Day 1 Guadalajara

Today started off with an early morning breakfast and not much sleep. We literally didn't get settled until 1:00 am. The show must go on!

What an absolute amazing and inspiring day. Our morning stop was La Escuela Primaria "Enrique C. Rebsamen. The school has approximately 1100 students. It is an upper to middle class school. Funding for the school is through state and government monies but also through family contribution.

The moment we arrived we were greeted with pretty young senoritas who were very excited to meet us as they were preparing for their Bienvenidos celebration for us.

When we first arrived we were introduced to La Maestra Freta and the Principal of the school Maestra Teresa Bayardo Rodriguez.

After a Q/A session with the school administration the students of this Elementary prepared a very warm and amazing welcome celebration. Students were dressed beautifully in their cultural attire performing many dances for us.

Once the celebratory events were complete, we were able to go around and visit classrooms. This is a first grade classroom that has 50 students in it with one teacher. The students are placed very closely together in each classroom to accommodate the large numbers in each classroom.

All students are dismissed to the central area where they eat lunch. Each student is required to bring their own lunch. In the picture above, parents come to the school and provide meals for purchase by students. In the picture below a parent provided students a lunch at not cost. Parents play a very active role in the school. I did get to sample some of the lunch provided by parents and as expected, it was fantastic!

Our morning ended with a presentation of gifts between the Principal of the school and the Commissioner of education, Dr. Katy Anthes.

After our school visit, we were given the opportunity to take in some of the culture surrounding Guadalajara. We spent the afternoon touring the many beautiful cultural centers, churches and markets downtown.

Hospicio Cabañas hosts different stories that you can not miss, admire the important murals of José Clemente Orozco. This place served as a shelter for orphans from 1810 to 1980 and was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1997.

The murals were painted by José Clemente Orozco, a Mexican painter who specialize in political murals. Below is an amazing mural of Miguel Hidalgo. The mural extends over 13,000 square feet. This mural depicts Miguel Hidalgo, a priest who called the Indian people to revolt on September 16, 1810. Although the revolt was unsuccessful, he is regarded as the person who instigated the Mexican push for independence. In the mural, Hidalgo, stern-faced and monumental, in scale as only a pantocrator would be depicted, offers a sick and war-ridden mankind fire - a clear allusion to the Prometheus myth.

Haunted by the brutality of the Mexican Revolution, Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco created bold works of public art that challenged social norms and conventions about race and nationality. The underlying theme of many of Orozco's murals, is his conviction that enormous gaps existed in his country between social ideals and social realities. The Man of Fire fresco painted high up on the cupola of the Hospicio Cabanas shows three figures forming a circle around a mass of flame. The figures do not represent specific people but his fellow countrymen and their sufferings. At centre is a third figure, burning and disintegrating. Orozco nowhere explains how this work should be 'read". But he is talking here about the idea of both disintegration and death, but also of the possibility of rebirth and regeneration. This work, and others like it, express Orozco' s belief that the human spirit is unquenchable, regardless of the horrors or cruelties men inflict of men. There is also here the possibility of new life or rebirth like the phoenix rising from the ashes.

Man on Fire!

With its two towers of neo gothic needles, this church is one of the most representative icons of Guadalajara. The Cathedral of Guadalajara is a fascinating religious monument, located in the center of the Jalisco capital. Despite having been destroyed several times, the cathedral has risen on multiple occasions to showcase its fascinating architecture.