Category: Travel

With Olympics on Horizon, Brazil’s Favela Dwellers Continue Fighting for their Homes

tonightatdawn July 19, 2014

For many Brazilians, hosting the 2014 World Cup is the ultimate expression of the nation’s global standing and symbolic of its recent economic dexterity. But for others, the months leading up to the World Cup have been everything but fun and games.

“…no one is resettled if not for a very important reason”

Over the last few months thousands of favelados, inhabitants of Brazilian slums called favelas, have been forced out of their homes by the police and armed forces. Jorge Bittar, head of Rio’s housing authority, claims that “no one is resettled if not for a very important reason.” For Bittar, the families are not being forced out because of soccer, but because they chose to build their slum towns in unsafe areas in the first place.

The only issue with Bittar’s claim is that favelas have been in existence for over a century and up until now there haven’t been any complaints about their location. This is probably because their existence on the outskirts of major cities allowed the government to neglect and conceal widespread poverty and drug use among the country’s most marginalized ethnic groups.

“They say it’s because of the Olympics, but this is just a smoke screen”

Bittar’s claims also bring about a very important question: If the quality of life in favelas was such an issue, why did Brazil’s government wait until they had the added pressure of the World Cup to do something about it? Tadeu Marco Peixoto, a long-time resident of a favela outside Rio, says it’s because his neighborhood has become a target for real estate developers who “want to take us (favelados) out because they believe the poor cannot live among the rich. They say it’s because of the Olympics, but this is just a smoke screen.”

After the announcements that Brazil would be hosting both the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games it seemed like the government was taking positive steps towards safeguarding and modernizing their most run-down and neglected neighborhoods.

In September 2011, TIME magazine reported several “unusual sightings” in Chapéu Mangueira, a smallish favela overlooking Rio de Janeiro. The sightings included everything from salaried electricians to government officials bearing gifts like pots, pans and other basic housing appliances. All this kindheartedness, a part of a larger plan to makeover the shantytown as a pacified, tourist hotspot.

Eviction at Gunpoint

Unfortunately instead of continuing with this seemingly positive trend of improved housing and quality of life, the gentrification process has gone from bad to worse for favelados. What was once socio-economic violence veiled by claims of increased infrastructure has become full blown violence being carried out at literal gunpoint.

On January 8th, government officials touched down once again on a shantytown outside of Rio. However this time instead of bringing household appliances with them, they came equipped with M-16 rifles and bulldozers. The police force demolished over ten homes and in doing so displaced over 700 families.

The community responded by holding a demonstration on a neighboring road. The protest included chants, songs,dances of protest and (after police intervention) was escalated to a point where residents of the former favela began throwing rocks at squad cars and officials who responded by firing rubber bullets and flash bombs.

Many favelas have a longstanding anti-government overtone to them due to the presence of anti-establishment drug lords who occupied the slums in the early 70s. This makes the well organized and often times violent protests to this year’s World Cup no surprise.

The protests have garnered attention and have spread from the favelas to social media spaces like Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr which in turn, has resulted in several petitions on Change.org and similar websites.

2016 Olympics on the Horizon

With the World Cup coming to an end protesters are now focusing their attention on the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Demonstrators are asking the Brazilian government to at the very least allow favela residents the opportunity to benefit financially from the event by permitting them to sell food around Olympic stadiums.

Many Brazilians accused the government and FIFA of “cultural terrorism” this year following their decision that only sponsors with “official bids,” like McDonalds and Coca-Cola will be allowed to participate in vending traditional Afro-Brazilian foods.

Hopefully, with the Olympics just two short years away, the Brazilian government will find a way to host a sporting event that both betters their international standing and is a safe, profitable and enjoyable experience for all its citizens, regardless of social class.

The views presented in this article are of the author and may not be of Tonight at Dawn.

Pura Vida: El Segundo Parte: Chasing Cascadas

tonightatdawn June 29, 2014

Text & Photos by Kimberly Cecchini

Over omelets spiced with gallo pinto at Rancho Colón in Querrada Amarilla, we planned our first adventures. Mateo, our young Tico tour guide, mapped out the first few days in Costa Rica on a napkin at the soda (open-air restaurant). Our first stop was going to be the Bijagual Cascadas in the remote town of Puriscil.

After we turned off the highway, I understood the value of Mateo’s 4×4 manual truck; the long, winding road leading up the mountain was pocked with huge pot holes. As Mateo put it, we were in the “real Costa Rica” and, apparently, their Department of Transportation had too much difficulty scaling the roads to fix them.

