Xxxicana’s Weblog

Aye, I’m sick — I’m hoping it is just a 24 hour bug. I ordered sopa de pollo — hijole, they sure know how to make a chicken soup in Mexico. Real broth, real chicken, avocado, onion, tomato, jalapeno, cilantro, and lime juice. If that doesn’t cure me, nothing will.

I’m thinking that I’ve over done it. Today I ventured to the very southern part of Mexico City — it took more than hour by walking, metro, then light train. I went to the Dolores Olmedo museum — which has the largest collection of Frida Kahlo works. Naturally, I couldn’t take any pictures inside, but I did get photos of the dogs. There’s a sad funny story about the dogs. First, the photo:

Frida had a favorite dog named Senor Xolotl, King of Xilbalba (the Maya underworld). She DOTED on that dog — one time he urinated on one of Diego’s paintings. After chasing the dog around, Diego gave up, and laughed that Xolotl was the best art critic ever. But, I digress. Xolotl was a Mexican hairless dog (Xoloitzcuintle) — a rare breed that predated contact with Europeans. Diego had been involved with Dolores Olmedo (yes, in the biblical sense) for many many years. Once, Diego took Sr. Xolotl over to Dolores’ house for stud purposes . . . and Frida threw a FIT when she found out!

These dogs live at the museum, they may have been Lola’s dogs (she died only a few years ago). They are cute in a hairless kind of way!

Here are two photos of the Metro — it moves something like five million people a day — a ticket costs 2 pesos (about 20 cents). Before and after

And so Diego de Landa reported of Maya women of the Yucatan in the mid 16th century. It was also the custom for men and women to tattoo their bodies, pierce their ears, and file their teeth.

In ancient times, royal women performed auto-sacrifice by drawing a thorn embedded cord through their tongues! I’ll pass on that one!

Septum piercing is also practiced by some Kuna women (Panama and Colombia). In the past, girls had their noses pierced in infancy, today, many mothers eschew the practice to allow girls choice in the matter. Kuna women are also recognized for their fine reverse applique work known as “molas.”