I rode down line 12, almost to the southern end, and alighted at Zapotitlan. The station symbol shows a tree with three branches containing the sapote fruit. This represents the first part of the station name. The ‘titlan’ suffix means ‘between’, so Zapotitlan means between the sapote trees. Around the station I found what they […]
Read moreStation / Estación #150: Hospital 20 de Noviembre
This station, sandwiched between Insurgentes Sur and Zapata, takes its name (I’m sure you worked it out) from the nearby hospital. It, in turn, I assume, is named after the significant day in Mexican history of November 20 1910 when Francisco Madero crossed into Mexico from Texas to initiate the Mexican revolution. Fairly quiet streets […]
Read moreStation / Estación # 149: Calle 11
As I previously mentioned , line 12 intersects with 4 other lines. For this visit I joined line 12 at Ermita, a station at the southern end of line 2. As I’ve also said before some of the stations are huge, the long walk to change lines at Pantitlan is especially arduous. However, I have an […]
Read moreThe Subway Gangs of Mexico City [VICE Documentary]
VICE produces a lot of interesting documentaries, often focusing on social or political issues or movements. This short documentary, “The Subway Gangs of Mexico City”, focuses on the culture of groups of young Mexico City residents who use their ‘home’ metro station -where they meet up – as a base for their collective identity. The film […]
Read moreStation / Estación # 148: Insurgentes Sur [Project Resumption]
I’ve been back in Mexico City a few days. It has seemed a bit strange at times,walking around the streets of the ‘centro histórico’ where I used to live, visiting old haunts – everything familiar but with subtle changes, in my perspective also. The faces of the taqueros (taco vendors) and viene-vienes (unofficial parking assistants/car minders) I recognise have slightly […]
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WHY ARE THERE SO MANY QUEUES IN VENEZUELA? (TRANSLATION)
This article by Daniel Pardo from BBC Mundo explores the reasons behind the prevalence of queues in modern day Venezuela. Below is my English translation. 350 metres. That’s how long the main queue is to enter the Red Abasto Bicentenario supermarket in the Terrazas del Ávila housing development in Caracas. Added to this queue is another one of cars, twice […]
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TUNNEL OF LIGHT (TRANSLATION)
Palabras Errantes (in English – Wandering Words) is an online literary translation project that has been making contemporary Latin American literature accessible to an anglophone audience since 2011. You can read more about the project objectives here. Palabras Errantes has presented a wide range of translation projects focusing on different voices and regions of Latin America. […]
Read moreMCM PROJECT: 2013 in review
Long time, no blogging on here so…hi! At the end of this post there is a link to go through to the annual report 2013 from WordPress for the Mexico City Metro Project. In the year I made a grand total of 1 post! Having completed the station visits in 2012 and being absent from […]
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HOW THE ZAPATISTA BALACLAVA BECAME A TOURIST ICON (TRANSLATION)
The twentieth anniversary of the indigenous uprising in the southern Mexican state has just passed. On January 1 1994, the date that the NAFTA (North-American Free Trade Agreement) came into effect, the EZLN ( Zapatista Army of National Liberation) led by the enigmatic Subcomondante Marcos took control of the city of San Cristobal de las Casas […]
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TIKAL, GUATEMALA (VIDEOS)
I spent a long day at the amazing Mayan archaeological site of Tikal in the northern Guatemalan department of El Peten. In between lots of walking, climbing pyramids and taking photographs I shot a couple of short videos as well, the first from the main central square and the second from the central acropolis to […]
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LATIN AMERICA FOCUS 