Full Moon, Pedregal, AMYI Convention, Mexico City September

Full moon Mexico City 13 September 2019

Pedregal is the name of a section of Mexico City. It is not far from the volcano Iztaccíhuatl,

which is considered to be extinct. Lorena Beltran and I joked about the theory of extinction. She pointed out that the volcano Popocatepetl which had been considered to be extinct turned out, in 2014, and into the present. NOT to be.

So in Mexico City, anything can happen. Of course anything can happen anywhere, but in La Ciudad Grande y Majestuosa de México, this seems to be particularly true.

The days before el Día de la Independencia in Mexico (16 septiembre) are called “la Puente,” because they form a bridge to the holiday, roughly equivalent to our fourth of July. The day commemorates the New Republic of Mexico throwing off the stern yoke of Spanish Conquest. Since the time of Cortés, the native peoples of Mexico had been under the iron rule of the European nation of Spain. All the native tribes—the Aztecs, the Mixtecs, the Olmecs, and many others fought with each other and with the conquerors for protection of their native territories.

All over the city we see red, green and white decorations and many Mexican flags flying—flaunting of course the same colors in vivid blocks with an eagle in the middle. The occasion for my visit was the 11^th annual Iyengar Convention, held at the Centro Asturias and presided over by Bobbie Clennell, a senior teacher from New York. The convention was marvelous—Bobbie is an excellent teacher—and the best part of it was that AMYI (the Mexican Iyengar Association) was able to offer the classes free to members of the Association.

I also attended, prior to the convention itself, a meeting of the AMYI Certification Committee, of which I have been an advising member for a couple of years. The miracle of this recent meeting was that all present were able to voice their concerns and all present were able to listen to each other respectfully. All agreed to the principles proposed by the Committee President, Rosanna Rubio, who led the meeting with grace and poise.

So, all told, it was a short but eventful visit, and highlighted by a cena, on the full moon night, to a restaurant near the ancestral home in Pedregal of the internationally famous Mexican architect, Luis Barragan. He was known for his use of color and for his modern structures that showed off color and light in a new and unusual way. You can see his influence all over the country in the brightly colored walls. His innovations and genius remain alive as “emotional architecture.”

I’m reviewing this writing during Climate Week in New York City. What strikes me is the emotional response I had, undoubtedly with many others on the planet, to seeing a photograph of the United Nations building lit up with the stern, elegant words of Greta Thunberg. She reminds us that today is the day to change our ways, or the consequences will be inexcusable. Agreed.