Rubber Gasket Avenue

I want to talk about the way Mexico City is laid out, but first: this!

This was the site that greeted me as I was walking back from the market this morning. I began to suspect something was up when I woke up to what sounded like gun shots (I'm still not sure what they were) and rather more traffic than usual. Then, as I was coming back from the market, I found the streets completely packed. Lines of buses were parked on both sides of the streets, and people were walking in packs of thirty or more. They had flags that said 'Leonel Luna,' which meant - yes! I saw my first rally today!

I'm a political scientist, so of course political life is exciting to me. A little bit of background (quickly, I promise). Mexico is a multi-party system. From 1929 to 2000 it was ruled by the PRI (Revolutionary Institutional Party), which is a center-left party whose credentials are linked to the revolution that created the new state in 1917. The PRI lost the presidency in 2000, when it was replaced by the PAN (National Action Party), a center-right party. Now, one of the catalysts for that loss was the rise of a third party, the PRD (Party of the Democratic Revolution). So Luna is a high-level delegate for the PRD in the Mexico City government - and that high-level status apparently translated into the ability to shut down some major sections of the city today to hold a rally. You may remember my mentioning the Plaza de la Revolución in my last post; that's where the rally was held. The noise and crowd was quite impressive - you could hear them from blocks and blocks away.

That wasn't what I meant to talk about, though - I just thought it was cool. What I really wanted to talk about was the way streets are laid out here, and (very related) how Mexicans actually fix things.

The layout of Mexico City is on a similar model to a lot of European cities, and (I have it on good authority) some Asian ones as well - really, it's a layout associated with older areas. Basically, many streets are set up so that all the shops are selling similar things. This means that, for instance, when I walk to the market I walk through a solid block of shops selling hubcaps, followed by a block of stores selling what appear to be gaskets. What becomes really clear, though, when you walk through these areas is that - unlike Americans - Mexicans actually repair their appliances, cars, and whatever else they can. This becomes very obvious when you walk through the streets here and see tons of original VW Beetles, apparently in good shape.

It's really nice to see a place where things are repaired rather than thrown out, even if the likely explanation is that buying new is prohibitively expensive. Repairing old appliances creates less waste, which is good for the environment - although I will admit that whatever gain is made there is likely offset by the smog!