Perhaps the benefit of being too remote for the DOT was the beauty of the preserved rural area. We enjoyed glorious mountain views, lush foliage, rice paddies and cows and goats grazing on farms. People waved from their tiny homes as Mateo greeted them as we drove past them and fellow drivers beckoned us on when it was safe to pass through a curve.

We bumped and jostled along the road for over an hour before we approached the waterfall. The final stretch of road was flooded. Mateo jumped out of the truck to check the gully’s depth with his barefoot. Satisfied, he put the truck back into gear and we lurched over it. Mateo parks on the side of the road and before we were ready, he was scrambling up the cliff.

Mateo perched himself at the top of the cascading water before stretching over the edge and diving into the pool below. My husband joined him in swimming around the peaceful oasis while I skirted around the edges on the rocks.

Pura Vida: La Primera Parte–Moonlight Obscured by the Rainforest

tonightatdawn May 31, 2014

Text and Photos by Kimberly Cecchini

Within an hour of being in country, our twenty-four year old Tico guide had driven my husband and I beyond the city limits and we were speeding down a desolate highway with only the headlights to illuminate the mountains in the heavy rain of the “green” season. The soundtrack was The Clash’s London Calling album and stories about Mateo’s life in Costa Rica. My northeastern liberal self squirmed a bit in the passenger seat at the sight of the gun that laid in the console between myself and our new friend. Mateo* claimed to have had self-defense training with his gun and, as we observed later, it was perhaps a more necessary accessory in San José than it is in most parts of New York. In addition, he was implementing his speed driving course to condense the hour drive to the Pacific coast; without hesitation, he weaved over the double yellow line to pass slower vehicles. Soon enough we were driving through the nightlife strip of the surfer tourist trap, Jacó, passing a sleepier beach area and turning onto the

Light in the dark outside our window

crumbly road that led to our mini-resort. Mateo jumped out of the vehicle to open a large wooden gate which he closed behind us before rolling down the driveway. The canopy of trees obscured the moonlight and so all we could see of our eery path was leaves in the glare of headlamps and the halos of compact fluorescent lights in plastic lanterns.

We retired to our cottage on the property that was shared only with our tour guide, a guard and three dogs including a chained Rottweiler that had once bitten a chunk out of a foolish guest’s leg. And whatever might have lied in wait for us in the seemingly deep rainforest.

If nothing else, we knew we would have an experience. Pura Vida!

*Not his real name

Morning greetings

Thinking India on the Global Stage

tonightatdawn May 20, 2014

Text by Kimberly Cecchini

Globalism. Every nation is seeking out how it will thrive and stay relevant in this new world order. India is no different.

Vinay Rai encapsulated a message for the globe in the title of his 2007 book, Think India. He, with his coauthor, William L. Simon, posit that India is poised to share the world stage with the United States in the near future; he wants the U.S. to “Think India” as a trade partner, as a greater political partner and as a strong friend.

“The book was basically a statement to say ‘India has arrived on the world scene and will be a very important player in world geo-politics and economic driver of global growth and that those who ignore it do so at its own peril’. World business will do business with and within India for lack of choice- their economic wellbeing will totally depend in the future on how they engage with India and China.”

In his interview with Tonight at Dawn, Mr. Rai spoke about India’s relationship with the United States and how India is grappling with its severe wealth disparity so it does not stunt its own growth.

India and the United States; Together at Last, Together Forever?

Indo-American relations have long been inconsistent and fraught with misunderstandings and suspicions. In the self-interest of both nations, their relationship has been evolving for the better in recent years and Rai feels that it has been inevitable for India and America to develop a relationship because both societies value democracy and “…both are enterprising and flexible and adaptable to change…”

The new relationship status serves both nations. A significant trade partnership has been fostered by American interests in India’s growing consumer class and India seeking out opportunities with Western businesses. Since 9/11 they have also been allies in anti-terrorism efforts. In addition, the States are more accepting of its fellow Indian-American citizens and Indian cultural elements, such as yoga, have become embedded into the American mainstream.

Rai believes that his nation is learning much from the United States, particularly in terms of business, but this can be a double edge sword. A country with only a narrow history of personal borrowing is starting to develop a penchant for Western style materialism and credit. As a member of an older generation, he laments that there is some erosion in traditional values amongst its youth. Yet, some Westerners have begun to adopt the Vedantic philosophies that Rai lauds.

