Guadalajara

April 8, 12:30pm and our bus is pulling out of the new bus station in Guadalajara on time. We have our Bimbo lunches, the tv screens have dropped and the air conditioing is humming, so I'm kicking back in anticipation of the usual smooth ride on a Mexican bus. On the drive from Patzcuaro to Guadalajara I watched 'Jane Eyre' ( the one in which Judy Dench plays the housekeeper) in Spanish. I hadn't realized how little dialogue there was in that version; I understood much of it. 

Barb and I stayed in the Hotel San Francisco in the old part of Guadalajara. It's the one Jim, Jay and I stayed in about 18 years ago. It's been painted and freshened up a bit but still brought back fond memories. 

We visited many places that I remembered and some that I didn't. I paid much more attention to the murals by José Clemente Orozco than I had before. I remember thinking that they were huge and horrific, and they are, but on this visit to 'El Instituto Cultural Cabañas' an enthusiastic guide approached me with a couple of interesting comments on Orozco's work. I was fascinated, as he knew I would be, and a short tour ensued for which I happily paid him 50 pesos. I now know that Orozco is the most harshly realistic of the 3 Mexican muralists I've seen so far. He's not idealistic about either the Mexican or Communist Revolutions.  I also learned that he lost his left hand when he was young and a bit about his ability to paint huge murals some of which seem to turn 180 degrees as you observe them from different places. 

The horses appear to be upside down from this perspective. 

From another place in the room they appear to be running normally

This is one of Orozcos bleakest images of the horrors of all forms of power, especially religious and political. 

Orozco even makes Hidalgo look dubious about the Revolution

The main square in Guadalajara in the evening. 

On a lighter note, a little girl with her fishing net on the boat we took to Janitzio, the main island in Lake Patzcuaro.