Show ach 1 MR 0 V 0 ir af ism A AMMA JL JL V ajl IL mexico M 0 gitig cit aj P k professional letter writers in mexico city A prepared by national geographic society washington D C service EXICO city north america americas s M MEXICO oldest metropolis recently balled a new president al most as suddenly as pascual arnz bublo rubio resigned gen abelardo rodriquez became the new master of mexico s white house mexico city Is an astonishing place things have happened here so strange i and unusual that were they not set down in authentic t ic r records ce 0 rd s t they h e y would down tax ax all belief 1 it t lo 10 looms 0 m s 1 largest r g e s t in the e mind of the average american because of its supremely important diplomatic relations with washington growing out of the many old unsolved ques eions between the two republics but in modern superficial aspects it Is not unlike some other latin american cap atals it has old palaces parks paint ings and libraries colleges convents great newspapers and broadcasting stations likewise diplomats soldiers rs traffic jams and jails it buys and sells and slid makes soap soda water shoes shirts candy cigarettes furni ture machinery patent medicines and textiles sit in one of its theaters and watch a newsreel news reel swim dance play golf or tennis at a club or land at bal buena field in a passenger plane from el paso and except that you hear spanish instead of yankee chatter you might as well be in denver in fact the high top light and nearby snow peaks much resemble the scenic settings of colorado but under all this standard zed mod is luch i ech more a blend of span ish and aztec forces that goes back years you see signs of this now and then in flat three cornered aztec faces moving stolidly in street crowds probe the mystic past and you find that certain historic events staged here swayed the destiny of our con tor for centuries here christianity got its first foothold in north america when idols were turned into altars and a glittering but cruel pagan culture yielded stubbornly to european chiv here america s first sheet music and first book were published here its first money was coined and here too appeared the flying mercury some have styled it america americas s first news paper but more I 1 kely it was but a pamphlet on history or political dis when cortez came imagine yourself in mexico city that fateful day in 1519 when cortez came you remember his first arrival was peaceful the dreadful 93 days of fighting often hand to hand came on a later visit montezuma glittering with jewels and golden decorations gorgeous in bis his royal robe and gold soled sandals comes out to meet cor fez and escort him into the island city unseen til till then by any white man mans s eye the greatest city in north america Is astir with pagan life could you have been there walking and talking with cortez and the emperor monte zuma you too would have marveled as the spaniards d d down a broad fifth avenue like thoroughfare cortez and his amazed men followed the aztec emperor throughout the venice like city ran canals crowded with thousands of busy canoes laden with passengers fruit fowls flowers grain and fuel stone buildings lined both paved streets and canals and on a great plaza stood the palace of montezuma s father faced by a great or sacrificial temple here in 1325 the aztecs first saw the symbolic snake and eagle and built their first temples here in 1521 was staged one of the most bloody of all combats between aztec and span lard when spanish prisoners of war were sacrificed to the thel idols dols edly more people were executed here than at any other spot on earth more afore than skulls were found in one temple and it Is estimated that at least men women and children were sacrificed here each year even the spaniards themselves after the conquest executed their own castil an criminals here and exposed their heads after the manner of the aztecs to the astonishment of visiting ind ans here iturbide was proclaimed em ern geror in 1822 here the american general winfield scott raised the stars and stripes in 1847 and here twenty years later the emperor maxi milian bade sad farewell to his friends before he faced the firing squad so on through the diaz madero car ranza obre obregon on calles and other regimes this this blood stained area has seen mexican history made palaces pawnshops churches markets and other institutions face it now and into it run no fewer than ten thorough fares including the stately alvenu avenues es of cinco de mayo madero and th the e 16 de S e p t ae m r e bm 0 old 1 d market arket and little shops on tramcars on foot and in ili motor cars an incredible traffic stream pours through this plaza every day and on its west side there flourishes what Is perhaps the cites oldest market since 1524 when city officials gave merchants permission to build coes to shelter goods displayed on the sidewalk in front of their stores retail trade has gone on here for years the letter writers plied their pens here helping many lovesick indians to woo by mall A f few ew still do bust ness walking by this plaza market now you pass under arcades whose old walls are plastered with bullfight posters and notices of lottery drawings slow moving mexican street crowds loiter before the little shops these sell toys sweet meats newspapers cheap jewelry ind odds and ends of hardware and dishes eyeglasses post cards and other trivial wares tor for the city s large department stores and finest shops are out on fashionable avenues here also under these ar cades stuck away in tiny nooks are men running little hand printing presses for making cheap calling cards and stationery and other indolent artisans who mend clocks guitars tell fortunes with canary birds and peddle lottery tickets and here too Is the beggar known in mexican slang as the or literally the for god s saker on the south side of the plaze Is a section known as the portal de las flores this was the old flower mar ket het in days when canals still led to the plaza and indians landed their canoes here the valley of mexico sheer theatrical geography that Is the historic valley of mexico or ana huac duac A vast mountain fringed oval it Is of 1758 square miles it tops the mexican highlands as a great nat ural colosseum a dramatic sun drenched setting for all the stirring events it has staged though in places more than feet above the sea flood waters long menaced its lower areas lakes and marshes were once more numerous than now to protect ancient genoch gitlan the aztecs built many d kes in salty lake texcoco three great causeways connected their venice 1 ke city of water streets with the mainland and a waterway tor for canoes and barges ran out to lake texcoco floods were so bad even before the spaniards came that the aztecs had built dams and as early as 1553 the viceroy luls luis de velasco struggled with the problem one gigantic trench the still ia la tajo de was begun in 1607 in which task thousands of overworked indians perished it was first opened as a tunnel to drain the valley lakes then closed in a dis flood waters rose three feet deep in the city streets changed later from a tunnel into a great trench in places feet deep and feet wide the tajo de remains an amazing example of what early span lards could do with indian slave labor from your train you can see this bif torte man made mountain pass now as you ride into mexico city from the north one of the strangest aspects of mex ico leo city Is that though perched so high up near a continental divide it long biked and drained itself like a seaside town in holland it was not till 1900 after centuries of study and work that the city was made safe when the great 30 mil mile canal del de was completed on ft it thousands of men worked tor for years with teams trams and steam shovels it Is easily the most spectacular modern engineer ing feat from the roosevelt poosevelt dam to the panama canal |