Curbside History Lesson

A great 24 hours. Yesterday I had a very successful interview over lunch, then went to an early-evening party where, again, foreigners and Mexicans mixed seamlessly. I saw Pedro, who used to work at the News with me, and we rapped about NAFTA for a good long time.
Then today I was walking down Reforma to the Internet café when I saw a guy on the sidewalk selling a bunch of old photos, mostly of the Mexican Revolution. All the classics were there, like Zapata posing in what was later to become the standard mariachi suit, Pancho Villa in the presidential chair, etc. So Don Ricardo, the 70-year-old photo vendor, and I started talking Mexican history, each trying to outdo each other. I started mentioning all the Revolutionary presidents, and then he outbid me by naming every president from Benito Juarez (1860s) to the present. Soon we were surrounded by a bunch of guys in cowboy hats who were following along as we jumped from photo to photo, with Don Ricardo showing us shots of generals and ministers whom I'd never heard of before. I then looked down the street, which was filled with farmers who had arrived in the capital for a protest. They were just sitting around waiting for their buses, so watching an old dude and a gringo zip along through a discussion of Mexican history was highly entertaining for them. I talked with Enrique, one of their leaders, for a while about the need for an increase in rural credit so that farmers could buy the machines necessary to compete with American agriculture.
Then I picked up a few photos, some classics and one I'd never seen before, a closeup of Zapata's dead body, held by his compadres, who are wide-eyed with sorrow. If you didn't know, Emiliano Zapata led a peasant army in the Mexican Revolution but didn't join the victorious Revolutionary leaders in forming a government. The new government arranged for talks with Zapata about a truce, which was merely a pretext to assassinate him.

Comments

[Sue]

Hey Dude it be the 27 of July, where are the postings?

[Sue]

Hey Dude it be the 27 of July, where are the postings?

[Sue]

Hey Dude it be the 27 of July, where are the postings?

[Sue]

Hey Dude it be the 27 of July, where are the postings?

[Sue]

Hey Dude it be the 27 of July, where are the postings?

[Sue Paskerian]

Hey Dude it be the 27 of July, where are the postings?