Música and The Grand México City

“The heart of México beats en this space. The mariachis of the Garibaldi plaza welcome your visit. Here, all the towns of the world are part of the grand México City.”

I got up really early on the last Saturday of my trip and took the bus to México D.F. The DF stands for Federal District (districto federal en español). It’s the capital of México and one of the largest cities in the world.

Like I said, I took the bus into the city and then took the subway (which is very clean and only costs 2 pesos - that’s $.20!) into El Zocalo. I exited the subway at about 10:30 and it looked like this. Impressive, huh? But not as many people as I had been lead to believe. “That’s not so many people,” I thought.

Here’s a picture of that same spot about 3 hours later. It doesn’t do justice to just ho many people there were. It was like the crush walking through the corridors after a Cubs game. But instead of just one hallway, it was a whole huge city center. I can’t believe there were that many people!

I had a great time. Here’s a short video of all the music I caught when I was there. I didn’t get to go to the Ballet Folkloricó which was too bad, this is the Palacio de Belle Arts (Fine Arts Building) where they perform.

I also got to see a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Fresco, another beautiful and historical mural by Diego Rivera. The mural is a “typical day” in El Zocalo of Mexico City with very untypical characters - politicians, activists, Hernado Cortez, Frida Kahlo, Rivera himself and others.

I spent most of the day walking back and forth around the Centro neighborhood. Here’s another shot of the people in the street. It was street after street of this!





At about 5:00 I finally headed for the famed Plaza Garibaldi! An experience I’ll never forget. SO MANY MARIACHI’S. Plaza Garibaldi is the plaza where all the mariachi groups hang out, waiting to get hired. At first it was really similar to El Zocalo in Cuarenavaca. Everyone was just kind of standing around and once and and while a group would play.

But then, as night fell, the place began to burst with excitement and music. It got to the point where there where so many groups playing that you couldn’t even hear them any more.

Here’s a video compilation that of my experience in Plaza Garibaldi. It’s very shaky, I know. I just couldn’t hold still! I was just having too much fun. Amazing. There where mariachis everywhere!

My camera battery died at the end of that last clip to that’s all I could record. It’s too bad because I think that was the hottest group that I heard that night.

I walked back to El Zocalo at about 11:00 that night and sat under that flag pole right there (This is a picture of El Zocalo from earlier in the day). The people had dispersed again, but there was still a lot of bustling going on. It’s was a great feeling to sit there and contemplate my trip. I took the midnight bus back to Cuernavaca that night.

I woke up on Sunday morning knowing that I only had 3 days left in Cuernavaca and it was time to start collecting myself and saying my goodbyes. Estuve muy triste.