The Palacio Nacional is the residence of Mexico's President (can anyone out there name him?). Like all colonial-era buildings here it is huge and has a scarred history of intrigue, corruption, and wars. It is also the home of the biggest collection in the world of works by renowned muralist Diego Rivera. He was a socialist, a patriotic communist, an exposer of corrupt governments and especially the horrors of the Spanish brutality in colonizing Mexico.
The 15 giant murals tell the story of Mexico's advanced civilization and peoples before the Spaniards "discovered" the new world. Then they sequence through the arrival of the
Conquistadors and the horrors of forced religion, forced labour, and genocide. It's amazing that the Mexican government allows them to be seen ---- it's a most damning portrait of the evolution of current-day society. Very colourful, very powerful.
(Even very playful: Rivera painted himself and his wife Frida Kahlo into one of the murals.) Many sad parallels to the fate of native peoples all over the world.
Outside, Sunday crowds thronged the massive public square "Zocalo". Hundreds of people lined up for a strange ceremony of costume, smoke, and ritual. It's a sort of cleansing and good luck for a new beginning, mostly believed in by older generations. Then Pat got surrounded by roving Mexican college students! They had an assignment to find and interview a gringa --- in English. They were humbled to hear we had seen way more of their country than they had. But it was a nice counterbalance to the murals --- the future looks brighter for Mexicans than the past.
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