Collection

Businesswoman Dolores Olmeda bought the property in 1962 with the intention of creating a museum. She donated her art collection and, after her death in 2002, funds for the museum's upkeep.

The Dolores Olmeda Museum, Mexico City

Her collection is vast and covers pre-Columbian, colonial, folk, modern and contemporary art, though unsurprisingly she has the premier collection of the works of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Equally unremarkably she was Diego Rivera’s lover – he hardly met a woman who wasn’t.

We started in the Day of the Dead exhibition…

Day of the Dead, Dolores Olmeda Museum

…though Diego and Frida get in there as well.

Diego and Frida at the Dolores Olmeda Museum

The Diego Rivera collection includes preliminary drawings for the ‘History of Mexico’ mural.

Diego Rivera: preliminary drawing for the History of Mexico

Rivera never seemed to decide on his preferred style. ‘History of Mexico’ has notes of socialist realism, while the nudes below are anything but.

Diego Rivera nudes, Dolores Olmeda Museum

Other paintings flirt with late impressionism or resemble Picassos or Gaugins. And then there is ‘El Picador’ painted in 1909 which combines precise draughtsmanship with great sensitivity.

El Picador, Diego Rivera, 1909. Dolores Olmeda Museum

Pablo O'Higgins

Finally, we had a look at the lithographs of Pablo O’Higgins, an American-Mexican artist, muralist and illustrator. Born Paul Higgins Stevenson in Salt Lake City in 1904, he became a student of Diego Rivera in 1924 and spent most of his working life in Mexico.

The Brickmakers, Pablo O'Higgins, Dolores Olmeda Museum

Back to the City and Homewards

It was now two o’clock and time for our ‘free' lunch. F asked if we wanted it at the museum or at any of several restaurants he could recommend near our hotel. We decided to head back, thinking we would there about three.

The traffic had been bad in the morning, but it was much worse now. Roads were closed and intersections grid-locked; for long periods nobody went anywhere. Drivers accepted it all with resigned patience but we could see our lunch vanishing as the clock ticked past three, half past and then four. We were scheduled to leave for the airport at five.

We arrived, F insisted we still had time to eat and headed into the restaurant of a department store. Lynne & F ordered a spicy soup while I went for enchiladas and F explained the need for speed to a waitress in a folk dress. Lynne’s soup wasn’t spicy and my enchiladas were just tacos in a bland, sloppy, allegedly cheesy sauce. We had started with great expectations but had found Mexican food almost universally disappointing. This was not even that good but was eaten at such speed it hardly mattered.

Our airport transfer phoned to say he would not be able to pick us up any time soon so F volunteered to take us to the airport. ‘Twenty minutes normally,’ he said, ‘forty minutes today.’

I was sceptical but he was right and we were near enough on time for check-in. We were grateful to him and did not envy his long cross-town journey home.

The gate opened on time but were held there for ages and left an hour late. ‘Sorry for the delay,’ the senior steward said, ‘I could make excuses, but the simple truth is that some of the crew were stuck in traffic. Sorry.’

The remainder of our journey home was as planned.

[update: Our 'free' lunch turned out to be little recompense for the missed tour. However, on returning home we were pleased with the speed and happy with the size of the refund.]

South East from Mexico City

Part 1: Mexico City (1): Celebrating a Revolution
Part 2: Mexico City (2) Centro Historico and Teotihuacan
Part 3: Cholula, a Big Pyramid and Fresh Grasshoppers
Part 4: Puebla, Cinco de Mayo and Street Food
Part 5: Oaxaca (1): Monte Alban
Part 6: Oaxaca (2): Cooking a Mole
Part 7: San Cristóbal de las Casas. Chamula and Zinacantán
Part 8: The Sumidero Canyon and Chiapa de Corzo
Part 9: San Cristóbal to Palenque via Toniná
Part 10: Palenque and Back to Mexico City
Part 11: Mexico City (3) Kahlo, Rivera and Trotsky

THE END

Palenque and Back to Mexico City: Part 10 of South East from Mexico City

The Mayan Ruins of Lakhama and a Flight Back to the Capital

29-Nov-2017

Wildlife at the Chan-Kah Resort

Mexico

Chiapas
State

The Chan-Kah resort near Palenque is the sort of luxury holding pen for foreigners we usually try to avoid, but I liked our cabin on the resort boundary where order transformed into jungle. Before leaving yesterday to drive back to San Cristóbal, Al had mentioned that we might hear howler monkeys in the morning. The very loud, very aggressive noise, more growling than howling, that filled the early morning air would have been scary without that warning. They seemed to be all around us so we went out for a look, but however hard we peered into the trees all we saw was leaves and branches. Howlers habitually communicate across miles of dense forest, so we should not have been surprised.

