Weekend I

It was a busy weekend, and its now late on a sunday night so I’m pretty wiped and going to go to bed soon.
Saturday morning I made banana pancakes for me and Kay, and she went out and picked up some fresh orange juice and fruit for the topping. I love living someplace where fresh squeezed orange juice is within a short walking distance.

Walked through Roma Norte, a beautiful, chill area which is actually more bohemian and more tanquilo than Condesa, to get to a building filled with design stores- Cordoba 25. They had a bookstore, two galleries of art, an interior/industrial design studio and an industrial design store in the first floor. They also had an optical shop upstairs where if you have a perscription they can make you glasses.

Walked through increasingly blue collar neighborhoods absolutely filled with car repar and engine repair stores- shallow storefronts where the ceilings were constellations of engine pistons, hung like fruit.

My goal was la Ciudadela, which is a few blocks consisting of the citadel, which is a currently a national library, a massive artesanal market of touristy souveniers and handcrafts, and a few large squares. I had intended to do some souvenier shopping in the market, but I was distracted by the sound of music and huge crowds in the square.

The crowd was older, most of the people there looked to be over 50, and they were for the most part very well dressed. Many wore the traditional white fedoras of Mexico. It was a massive dance party, and they were all dancing danzon, a type of Mexican dance which is a bit like a cross between salsa and tango, but slower than both. I enjoyed the music and the sight of the all the people in their dancing clothes. I stopped and watched for about an hour. I even ended up buying a similar hat from a vendor nearby. They had a live band that kicked off and played a bunch of music as well.

Architects and planners can delinate areas and create open spaces for things to happen, but really only people can make public spaces. There were people dancing in the narrow passages on both sides of the bandshell. In the US, we can design plazas, but without a culture which knows how to use them, they’re nearly wasted spaces.