in the plaza de las tres culturas in tlateloco, where the 1968 student matanza happened (more details after i see the movie tomorrow), denali and i encountered a stone inscription, carved in memory of present and past, that on such and such a day Cuautemoc fell to the power of Cortes, and
"no fue triunfo ni derrota,
fue el doloroso nacimiento del pueblo mestizo
que es el méxico de hoy"
that is
"it was neither triumph nor defeat,
it was the painful birth of the mestizo people
that is this mexico, today"
*
a darker twist on my theories of interracial marriage (and heightened beet consumption) being the fundamental prerequisite for world peace. the mestizaje in this country was a violent one, a forced mixing of indigenious blood with spanish conquerors and spanish missionaries, african warriors and african slaves. the people are as beautiful as you might imagine but there's not the same lightness and postmodern pleasure in the mixture here; perhaps the mestizaje happened early enough that instead of developing a consciousness of unity (or in addition to the roots of it), they have developed an actual race in itself, a mix that preserves its mixture and thus certian features of its "doloroso nacimiento" that fill the crime reports and avenues until today.
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