A Tale of Two India’s: The Wealth Gap on the Sub-Continent

Rai extols the Vedantic philosophy that encourages subscribers to look beyond their suffering in the material world to maintain a balance between the soul and “prosperity in the materialistic world”. Even with this balanced perspective, Indians cannot ignore the material world as there are many who are impoverished to a level not even seen among the poorest in the United States. According to U.S. Department of Health & Human Services 2012 statistics, people need to make a measly (approximate) $30 a day to be above the poverty level for one individual, whereas, Indians who earn $1 a day are above the line in the eyes of their government. If the States have not won many battles in its so-called “War Against Poverty,” how can India act for its own very large, very poor populous?

Despite the dire straits of many of its citizens and believing in the need to uplift all of his fellow citizens, Rai does not believe it is likely that the large gap between its financial classes will lead to a civil unrest that will affect his nation’s ascension. Still swift action is imperative;

“India is fortunately guarded from restlessness since our very basic philosophy of life is that in this life we get what we get based on our past “karma” and is thus our destiny. However with TV and growing westernization, the youth are getting more restive and hence as a nation we just have to increase the pace of our globalization, our productivity and our enterprise.”

Such tremendous poverty calls for a multifaceted approach; Rai asserts, “The only way for people to come out of their abject poverty is for the nation as a whole to collectively grown wealth, more jobs, more enterprises, more industry and services, more education, more skilling, etc.” Think India speaks about the advent of a school lunch program as a means to address both child hunger and illiteracy. According to a 2012 National Public Radio story, an increasing number of famished students around the subcontinent are fed, energized and compelled to their studies thanks to the partnership of the Akshaya Patra Foundation and the national government.

In our interview, Rai mentioned other recent federal initiatives such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2006. India.gov.in provides details about the law including its main component; for every household in which the adults are willing to do unskilled manual work, the federal government guarantees a minimum of a hundred days of paid labor.

Thinking India

A cumbersome democracy of over a billion people, India still feels the pains -that even its friends share- of a growing economy, increasing equity amongst its people and finding its niche on the global stage. Yet, the last couple of decades have been quite promising for India; it has strengthened its ties with other democracies, developed a more prosperous middle class and created a variety of opportunities, albeit through small steps, to support the impoverished. Now perhaps there is more than symbolic hope to be seen in the son of a provincial tea seller, Narendra Modi, who was elected on Tuesday as the India’s new prime minister. As quoted in the New York Times, Mr. Modi shared his vision for uplifting all Indians, “”At the end of the day, who is the government for? It is for the poor. For rural areas, farmers, untouchables, the weak and the pained, this government is for them. To meet their aspirations and hopes, this is our priority, because our weakest, our poorest have sent us here.’”

It may be time to “Think India”.

Think India author, Vinay Rai

Vinay Rai is the founder and president of Rai University and president of the Rai Foundation. He was educated at Delhi University in India and MIT in the United States.

References:

“2012 HHS Poverty Guidelines.” <i>2012 HHS Poverty Guidelines</i>. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2014. <http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/12poverty.shtml>.

Barry, Ellen. “Modi, India’s Next Prime Minister, Adopts a New Tone.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 20 May 2014. Web. 20 May 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/21/world/asia/india-endorses-modi-as-next-prime-minister.html?_r=0>.

Cecchini, Kimberly. “Vinay Rai, Author.” E-mail interview. April 2014.

Rai, Vinay, and William L. Simon. Think India: The Rise of the World’s next Superpower and What It Means for Every American. New York: Dutton, 2007. Print.

“South Asia: India.” Central Intelligence Agency, n.d. Web. 20 May 2014. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html>.

Vedantam, Shankar. “Indian Engineers Build A Stronger Society With School Lunch Program.” NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 20 May 2014. <http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/04/06/149867092/indian-engineers-build-a-stronger-society-with-school-lunch-program>.

E-Team: Activists for Humanity

tonightatdawn May 11, 2014

See more information about the Montclair Film Festival and all its great events at the Montclair Film Festival page. View more photos at the MontclairFilmFest Flickr page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/montclairfilmfest/

Article and Photos Below by Tonight at Dawn (Kimberly Cecchini); E-Team was screened on May 3 at MFF14.

E-Team co-director, Ross Kauffman, in conversation with Michael Moore at MFF14.

The crisis arm of the Human Rights Watch is a small subset of the organization charged with investigating the most severe war crimes around the world. These fiercely brave individuals insert themselves into precarious situations to conduct painstaking research on potential “crimes against humanity” through multiple interviews and crime scene investigations. Careful not to be confused with journalists, this Emergency Team compiles the information for the purpose of informing the international community with the hope that the world’s governments will enact equitable interventions.

