David Lida

The world is a wedding

January 23rd, 2012

On a balmy night not long ago I was walking down Calle Durango and heard a woman scream. I turned and saw a slender young thing in a pink dress, a plastic cup of something in hand, inside this bus celebrating with her friends. She did not seem particularly happy about me taking her picture, but I did get a couple of shots of the vehicle, which was marked “Boda Bus.” For the Spanish impaired, boda means wedding.

If you go to the Boda Bus web site, you will find out that the business was started by a couple of guys who were one day part of a wedding party, to which they arrived late — an incident they vowed would never happen again. They offer various services, including bachelor(ette) parties, one of which I believe I witnessed that night. They also offer tours of the city, trips to soccer games, and transportation to actual weddings. You could probably negotiate to get hitched on the bus itself. Let’s just say it’s a novel idea in a city with a perennial traffic problem.

Labels: Mexico City

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MLK

January 15th, 2012

I know that readers of this blog expect posts about Mexico City, however once in a while my attention takes me elsewhere. Recently my mitigation work took me to Memphis, Tennessee, a city I’d never visited before. I had a day off in which to explore downtown, and one of my stops was the Lorraine Motel, pictured above, where Martin Luther King was murdered. It is no longer functioning as a motel and now houses the National Museum of Civil Rights.

When I got to this corner I burst into tears. It’s complicated. My mother went to college in Memphis, and shared the same birthday as Martin Luther King — today, January 15 — and so in my mind they are inextricably linked. I am not sure whether I cried for her, for him, for both, or for an idea: that today in the United States the concept of civil rights is so divorced from everyday reality — has been so effectively robbed from its citizens — that its only place is in a museum.

In any case, I wanted to honor the memory of Dr. King on his day.

Labels: Mexico City

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People were dying to get in here

January 9th, 2012

Discreetly tucked away in the corner of a plaza in the rough-and-tumble Colonia Guerrero is a tiny cemetery known as the Panteón de San Fernando. Nearly everyone who is buried here died in the 19th century — including Benito Juárez (1806 – 1872). Mexico’s liberal reformer, he was the man who put into law the separation of church and state here and, in U.S. history books, is often compared to Abraham Lincoln. Both he and his señora, Margarita Maza, are buried in this tomb.

Other illustrious but less well-known Mexicans are buried here also, with similarly notable sculpture.

In Mexico City, space seems to have been at a premium even that far back. Many at San Fernando are buried in these compartment crypts along the walls.

This inscription brought a tear to my eye. If you don’t read Spanish, it says, “Here sleeps Miguel Badillo Bernardi, my beloved son. Speak softly — don’t wake him up. March 19, 1866.”

Isadora Duncan was buried here … NOT. Some of her Mexican admirers paid for her to have an honorary crypt in San Fernando.

The graveyard is around the corner from the San Fernando Church, a Franciscan temple with an exquisite altar begun in the 1730s.

Perhaps because of the area’s dodgy reputation, there are never many people here, making it convenient for people like this gentleman taking his siesta. It is located at Plaza San Fernando #17, between Calle Heroes and Calle Guerrero, in the Colonia Guerrero. Tours are given every two weeks. Information: 5518 4736.

Labels: Mexico City

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Fake food

January 2nd, 2012

Restaurante Tokyo on Calle Hamburgo 134 in the Zona Rosa is one of Mexico City’s longest-running establishments for Japanese food. If the meals here are not especially memorable, they are absolutely reliable, and the place is a decent, reasonably priced option in the neighborhood (which is crowded with fast-food emporiums and greasy taco joints). I have always loved this window display of plastic food at street level, which has not changed in more than twenty years since I first came to Mexico City. Sometimes I think it looks more enticing than anything that is actually served in the restaurant.

Labels: Mexico City

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A tale of two trucks

December 26th, 2011

Not long ago in the Colonia San Rafael, Mexico City.

Not long ago in the Faubourg Marigny, New Orleans.

Labels: Mexico City

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(photo by Federico Gama)

THE LOWDOWN

I am the author of three books (two in English, one in Spanish) and the editor of two more. I have been a journalist for more than 20 years, principally in the U.S. and Mexico, but also for magazines in England, Canada and Peru. I have lived in Mexico City off and on -- mostly on -- since 1990, and there is nowhere else on earth where I have felt more at home. This is probably where I'm supposed to go into a song-and-dance about the wife, the kids, the dogs, the porch and so forth; when I get them you'll be the first to know.

A fast-paced account of daily life in a city that defies description.
--Wall Street Journal

This is my latest book, First Stop in the New World, a street-level panorama of contemporary Mexico City. I try to cover a lot of ground – from the richest man in the world, to a 13-year-old girl who lives on the street and sniffs glue. Reviews have been outstanding, from the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune, among other media. Click here to find out more about it (as well as my other books), or here to go directly to its Amazon page.

Las llaves de la ciudad

Here is another of my books, also recently published, called Las llaves de la ciudad. It’s also about Mexico City, although completely different from First Stop in the New World. A collection of pieces I published in magazines in Spanish here, each story profiles a distinct person. You’ll meet Alín, a deaf-mute transvestite who has invented her own sign language; a man who can read your horoscope using the Aztec calendar; a fellow who sells Nazi paraphernalia in the flea market, and even Viviana Corcuera, Mexico City’s most notorious socialite. Together, they form a mosaic of the city. If you are in Mexico, click here to get it, or if you prefer, click here to go to its Amazon page.

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