The big square in the center of Mexico City, where we saw…

 

…some interesting images of the Mexican and US leadership…

…along with amazing artwork with symbolism I didn’t know how to read.

A drummer resting on his wonderful rabbit drum

Watching the dancers was incredible because of the beauty and intensity of the movement and music, but it was also disturbing to see rituals of the ancient indigenous culture performed for tourists in the huge plaza flanked by cathedrals and other colonial architecture. In general, my experience of entering churches in this country is quite different than I have felt before. In the past I have appreciated multiple levels co-exisitng: the tremendous atmosphere of faith, the exquisite artwork, the hypocrisy and corruption that has existed in Christinity, the love, the community, the wealth, the sublime. In Mexico I cannot see past facade, and feel confused about the worshippers around me. There is an unspeakable amount of wrong in the way the Catholic church came to this culture, and I cannot see acknowledgement.