E-Team, winner of the Sundance Cinematography Award, weaves in two of the subgroup’s most recent missions in Libya and Syria with the teams’s inception during the Kosovo conflict in the nineties. The cameras follow four members of the team in their homes, in meetings and in the trenches of their assignments in this unfettered look at their work and how they balance it within their lives.

The documentary credits open up with Ole Solvang playing on a keyboard in the Parisian apartment he shares with his wife and co-investigator, Anna Neistat, and her son. Soon award-winning directors, Katy Chevigny and Ross Kauffman, bring the audience to the moment when Ole and Anna initiate their investigations by smuggling themselves across an international border. “Welcome to Syria,” Anna jokes.

Through the couple’s trips surrounding the Syrian uprisings and the subsequent government forceful response, we see their conversations with torn families who have lost multiple members and the remains of murderous crime scenes. We witness them take cover with locals during an attack and their perseverance to continue to document the tragedies and push for action. Anna and Ole want to answer the plea of a man standing in the rubble of his razed neighborhood who beseeches them, “How do we stop this?!”

Their colleagues, Fred Abrahms and Peter Bouckert, are chronicled during their own detective work in Libya in the chaotic aftermath from the fall of Gaddafi’s regime. The rebels trust the E-Team and understand their motives to scrutinize both sides of the conflict. As one rebel admits, they may start as the victims, but the enemies in turn become their victims. Peter leads the inspection of weapons caches and in one place they find looted boxes labeled “Less Lethal Launcher”. A little later on the film cuts to Fred and Peter inspecting a human slaughterhouse and the charred bodies on the floor. As shocking as each scene is, we know the unfortunate truth that this is not unique within human history.

Thus this team of international crime scene investigators was conceived of at the end of the twentieth century after Fred’s probe into a burning village in Kosovo. He found the village in flames and 9 or so people laying dead in a gully. The press release was picked up on the front page of the New York Times and it was supposedly the impetus for United States’ intervention.

It is these opportunities to change things that propel the E-Team to continue their arduous and perilous work. They each balance their fears and frustrations with a sense of purpose and what normalcy they maintain in their lives. Each person is realistic about what they can accomplish. After providing evidence of the seran attacks in Syria, Anna explained “…the fact that we won’t see hopefully another chemical attack is a major breakthrough, but that does not really bring any relief to those people who continue to be killed by conventional weapons. You really go from hope, to despair, to hope, back to despair and then you meet somebody on the ground; a witness, a victim, an incredible activist and you feel that if they haven’t given up, how on Earth do you have the right to give up on them?”

As the audience, we are granted this incredible insight into the work and lives of these human rights activists thanks to the total access and creative control that Katy Chevigny and Ross Kauffman insisted upon in their film deal with Human Rights Watch. Chevigny was unable to attend the Montclair screening, but the unassuming and accomplished Mason Gross professor, Kauffman, was warmly received in the theater. He thanked the crowd and invited the present members of the film’s crew (the editor-D. Teague, assistant editor-J. Boyle and associate producer-S. Henney) to join him for the Q & A.

Kauffman spoke about the E-Team’s relationship to the victims; they often know that the team is committed to sharing their story to effect change. With Ole as the lead, they were very meticulous in ensuring that all of the people shown in the film were safe from backlash prior to the screening.

Currently, with their trademark perseverance, the team are on assignments in the Ukraine, South Sudan and the Central African Republic. As for the Academy Award winning director, he has three or four more projects on the horizon, some of which may be a bit more lighthearted than E-Team, but likely works to be anticipated.

Co-Director of E-Team, Ross Kauffman at MFF14 screening.

New Posts are Brewing

tonightatdawn May 3, 2014

Text & Photo by Kimberly Cecchini

It may seem as though Tonight at Dawn is on a bit of a hiatus, but I am feverishly working on new posts. This weekend, in addition to covering the festival for Millennium Magazine, I am also a proud member of the Montclair Film Festival photo and blog teams and am running around the town to cover incredible films and fascinating conversations. Here are some of the posts that you can expect over the next week or so:

-Reposts of my photos and blogs on the Montclair Film Festival from conversations with new late night host, Stephen Colbert to Kevin Smith to an incredibly diverse array of inspiring documentaries and entertaining films.

-Interview with my colleague, Dena Floyrzk, who is an incredible photographer and now the founder of two schools in Nigeria.

