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| Alameda Central, Mexico City |
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| The Alameda is Mexico City's central park. Reclaimed from swampy lakebottom at the time of the conquest, it served as marketplace and inquisition execution site before being developed as a park in 1592. With the advent of the 20th century virtually all architecture projects of merit arose within blocks of this park. A high police profile here (and throughout most of the centro historico area) secures a delightful afternoon of meandering, eating, and enjoying the varied imprumptu entertainment here. I witnessed a duet of young women singing wonderful traditional and contemporary music simply with a boombox microphone setup. The harmony rivaled any big city soldout concert. |
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| From the Palacio de Bellas Artes looking directly west into the Alameda. | Innumerable fountains such as this dot the park often giving witness to Mexico's freedom of assembly. | A special bubbling fount on the park's northwest attracts police cavalry. |
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| The reverse of the picture above looking back east at the Palacio with the Torre Latino just visible right. | The Hemiciclo a Juarez, honoring the indigenous leader from Oaxaca, Benito Juarez, takes quite a bite out of the south center of the park. | Looking west down Avenida Juarez, this Sunday, like any other, there is a parade in the city. Aztecs, once reviled for their incompassionate dominance of the region, are now universally venerated. |