A Walk Around Jenny's Neighborhood: Parque San Andrés, Coyoacán

In this post, let me take you on a tour of our neighborhood, Parque San Andrés, Coyoacán, in Mexico City. The 'parque' is actually a number of small, pocket parks.  The one shown below is a block from our house.

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The streets in our neighborhood are named after Anglo countries and states.  Our two-block street, Dakota, is bounded by Escocia (Scotland), California (!), and Irlanda (Ireland).

This photo was shot looking down the sidewalk of Escocia.

This shot (below) looks down the sidewalk on Irlanda. The pruned trees are ficus trees, which we have seen in parks in many parts of Mexico--always pruned the same way.

As Reed shot the photo, a woman opened the gate to the house on the right. She smiled in a friendly way, so we told her that we are new neighbors. She asked what number and welcomed us to the neighborhood, providing yet another example of the friendliness we're encountering.

Houses in Parque San Andrés range from private houses to upscale condos to apartment buildings.

One of the most notable features of any Mexican neighborhood are the omnipresent walls and gates designed to enclose private spaces.

Sometimes the house is designed around an inner patio; at other times, it encloses a garden space. As we walk by, we sometimes hear lawn mowers and smell fresh-cut grass, so we deduce the presence of lawns in some of these gardens. The house behind the gate (above) has been set back some distance from its inviting pedestrian gate graced by mature vines.

This graceful, older house is distinguished by
the carved wooden doors and traditional grillwork.

Another handcrafted wood door on an older home. The richness of the stained and oiled wood is warmly elegant, understated and inviting.

Doors pique our curiosity. We are constantly alert to get a peek inside
when a car is entering or leaving a property. Notice the pedestrian door to the right.

We don't have a picture of the massive door from the street to this townhouse complex, which is next door to our favorite local family restaurant (see photo below).

Last night the gate was open to receive deliveries from Liverpool (I kid you not!), a high-scale Mexican department store.

Reed asked the guards for permission to take this picture 'for our family'.  Notice the garages at ground level; the living spaces are a flight up.

                                                                                                       



Here's the restaurant. Open pit barbecue is prepared in this front area, so the area is open to the fresh air through the iron bars.

No -- we don't order barbecue.  We stick to the  delicious chicken dishes that are also on the menu!

This couple was sitting on an iron bench last night outside the restaurant. The woman's bright red hair is quite the fashion; it certainly makes a dramatic image!

When Reed asked to take their picture, they agreed. While showing them the photo, he offered to email a copy to them if they'd give him their email address.

This exchange led them to ask the usual questions: who we are, where we're from, why we're here. Reed explained, as we always do, that we're in Mexico City because after three years living in the tranquility of Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, we can no longer ignore the negative consequences of certain U.S. policies toward Mexico, our host country.

We're here to work with the Americas Program to raise awareness about these issues among our countrymen and women. Immediately, the woman responded, "Arms sales. The flow of arms into Mexico is bringing great violence to the Mexican people."

The man said he'd give us their email address later. We'd forgotten about it, but when we left, he came running down the sidewalk after us. After he'd given us his email address, I asked him who the woman is and where she's from. It turns out that she is Mexican of Italian descent from Sinaloa. You may have heard about Sinaloa, probably in the context of the Sinaloa Drug Cartel. Her familiarity with Sinaloa lends special urgency to her comment about arms sales.

Talk about living embedded!  We have seen no other foreigners in our neighborhood.  When we walk out the front door, we speak only Spanish.  The Mexican people we have met--all levels, from shopkeepers and taxi drivers to this obviously middle-class couple--show intense curiosity about us.

Without exception, our new acquaintances become serious, thoughtful, even respectful, when we explain what we're doing. Then, as this woman did, they often share their own experiences. Their willingness to take us into their confidence by sharing validates the importance of what we're trying to do.

These new acquaintances are the people, the pueblo, that I write about in the post, Encountering the Pueblo in Mexico City.