-Interview with Indian author, Vinay Rai, on his book, Think India, and the state of his country’s progress as a developing economy.

-Interview with a New Jersey chef on his beautiful and ecologically inspired restaurant, Pig & Prince, as will be printed in Millennium Magazine.

Interviews to be slated for the rest of spring:

-Dr. McCabe, graduate professor and autism expert.

-Australian author of proposal for the rehab of orcas in captivity

John Lugizamo at the Opening Night if Montclair Film Festival 2014.

On the Walls of Barcelona (A les muralles de Barcelona)

tonightatdawn April 19, 2014

Some graffiti photographed throughout Barcelona circa 2009. If anybody knows the specific context behind some of these images, please add to the comment section! Photos by Kimberly Cecchini

margeaux walter: artist part two

tonightatdawn April 13, 2014

Margeaux Walter has a thorough resume that includes a number of solo and group shows, honors, awards and artist residencies. She is currently an MFA student at Hunter College in New York City.

Contact: http://www.margeauxwalter.com https://www.facebook.com/margeauxwalter

Current gallery exhibit: Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia (Now until May 24th) http://www.pentimenti.com

Interview by Kimberly Cecchini/Images by Margeaux Walter

Tonight at Dawn: In the “False Awakening” series, your characters appear in a familiar scene akin to the kind in your other projects; parks, dinners, etc. In the next lenticular “frame,” the characters literally appear to be consumed by what they are consuming such as in “High Fructose” and “Sweet Dreams”. Can you explain your intentions in this project?

Margeaux Walter: The idea for this series was less literal than some of my earlier work. The first image represents an event happening in reality based on a stereotypical rendering of that event. Then the second image can be read as one that is happening in the mind of these characters, so the lenticular flips between the real and the psychological.

The consumption of the characters is one that I see as emotional, but has reference to consumerism, advertising, and some of the overwhelming consequences of modern technology.

Margeaux Walter: “High Fructose” from the “False Awakening” Series

Tonight at Dawn: The logistics of creating one scene with lighting, props, location, costume changes appear intense to me. How long might one shoot take? Do you often have help?

Margeaux Walter: The prep time from conception to the actual photo shoot takes the longest, usually weeks to months. I try to prepare everything so that the shoot itself only takes a few days. I prefer to work alone, but recently in some of the more complicated pieces I have had some help.

Tonight at Dawn: Name a song/musician, meal, etc. that you feel would be the audio, gastronomical, etc. reflection of your work. Why?

Margeaux Walter: This is a tough one. My first thought was a bento box. It is recognizable, has a strong graphic composition, and yet brings many different elements together, some of which are very unexpected.

Tonight at Dawn: 今 Jīn, the series that you created during your residency in Beijing that features uninviting windows, looks like a departure from your usual work. How did your experience in Beijing impact your artistic vision?

Margeaux Walter: My residency in Beijing was only a month, and I didn’t go there with any agenda or idea. I spent the first week or two on my bike exploring the city. What I began to notice from these bike rides was how fast the city was changing under a strong pressure to modernize / westernize. Buildings would be demolished within days, and be replaced with sterile brick structures. People for the most part do not own their property, as the government can demolish it at will, and so the idea of home and ownership is very different. I became interested in how this phenomenon was affecting daily life and began photographing these new constructions. In some photographs I created a scene happening within the space based on my imagination, and other photographs I left unaltered.

Each window reveals tidbits of humanity like grass sprouting in the cracks of a paved parking lot.

There is a sharp contrast between the organic and inorganic, which is both exposed and masked by rapid modernization. These images to me represented the face of progress there.

From the Series, “今 Jīn,” Margeaux Walter created at during residency at Red Gate Gallery in Beijing

Tonight at Dawn: Please tell us about your current group exhibition in Philadelphia; where it is and which projects are on display?

Margeaux Walter: I am showing three new lenticulars from my series False Awakening at Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia. There are five artists in the exhibit and the concept is about different ways that artists are manipulating paper as a material. The show opens Friday April 4th, and is up until May 24th.

Tonight at Dawn: Please share one thing about you that may be quirky or interesting.

Margeaux Walter: I own 83 wigs.

Tonight at Dawn: If you cannot make it to the current exhibit in Philadelphia, I know there will be many more opportunities to see Margeaux’s work well into the future. Her creativity and vision make it very probable that she and her art will be an ever evolving and steadfast part of our visual culture.

This piece features more of Margeaux’s wig collection:

Margeaux Walter, “General Admission”, Photographic Lenticular, 40 x 40 inches from the “Crowded Series”.

