Orientation and Contrasts

Day one of my internship or volunteership, dependent upon how you look at it, was more of an orientation than a day of labor. I met with my superiors in the COLABORE office located on the Universidad Panamericana (UP, from here on out). After a brief run through of what the organization is all about I took a tour of the campus where I will be spending most of my mornings and early afternoons. The UP is a wall guarded campus filled with various administrative buildings, classroom complexes, gardens, gathering points, and courtyards all extremely well manicured and extensively landscaped giving it the feeling of an intellectual oasis amidst the bustling suburb of Zapopan. It's appearance is a stark contrast to my neighborhood of rock streets and dusty sidewalks only a 5-7 minute walk away. Once my MacLappy was set up for internet use my tour ended and so began my exploration of my greater surroundings. First stop, el centro historico de Guadalajara, about a twenty minute cab ride East of UP. Again, I called upon my trusty cabby, Miguel, and along the ride I noticed as surrounding buildings became older and older, as well as more graffiti strewn. As an aside, I have yet to see a metropolis with more 'tags' and other forms of wall art than Guadalajara. No building or wall is safe apart from Cathedrals,Churches, a few historic Municipal Buildings, and homes. The architecture of el centro historico is noticeably Spanish in derivation and like all historic districts some buildings are better preserved than others. Also like many historic districts there is the differentiation between the new and the old in the types of businesses that occupy the buildings. Local tiendas sit alongside KFC's and Dominoes and while old women sew their wares young people with headphones sit in groups and smoke cigarettes. It's not necessarily the types of people that change from place to place but rather the flavor of the place itself. Beggars and street peddlers sit amongst renowned squares while tourists snap photos all the over the world but each square exudes its own personal sense of history and culture that allows one to develop a unique perspective of that part of the world. My perspective, although acquired merely in an afternoon and which I hope to develop, is one of grit, desperation, and triumph. Grit in the way that el centro historico is rough around the edges, no if's and's or but's about it. Desperation in the triumph of Spanish Conquistadors over the indigenous, indian populations that occupied Guadalajara pre-colonization. Desperation also in that it appears Mexico was particularly hard hit by the World's economic decline. Empty storefronts and buildings abound in this part of town with quite a few unfortunate characters walking the lesser avenues and streets. On the other hand, later in the afternoon, I found myself taking a taxi to a restaurant I had read about before my travels, 'Amorcito Corazon.' As far as I can gather its location on La Avenida Americas is in the financial district of Guadalajara. So far, this is the only part of town with little to no graffiti. I feel this can be attributed the healthy number of security guards posted outside the high rises of Mexico's largest banks and firms as well as foreign firms. The most surprising being HSBC (Hong-Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation). After being in the, at times distressing, centro historico the site of construction of large, modern high rise apartments and offices in this part of town bestowed a sense of hope for the future of Guadalajara's economic situation as well as that of the rest of Mexico.