The Museum of Anthropology

The reason I decided to take a chance and spend a week in Mexico City was because they have this incredible museum of Anthropology. I figured if nothing else, I would return to the museum every day, or at least for several days. The last time I was here it was after a half-day city tour that was supposed to be in Spanish (after studying Spanish in Cuernavaca for three weeks I wanted the practice) but instead was in bad English. I stayed at the museum at the end of the tour, but was kind of tired to take it all in.

I went on Sunday, the day after I arrived, but for some strange reason, the museum was dark. They let us in for free, which was nice, but it was kind of hard to see things. The good thing was it wasn´t crowded and I got to see some of my favorite pieces like the big Aztec calendar and a giant Olmec head without having to struggle with the crowds.

Well, today I decided it was time to go back. What I missed two years ago were the upper floors (they were not even open on Sunday due to the lack of electricity). I didn´t realize it at the time but in each section of the museum which is devoted to the different cultures in Mexico, the upper floors show how they live today. So, while you can see ancient Maya on the ground floor, you can learn about current living and breathing Maya upstairs.

When I got to the museum today there was light. There were also huge crowds. So, I went to the first gallery and went up the escalator and to my delight, the upper floors were hardly crowded at all.

The first section I visited was about the Nahua, the descendents of the Aztec, who are from central Mexico but are now spread all throughout the country. They showed the effects of colonization and there were short films talking about current day Nahua migrations, and my favorite one was about Nahuatl words used in present day Mexican Spanish. It was quie entertaining as well as informative. I watched it twice and took notes. Some Nahuatl words even made their way into English - tomato - from jitomate, and avacado from aguacate. I´m looking forward to spicing up my Spanish with a few Nahuatl words.

I had a great time exploring the upper floors of the museum and then headed down to the restaurant for lunch. The waiter looked at me for a minute and then handed me the menu, which turned out to be in English and was completely unintelligible for me. Even things like guacamole (which is a nahuatl word by the way) were translated into English. So it said something like mash of avacado with lime and cilantro. I was checking out the broth with corn, pork, radish and onion and thinking it was pozole. I had some at Sanborns the other day and the pork was just cubes of fat, so I´ve been wanting a good bowl. But then I noticed that they had cebich on hard tacos, which I guessed to be ceviche tostadas. The pozole seemed like it might be too rich, so I went for a tortilla soup and the ceviche tostadas. The waiter and I both had problems interpreting the menu - he wasn´t sure if the broth with corn was the pozole or not.

The ceviche was marvelous. It came in blue corn tacos that were formed in little bowl shapes so it was really easy to eat. It was so fresh and refreshing. The tortilla soup wasn´t that good, but it was a perfect lunch, made even more perfect by flan for desert.

I had a great time at the museum, the memory of which was soon destroyed by the wait in the traffic and then the Turibus kidnapping. I am glad I got to write about it though so that now I can recall the delight I felt as I explored the nearly empty upper floors and learned a little bit about the cultures that many of my students come from as well as the cultures of the people around Puebla where I will be heading tomorrow.

I hope to make one more visit to the museum before I head back. I think next time I will walk.