Fridarama

On Sunday, we went with our neighbors and new pals, The Catheys, to check out the blockbuster Frida Kahlo show downtown. This year is the 100th anniversary of Kahlo's birth, and there is a big retrospective exhibition showing her paintings as well as drawings, photographs and personal letters. We waited in line for over an hour at the Palacio de Bellas Artes to enter the exhibit hall. It was really interesting to see up close the intense interest people have in Frida Kahlo. Her work is incredibly introspective (self-portrait after self-portrait ) yet it has genuine mass appeal as demonstrated by not only the long lines at the museum but also the Hollywood movie and the piles of Frida trinkets out there. I wonder if she has become more popular and her work more recognized than Diego Rivera's?

This is the Bellas Artes. The building is incredibly heavy (all that marble) and is slowly sinking into the ground.

We were pretty geeked about seeing the Rivera mural, "Man, Controller of the Universe" (above). Rivera repainted this as a version of "Man at the Crossroads," the mural which was commissioned in 1933 for the Rockefeller Center in NY. The original version ended up being chipped off the Center's walls shortly after completion because it included a portrait of Lenin. After that fiasco, Rivera recreated the mural in Mexico --- Lenin's still there on the "socialism" side of the street (the other crossroads being capitalism, science, industry).

The Bellas Artes includes murals by Siquieros, Orozco, Tomayo and O'Gorman. Here are some images from Orozco's "catharsis."




.....So from one palace to another: just across the street from the Palacio de Bellas Artes is the Postal Palace! Seriously, this is the most over-the-top post office I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. The Palacio Postal also happens to be celebrating its centennial as well. Here's a look at this dripping-in-gold beauty:



Check out my giddy delight --- I love a post office, but this one is taking the prize. Finally, a building that adequately celebrates the glory of national mail service! I can't wait to go back and mail a letter!

We ended the afternoon in our typical fashion by sitting down for a giant lunch. Kate and Michael had a line on the oldest restaurant in Mexico City: Hosteria Santo Domingo, just a few blocks away in el Centro.



This restaurant has been running since 1860 and is housed in a former monastery. It has good traditional Mexican food, and is famous for chiles en nogada. Kate ordered the marquee dish and declared it delicious!


Sergio ordered ants:


Yep, that's him eating ant larvae. And it was good!