A Postcard From My Grandmother

On September 16, 1910 president Porfirio Diaz hosted foreign dignitaries and Mexican citizens at a spectacular parade and military procession that included historical reenactments and dedications to monuments.  It was the centennial celebration of Mexico's independence from Spain in 1810 known commonly as El Grito.  Mexican citizens walked the streets of this beautiful city known as La Ciudad de los Palacios ("the City of Palaces").  My grandmother probably in her teens at the time was one such person to witness this ostentatious fiesta.  About a month later the Mexican revolution would begin started by Francisco I. Madero.

My grandmother was the daughter of general Joaquin Jimenez Castro who became brigadier general of the state of Chihuahua during the revolution.  He fought against Pancho Villa being a federal government officer. He must have known the famous Enrique C. Creel of Chihuahua who was governor at one point as well as a consideration for replacing president Diaz at some time.  

Could a young woman like my grandmother have even appreciated the plight of so many of Mexico's poor and that as many as 2 million people would loose their lives by the end of the war?  A product of her time, she simply lived day to day as a wealthy military officer's daughter and was surely protected from as much of the violence as possible I would suppose.  

     

Postales de mi Lita Esther Jiménez Castro / Postcards from my grandma Esther Jiménez Castro

I have three of her postcards that I have numbered one, two and three. This is what she wrote on number three:

México á 17 de Sep del 1910

Querida madrina

-Por la carta de mi tío Ysidro supimos tío enfermó tanto lo siento mucho tanto yo, como mis hermanitas y mamá.

-Aquí  todos estamos bien y con salud gozando de las fiestas del Centenario, que han estado muy lucidas principalmente la formación y el desfile histórico que lo fuimos á ver á la calle de San Francisco.

Dile á Eva Guzmán que cuando poderle contar todo lo que hubo

Nosotros hemos estado deseando hubieras estado aquí para que hubieras visto lo que es bueno, y que te alivies para te pasees.

Reciba muchos besos y abrazos de tío ahijada y sobrina y saludos á todos mis primos principalmente á Elvirita

Esther Jiménez Castro

Éste postal fue mandado a:

Señora

Sara M. de Canales

Monterrey

N.L.

Calle Yeral Capia  #142

Translation:

Mexico Sep 17, 1910

-Dear godmother:

-In the letter from my uncle Ysidro we found out uncle is ill.  I'm very sorry so are my sisters and mom.

-Here we are all in good health and enjoying the Centennial celebrations, which have been very splendid most of all the military procession and historical parade that we went to see on San Francisco Street.

Tell Eva Guzman that when the festivities are over I will write her to tell her everything that went on.

We've been wishing you had been here to have seen all the good things and get well and walk around.  Sending plenty of hugs and kisses from uncle, goddaughter, niece and greetings to all my cousins’ chiefly Elvirita

Esther Jimenez Castro

This postcard was sent to:
Mrs.

Sara M. Canales

Monterrey
N.L.

Capia Yeral Street # 142

Front: Monumento á la Independencia.

Note by grandmother reads: Se inauguró el 16 de septiembre de 1910

Back of postcard

I Never Stole From Frida

I went for a coffee one morning at one of Coyoacán’s tiny cafes called El Mundo del Café.  Similar to Café Jarocho it tightly fits on a street corner with a couple long benches and petite tables in the heart of Coyoacán’s historic center.  Located six miles south of Mexico City´s presidential palace and now a borough of Distrito Federal, it historically served as Hernán Cortés´ center of operations in the 1500s.  Coyoacán is Náhuatl for “place of coyotes”.  Náhuatl is the language of the Aztecs.

 Normally there are lots of patrons chatting away, reading the daily or just sipping on coffee and people-watching.  Today a couple of people and their dog sat enjoying their day.  I asked them how to get to the Leon Trotsky museum.  They later said:  “We thought you were going to ask us how to get to La Casa Azul”. 

The conversation ensued and we exchanged names.  Gabriela Turner said she grew up in Coyoacán and that since I was interested in finding someone who might have known my father she suggested I look up Don Gil that shines shoes at Café Jarocho.  In his mid seventies “he knew Frida when he was a child and you might want to go meet him”, Gabriela said.  Being my last day in México I had to postpone that for my next trip.

However Gabriela had her own story about Frida and her abode.  She said “as a kid I’d visit Frida’s house, lie on her bed and look up into the mirror she had on her ceiling”.  Today this would not happen as the museum has a security person in each room and firm rules are upheld when opening its doors to all tourists that visit from around the world and México.  “Nunca robé nada porque la amaba”  “I never stole anything because I loved her” Gabriela told me.

After saying our goodbyes it occurred to me I had forgotten to take a photograph of Gabriela and her husband.  But I caught up with them soon after and got that picture of them and their dog.  You get the sense of being in a small town even though the population in this delegación is over six hundred thousand.

Leaving pendientes, pending visits and business that time did not allow me to accomplish gives me even more reason to return to Coyoacán, its beautiful streets and its gracious people like Gabriela and her spouse who love their town and its previous inhabitants like Frida.

Frida's house La Casa Azul