Lewis Black Rants On: 7 Pieces of Advice

tonightatdawn April 7, 2014

Lewis Black’s “The Rant is Due” Tour

Text & Photos by Kimberly Cecchini

With his characteristic spectrum of facial expressions and gestures, Lewis Black could have entertained folks on-screen before the advent of the talkies. And it’s all the more mesmerizing when he is emphatically pointing his finger a few feet away from you at a live show. Much to the crowd’s delight, Mr. Black spared no energy in animating his material Saturday night at Montclair’s Wellmont Theater.

Ranting on in his usual fashion, Mr. Black covered familiar themes like the weather, health and politics with fresh advice for a range of publics on more current events. A few pieces of advice from Lewis Black:

1. Having recently returned from beautiful Tahiti, he offered this to Putin: “You don’t invade Crimea, you fucking take over Tahiti.”

2. Send our stymied Congress to Tahiti, “They won’t remember their fucking positions and they won’t give a shit.”

3. To Detroit because, as he implies, most people will pay more attention to a natural disaster than an economic collapse: “(They) should have hired a Hollywood production company to stage a catastrophe…”

4. Take the 13% of Americans who thought that Congress was still doing a good job during the government shutdown, have them govern their own state and broadcast it as a 24-hour reality show.

5. 93% of climate scientists agree that climate change is happening…uhhh…listen to them.

6. Get a colonoscopy. Anesthesia is “sleep heaven”.

7. Of course, the night before the colonoscopy, prepare your bathroom before you start to drink the liquid.

Even though his act is riddled with cynicism, he said that he has hope for the country that he has been told is the greatest on Earth, “I wake up every morning brimming with optimism. I wake up with a smile on my face that would make a Born-Again Christian wonder what is that Jew up to?…I grab my cup of coffee and my newspaper and sit down (looking at the headlines)…fuck me, maybe tomorrow.” Maybe the headlines would change a little tomorrow if we extracted a bit of the logic behind the rantings of Lewis Black.

After about an hour, Mr. black glanced at his watch and said, “Oh fuck, we’re done.” He took a couple of minutes to answer some of the audience questions that were submitted via a web forum before the show; he thought George Bush’s paintings were “shitty” and poked fun that only a crowd in New Jersey would laugh about someone throwing up in their seat. When asked what inspired him to do stand up, he succinctly panned, “Nights like these.”.

Lewis Black at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, NJ

Arte Temporal en El Zócalo (Temporary Art)

tonightatdawn April 1, 2014

Chalk Graffiti in El Zócalo

Text & Photos by Kimberly Cecchini

El Zócalo was almost deserted the first time we walked through it; densely populated Mexico City was strangely empty at it’s core despite the square’s fame as a meeting place since the time of the Aztecs. With the Baroque-styled National Palace and green Volkswagen Beetles circling around, Constitution Plaza had the feel of an European city. The dance of the square’s large national flag seemed to be the only activity, so we went off to zig zag through the surrounding neighborhoods and explored the nearby museum of caricatures.

El Ángel de la Independencia: Symbol of Mexico City

A few hours later, we walked back to the Zócalo. It was now a hive of activity. The activities were as lively and as varied as the city’s storied past. People were milling around, organ grinders played and Native Americans performed traditional dances. Other folks were in a full swing protest in front of the building. And, in the center of the square, young adults were drawing graffiti over the concrete tiles. Temporary graffiti with colored sand.

Some of the artists were simply crouched over the ground; balanced on one blue sand covered hand. In their other hand, they grasped a simple paper curled into a funnel while they carefully sifted sand over their piece of the momentary canvas. Yet some of the youth were wheeling around transparent sand drawing contraptions that looked like vacuums and like a fad we had missed out on in the States.

Chalk Graffiti Contraptions in El Zócalo

Whether the participants looked like they were pausing to take part in a novel activity or they were artists engrossed in their creations, impermanence had taken root. It would at least last until the valley’s afternoon showers. The art was a bit more impermanent than a city sinking into its ancient lake bed.

Honestly, I cannot tell you much more than what is shown in the photos. I did not record many of the designs at the time, but I suspect that many of them went beyond outlines of stars and “I love D.F. (Distrito Federal-a.k.a. Mexico City)”. As I have yet to find any references to the fleeting art of El Zócalo, I would love to hear from anyone with some insight.

Is it a tradition or was it a fleeting pre-cursor to the flash mob?

Chalk Graffiti in El Zócalo