Puebla, Puebla

Puebla is around 2.5hr south of Mexico City. Take a bus or drive, it's an easy journey. Officially named Heroic Puebla de Zaragoza (nicknamed Angelópolis), it is the capital and also largest city in the state of Puebla. Fancy or what? This city is located in the Valley of Puebla, surrounded by volcanoes and snow-capped mountains -which to me is still amazing...I never thought that Mexico would have snow-capped mountains and seeing them was breathtaking. Happily all the volcanoes are dormant. Here is a little bit of history...and take note of what happened on May 5th -Cinco de Mayo... The city of Puebla was founded on April 16, 1531 as "La Puebla de los Ángeles". It was the first city in central Mexico founded by the Spanish conquerors that was not built upon the ruins of a conquered Amerindian settlement. Its strategic location, half-way between the port of Veracruz and Mexico City, made it the second most important city during the colonial period. Four decades after Mexico's independence, General Ignacio Zaragoza's army defeated French expeditionary forces near Puebla on May 5, 1862 in the Battle of Puebla. During the French intervention, the people of Puebla sided with the French and did not lend the needed support to the Mexican troops. This led Ignacio Zaragoza to write a letter back to Mexico City after the defeat of the French with the help of the Tlaxcaltecans petitioning to burn the city down. Instead, the name was changed to "Heroica Puebla de Zaragoza" as punishment against the very religious city. Today, Puebla city is bustling with tourist and locals. I was there during Christmas time a couple of years ago. On every corner there was a nascimiento -a nativity, and they were beautiful. Every home has their nascimiento set up, much like all around the world really -but for some reason, seeing them in the streets made it that bit more special for me. We had lunch in the zocalo (town square), ate churros made freshly on the street, visited a market place where a little bird told me my fortune (that is for another day), played with puppies on sale (and had to be hauled away kicking and screaming). The architecture is stunning -much of it is Spanish in style. The cathedral looms over you -inside one could get lost -not from long corridors or secret passages but from spending all one's time looking above at the magnificence of the art and architecture. Whilst we were there we snuck into a chapel (the cathedral is large enough that it has several chapels inside) and observed a wedding. Beautiful. I love the traditions in Mexico. They are vibrant, alive, merry -I wish England's traditions weren't so few these days. Mexico is very much about family, food, arts, life and death. Day of the Dead -Día de los Muertos. This is probably my favourite holiday tradition in Mexico. The attitude towards death as evidenced in the quintessentially Mexican holiday of Día de los Muertos might be puzzling for some. It isn't difficult for foreigners to interpret dancing skeletons and candy skulls as disrespect for the dead. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mexicans celebrate passion for life. For those accustomed to hushed voices, formal clothing, a solemn priest and an absence of children as fitting for the graveside, this festival flies in the face of propriety. Bright flowers, loud music, colorful decorations and seasonal sweets are characteristic of a cemetery in Mexico these first two days of November. November 1 is Day of the Little Dead, for children; and on November 2 it is Day of the Adult Dead. In addition to the celebrations in the streets, the core elements of the holiday are family visits to decorate the tombs where their ancestors lay, and offer food, drink and temporary altars. The gist of the fiesta is that the spirits of the dead on these dates are able to come back from the beyond to visit, if the living facilitate this communion with petals of the cempazúchitl (an orange marigold flower) pointing in the direction from the grave to the house. Altars and tombs also feature candles to light the way, water for the dead to drink and salt for the journey. The poor walk between tombs, asking for the right to pray for the deceased in exchange for food, a tradition shared with Spain and other Latin American countries. This tradition has been relished in the past as uniquely Mexican. Nobel laureate Octavio Paz said, "The Mexican is familiar with death, jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it; it is one of his toys and his most steadfast love." Puebla is also famous for its Talavera -its traditional, handmade artisan pottery. It is beautiful. It makes Italian Majolica pottery seem like Ikea in comparison -that's just in my opinion by the way. Every piece of talavera -from ashtrays to massive platters- carries a handpainted signature, name and date of its artist. Some say talavera descends from the Spaniards (Talavera de la Reina, a city in Spain), others claim when Spanish artisans entered Mexico in the 16th century, they introduced this art to the people of Mexico; who later and as of now take pride in creating this type of art. Their art expands from a combination of different cultures, the Chinese, Spanish, Moors and Egyptians. Chinese?? Hmmm. Perhaps that would explain La China Poblana... La China is a statue in Puebla and there are several versions of how she came to be there. China Poblana translates as the Chinese Pueblan. Sorry, you've probably worked that out already. The common belief is that she was a Philippino woman named Mirra, captured and taken to India, and then brought over to Mexico by an Indian royal family. In later years she found a Jesuit community, converted to catholicism and was renamed Caterine de San Juan. The only reason I have even mentioned La China is because even though she is supposed to be oriental (enter me), her statuette couldn't be more caucasian and that makes me smile (she is the very last photo)!