If you collected many of my favorite things, folk art, outrageous color, quirky objects, and wonderful craftsmanship, and out them into a museum, you’d have the Museo de Arte Popular. It’s one of my favorite museums in Mexico City, and I have several.
Though relatively small, I can spend many happy hours there. On this visit, there were two special exhibitions. The first was a room filled with art made from paper: piñatas, collages, intricate cut-paper designs, flowers, and an astonishing range of sculptures, from tiny to enormous. Much of the museum’s art draws on Day of the Dead traditions, including an enormous papier mâché ballerina skeleton in a tutu that made me laugh out loud. It’s hard not to love a museum where a skeleton dances in a tutu.
The second special exhibition celebrated the museum’s twentieth anniversary, with pieces collected during each year since it opened.
Then there is the permanent collection. Although I’ve seen it several times, there is so much on display that I always discover something new. I also think pieces are rotated in and out, which gives me a good excuse to keep coming back.
Of course, I had to visit the gift shop, where many of the pieces could easily have been upstairs in the museum. I left without buying everything I wanted, which I consider one of my major accomplishments of the day.
Then I was off to find lunch. I ended up at a small restaurant crammed with locals, which I took as a good sign. It was. The enchiladas suizas were delicious.
Although I’d taken an Uber to the museum, I decided to walk back to the hotel. Crowds filled the streets, and it appeared the entire Centro Histórico was having a party. I can’t walk long distances without stopping, but in Mexico City that’s not a hardship. I claimed a bench whenever I found one and watched the city stroll past me.
Along the way I wandered into Mexico City’s Chinatown, which I hadn’t even known existed. One of the things I love about this city is that even after several visits, it still holds many surprises.
By the time I returned to the hotel, my friends Pat and Sandra had arrived from New York. After they settled in, we headed to Balcón del Zócalo, a restaurant my friend Sophia introduced me to a few years ago. Perched on the top floor of a hotel, it has a spectacular view over the Zócalo (the main square), the cathedral, and government buildings. We had a table right by the window.
About an hour into dinner, lightning began flashing in the distance. The sky grew darker, the flashes came closer, and then the heavens opened. This wasn’t a little rain shower. It was a full-scale thunderstorm.
One lightning strike seemed to explode directly above us, illuminating the entire dining room as if someone had turned a spotlight on us. That was followed almost instantly by a crack of thunder that stopped every conversation.
With no desire to venture outside, we did the only sensible thing: we ordered dessert. Then another dessert appeared with “Happy Birthday” for Pat. I’d forgotten I had mentioned her birthday when making the reservation. The storm wasn’t going anywhere, and neither were we. An espresso seemed called for.
Eventually the storm moved on, and so did we. Folk art, enchiladas, great people watching, Chinatown, good friends, and a thunderstorm over the Zócalo. Another wonderful day in Mexico City.