Lynne outside our cabin, Chan-Kah resort, Palenque

The gods of tourism have decreed that the modern town of Palenque, two miles to the east, is of no interest; we were here only to visit the Mayan ruins, a similar distance in the opposite direction.

Palenque is a small city in south east Mexico, marked on this map only because of the Mayan ruins

Lakamha, The Palenque Mayan Ruins

Our guide arrived late – we were getting used to that – and drove us the short distance to Lakamha (literally: "Big Water") as Mayan Palenque was probably called. The city was occupied from roughly 100BC to 900AD, though most extant buildings date from the 7th century. Once abandoned, the city melted back into the jungle.

Part of the Palenque site not incorporated into the main tourist site. More lies hidden in the jungle

Mayan hunters telling a Spanish priest of a jungle palace in 1746 set off a series of investigations, initially amateur, damaging and often highly speculative, that became more professional with time. Today 90-95% of the site remains unexcavated but the 2.5km² open to tourists contain some of the finest Mayan buildings known. As the Mayans lacked the wheel, metal tools, or pack animals early European explorers credited the city to the Egyptians, the Polynesians, the Lost Tribes of Israel or anyone else who took their fancy. It was not until 1831 that Juan (previously John) Galindo, an Anglo-Irishman working for the Federal Republic of Central America (existed 1823-41) noted that the figures depicted in Palenque’s art closely resembled the local native Americans. His observation gradually put a stop to the more exotic ideas.

Clearly Mayan features, from a panel in the palace

The Red Queen's Tomb and The Temples of the Skull and of the Inscriptions

Opposite the entrance on an artificially levelled platform is the 7th century Temple of the Skull, so called because the only surviving stucco is of a (deer’s?) skull.

The Temple of the Skull, Palenque

The Temple of the Skull forms a single complex with the Temple of the Inscriptions.

The Temple of the Inscriptions (nearest the camera) the Tomb of the Red Queen and the Temple of the Skull, Palenque

Between the temples, beneath the temporary covering, is the Tomb of the Red Queen, so called because the coffin and its contents were sprinkled with cinnabar, which can still be seen. It was a high status 7th century burial of a woman aged about 60. Her diet had been rich in meat and she had unusually good teeth but suffered from osteoporosis.

The Tomb of the red Queen, Palenque

The tomb was discovered in 1994. Beside the sarcophagus were two poorly preserved skeletons, one of a woman in her 30s the other of a young male. They are believed to be servants sacrificed so they could assist her in the ‘Place of Fear’.

Sarcophagus of the Red Queen, Palenque

Begun around 675AD, the huge Temple of the Inscriptions houses the second longest Mayan glyphic text known, recording 180 years of the city’s history. According to that inscription it is the funerary temple of K'inich Janaab' Pakal (ruled 615-683) and his sarcophagus was found deep in the temple in 1959. It was suspected that the Red Queen was Janaab’ Pakal’s mother but their DNA showed no family relationship. Maybe she was his wife, Lady Tz'akbu Ajaw. When/if the tombs of Janaab’ Pakal’s sons are located this question may be answered definitively.

The Temple of the Inscriptions

Inscriptions found here and elsewhere on the site have allowed historians to piece together the ruling dynasty from 431 to 799. Lakamha was semi-permanently at war with nearby rivals Calakmul and Toniná (see yesterday’s post). Calakmul sacked Lakamha in 599 and after another defeat in 611 the King of Calakmul actually entered the city. Government collapsed, religious ceremonies were not carried out and a contemporary inscription reads "Lost is the divine lady, lost is the king." Recovery started when K’inich Janaab’ Pakal (the Great) came to the throne in 615 and gathered pace throughout his 70 year reign, which became Lakamha’s golden period.

The Palace

The Palace is set at right angles to the Temple of the Inscriptions. The oldest parts date from the 3rd century, though there were many later additions.

The Palace (and Lynne and several vendors), Palenque

The palace has 12 rooms, two courtyards and a tower all connected by a series of narrow passages. Mayan architecture seemed to be groping towards the concept of the arch, but had not yet arrived, so the masonry is massive, the corridors tall and narrow, and the rooms small.

Corridors in the Palace, Palenque

Stucco decorations appear in places that would have had little or no natural light.

Stucci decorations in the corridor, the palace, Palenque

Several of the rooms appear to be saunas or sweat rooms and three contain stone benches. A stucco relief shows the king sitting cross-legged on one to receive visitors.

Stone throne, the palace, Palenque

Behind one throne, the Oval Palace Tablet records the coronation of Pakal in 615 AD. He was crowned by his mother, who had been his regent and the probably ruled jointly with him for some time afterwards.

The Oval Palace tablet, the palace, Palenque

As the tablet is undecipherable from my picture, here is a reconstruction (thanks to mesoweb.com)

Reconstructio of the Oval Palace Tablet, Palenque

Some decorations still show traces of the original colours.

