Feb 14-25
We took a long-distance bus from Oaxaca to Mexico City and then, over the course of ten days, used approximately 100 modes of transportation. Just kidding. But not really.
We walked. We ran. We Ecobici-ed. We hopped on and off intercity buses. We stood and scooted through the Metro. Smiled like idiots in the Cablebús, one of us anyway. We rented a motorcycle. And finally, we called an Uber to the airports, although DiDi seems to be more popular.
For the record, we did not take the double decker Metrobus, the light rail, taxis, gondolas, or the trolleybus. So perhaps we were not as accomplished as it felt. Still, the speed and agility with which Rocky navigates these systems and mobilizes through space leaves me literally in the dust. He is literally and figuratively a Master of (Science in) Transportation.
Rocky: “Which direction should we go, ma’am?”
Kathryn: squints in all directions, slowly unzips bag, searching for glasses. Painful silence.
Rocky: “I do see a sign right over here.”
Kathryn, now with glasses: “What?”
Rocky: pointing.
Kathryn: “…Ok, let me think about this…”
Integrated Mobility System. About 4 to 5 million people ride the Metro every weekday. One card. You can go nearly everywhere in the city. The colorful mosaic of wayfinding icons throughout the Metro reminded me of a 99% Invisible episode I listened to a few years ago. The pictograms were developed around the 1968 Olympics by American designer Lance Wyman in collaboration with Mexican designers (thank God since he had literally never been to Mexico before this commission). It’s a fascinating story - inspired by mesoamerican designs and later reinterpreted in political protests.
Traveling through Mexico City feels like traversing time. You can see artifacts from the cradle of civilization at Museo Nacional de Antropología in the morning, and then reflect on Diego Rivera’s expansive vision for a new social order at Palacio Nacional in the afternoon. We paddled our sneakers down the Avenue of the Dead at Teotihuacan. We skirted the outer orbits of Fridamania in Coyoacán. Movement across geography. Movement across ideology. Movement across centuries.
It made me wonder what effective social mobility actually means.
Is it simply who gets to move?
Or how much energy is left once you arrive?
Rocky and I talked about Tamil film about a commuter who becomes enraged from the daily effort. “If your one mode of transportation leaves you exhausted,” he said, “crammed into a daily train in suffocating heat, what kind of life is that? You have no energy for anything else. You are just trying to survive the day.”
Now, there can be so much social mobility that we experience decision paralysis, and on the other hand, people who are still fighting to afford their basic needs. Is there a system somewhere in between? Surely something between human sacrifice and fascism that will work for us all? Maybe?
Notable Experiences
Dueling ice cream shops in La Condesa.
Pro-Palestine protest during car-free Sunday.
Faces of Museo Nacional de Antropología: faces superimposed over skulls in the visage of 50 X-ray images.
Architectural Restoration project near the central plaza downtown- a delicate, 4 story, colonial facade was supported by scaffolding. Everything behind it had been demolished.
Vegan Torta - from a roadside vendor. One of 100 vegan restaurants in the city.
