Mexico Revisited: 2013-2014

March 2-5 2014
 

“Wasn’t that a great concert last night! I had tears in my eyes,” said the young musician staying at our hostal in Guadalajara.  Our visit to Guadalajara started and ended with musical performances, much to our delight.

We had arrived by bus from Bucerías the previous Sunday afternoon and set out right away to explore the historic center. We headed for the Cathedral and the four plazas surrounding the church. Sunday crowds filled several of the plazas enjoying the entertainment provided by a variety of buskers. After an early supper in a cafe we gravitated to the Plaza des Armas where a band was giving a concert in the ornate band shell, a gift from France in 1910, when the Plaza was remodeled for the centenary of the first republic. The concert was popular and very good, mostly opera overtures and songs, but no dancing. Our guide book told us that band concerts were held every Tuesday to Friday and Sunday from 6:30-7:30PM. We made a promise to return the next Tuesday to hear another band.

In the meantime, we explored most of the tourist highlights. We visited several lovely churches, including the Cathedral, small Santa Lucia temple with an elaborate facade, San Francisco, on the site of the first religious building, a Franciscan Monastery, in Guadalajara with another richly carved Baroque facade and less elaborate interior, and across the street, the more austere Nuestra  Señora de Aranzazu had huge, elaborate retablos, devotional  works of carved and gilded wood, over the main altar and side chapels.

The Palacio de Gobierno, the Governor’s Palace, had murals by José Orozco, painted in 1937, honouring the priest, Hidalgo, a hero of the Revolution. Huge murals with scenes of the heroes and Mexican struggles to gain independence from Spain covered the walls at the top and both sides of the grand staircase to the second floor. Another Hidalgo mural provided a backdrop in the Congress Hall. Another room contained a stained glass window of the Mexican flag and portraits of the first governors of Guadalajara. Next to a courtyard in the palace was a tribute to Benito Juárez, a revolutionary hero, being saved from a firing squad after uttering “the brave don’t murder”. Rotundo de los Jalisienses Ilustres, built in 1952, was a peaceful grassy park next to the Cathedral. The Center rotunda was surrounded by statues of 26 notable people from the state of Jalisco.

Biblioteca IberoAmericana Octavio Paz Library, started life as a church, and became a university lecture hall when it was decorated by murals by David Siqueiros and Amada de la Cueva in heroic-socialist style. It is now a library, frequented by students as well as children. We went to see the dramatic red-hued murals depicting workers, peasants and miners.

The Mercado Libertad AKA Mercado San Juan de Dios, named for the church nearby, is reputedly the largest indoor market in the world. It is easy to lose your sense of direction there. We wandered past food stalls, clothing and household goods of all descriptions, souvenirs and much more, congratulating ourselves for getting out onto the street again. Nearby was Plaza Tapatía, surrounded on all sides by department store sized jewelry markets. The plaza has a hilarious collection of large, bronze sculptures, formed by melting bodies, or parts of bodies, into giant chairs. Everyone poses on at least one of the chairs to have their picture taken.

A long walk from the historic center took us to the Center for Artisans of Jalisco. The building is both a sales center and a museum, for the best of handicrafts in the state. We admired the offerings but the items I liked the best were too large to easily carry on the buses and plane back to our home. We returned on a local bus back to the historic center to have lunch at La Fonda de San Miguel. We had our best meal in Guadalajara, seated in the open courtyard of an old convent filled with artwork, fountains and bird cages of parakeets.

Our last evening in Guadalajara started with a concert in the bandshell in Plaza des Armas at 6:30 PM featuring a different band than the one we enjoyed last Sunday, but the program of marches and waltzes pleased everyone, including us. When it ended we rushed to the Teatro Degollado, just one block away to join a long line of concert lovers all hoping to enjoy an evening of great music. We were given free passes, and made our way into the theatre where we took seats in the orchestra. The theatre was built in 1866, modelled on La Scala in Milan and had been beautifully renovated. An almost capacity crowd filled the orchestra seats and the loge seats up to the fourth tier. Our printed program gave the lineup of music for every Tuesday in March. If it is anything like the evening we attended, everyone is in for a treat. Two Mexican classical musicians, pianist Sergio Hernández and baritone Alejandro Lazzarini, entertained us for almost two hours. We were treated to opera overtures and baritone solos in the first half and after the intermission, Hernández played his own arrangements of Shubert songs. Lazzarini returned, changed from formal wear to a Mariachi outfit. The audience obviously approved, judging by the applause and cheering. He then offered both classical numbers and several Mexican favourites. The audience loved both musicians and so did we.