Traces of original colour on the stucco, the palace, Palenque

The west courtyard is small, its use unknown…

The west courtyard, the palace, Palenque

…while the larger east courtyard was probably used for public events and the greeting of important visitors.

The east courtyard, Palenque

The surrounding walls were decorated with images of humiliated captives - a warning to visiting foreign dignitaries.

Humiliated captives, east courtyard, the palace, Palenque

The tower standing above one corner of the east courtyard was originally roofless and probably used for astronomy. The roof was the work of early archaeologists when the sophistication of Mayan astronomy/astrology was not yet understood.

The tower at the palace, Palenque

North of the palace is a small ball court.

Ball court, Palenque

The Temples of the Cross

…but we crossed the aqueduct that provided water for the sweat rooms….

Aqueduct, Palenque

…to the Temples of the Cross. This group of three temples built during the reign of Pakal’s son K'inich Kan Bahlam II (reigned 684-702) face each other in a bowl beneath the sacred mountain Yehmal K'uk' Lakam Witz, (Great Mountain of the Descending Quetzal).

Temple of the Foliated Cross

The temples contain inscriptions confirming their builder…

Temple of the Sun, Palenque

…and were given their name by early explorers who noted the crosses (a representation to the Mayan World Tree) in two of them (we earlier encountered the Mayan cross in Chamula).

Temple of the Cross, Palenque

Leaving Lakamha

There is more, but we had seen all the major buildings, so we made our way back to the car park by a path winding through the jungle,…

Lynne (and pandas) winding through the jungle, Palenque

… what may have been a residential quarter of the city…

Possibly residences in Palenque

…and across the Otulum River which flows from springs on the sacred mountain and provided the water for the aqueduct.

The bridge over the Otulum River, Palenque

Agoutis and Other Entertainment

We were back at the resort in time for lunch, nachos followed by soup, and then enjoyed an afternoon of leisure.

We walked through the extensive gardens…

The gardens at the Chan-Kah Resort, Palenque

…and spent some time stalking agoutis. Two of the eleven agouti species are found in Mexico, the critically endangered Mexican agouti and the abundant Central American agouti. These little chaps are very common in the Palenque area so I presume they are the latter species, though their colouring fits the description of the Mexican agouti. The hotel gardens were full of sleek, well-fed looking agoutis, but persuading one to pose nicely took patience.

Agouti - cute whatever the species, Chan-Kah resort, Palenque

Then it was time for a dip in the pool.

I don't know why Lynne chose to photograph her toes,
but I can be seen wallowing in the water in the background

30-Nov-2017

Back to Mexico City

The next day we returned to Mexico City. A cheerful and chatty man turned up in plenty of time for the two-hour drive to Villahermosa airport.

Palenque to Villahermosa

The road was good, though there was plenty of traffic, particularly after we joined the main highway from Guatemala where everyone, locals included, had to pass through a customs post. Traffic was divided into categories and sent through different channels in a large roadside compound; it was all a bit of a charade and when we reached the sharp end we were waved through with hardly a glance.

At traffic lights hawkers worked their way through the lines of vehicles, a dangerous way of making a meagre living.

Hawker selling food at the traffic lights, Palenque to Villahermosa

Tabasco State

We entered Tabasco state (everybody knows the sauce, but I had not previously realised it was a place) and reached Villahermosa airport in plenty of time. The airport is east of the city so we saw nothing of Tabasco’s capital.

We lunched on beer and sandwiches, ham and cheese and shredded pibil chicken. Pollo pibil, I read, ‘is a true gastronomic jewel of the Yucatán Peninsula,… the main ingredient being Achiote paste’ (a blend of spices coloured red by annatto seeds). Our sandwiches were expensive and borderline nasty, which I attribute to airport catering rather than the actual merits of chicken pibil.

Our flight took us over Popocatepetl in perfect visibility, recompense for the mountain hiding in the haze when we were in Puebla.

Popocatepetl from the air

As darkness fell we were back in the same Mexico City hotel where we started almost a fortnight ago. We dined in a nearby restaurant, drinking Mexican - tequilla and another good red from Baja California - but eating Spanish, the solomillo was a particularly fine piece of steak.

South East from Mexico City

Part 1: Mexico City (1): Celebrating a Revolution
Part 2: Mexico City (2) Centro Historico and Teotihuacan
Part 3: Cholula, a Big Pyramid and Fresh Grasshoppers
Part 4: Puebla, Cinco de Mayo and Street Food
Part 5: Oaxaca (1): Monte Alban
Part 6: Oaxaca (2): Cooking a Mole
Part 7: San Cristóbal de las Casas. Chamula and Zinacantán
Part 8: The Sumidero Canyon and Chiapa de Corzo
Part 9 San Cristóbal to Palenque via Toniná
Part 10: Palenque and Back to Mexico City
Part 11: Mexico City (3) Kahlo, Rivera and Trotsky

THE END