Chronicles of Mexico 1962April 5

Chronicles of Mexico 1962

Excerpts from a teenager’s diary/scrapbook

(The full names of locations have been added to the Transcript of the scrapbook for clarification.)

Tuesday, April 5, 1962

Today, at the Ruins of the Prehistoric Caves of Yagul and Mitla, we went down from one of them from out of the shining sun, into a stuffy, damp tomb in the shape of a cross lying down. The arms pointed exactly north, east, south, and west.

When we came up, it was pouring buckets, however, it only lasted four minutes. To The right in the picture is a little room in which the Z-design exactly 45-degree angle. This was done so that when one wall met the other  in the corner, they joined without interrupting the over-all design.

There are typical God images seen all over Mexico. Next, we went to see the Patriarch Tree of Pule, reputedly one of the oldest trees on this continent.  In different places the gnarled trunk forms the head of a buck, horse, and a bird.  In the afternoon, we drove to Teotihuacan to watch the Indians weave beautiful serapes. I could not resist a cute demi-god woven on a colorful background  and bought it for 140 pesos, which is  $11.40.

On the way back, we were far ahead of the others, so, we stopped to talk with a peasant woman for an hour. She talked of nothing but her family which illustrates the family pride the Mexicans have.

That evening, Bob took me down to the zocalo to listen to the mariachi bands . Everyone went, but we couldn’t find anyone. Later, when we got back to the hotel, we caught the word that Russ had bought a watermelon.  We went over and had a lovely time spitting seeds at cars coming up the hill.