I’m happy to welcome my media naranja, Adriana Camarena, as a guest blogger. This is her first but I hope not last contribution to The Nowtopian!
When I think of bicycles in Mexico beautiful images of workers spring to mind. Delivery men flutter on the streets on two or three wheels pollinating the neighborhoods with water, bread, telegrams, mail, newspapers, flowers, pharmacy errands, tacos de canasta, and other daily comforts. The factory workers also arrive on their bicycles. The films of the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema — often in the same category as cult Mexican films — nurtured the national imagination with an abundance of characters on bicycle. Pedro Infante -– a legendary Mexican singer and actor of that era — in a biographical film about his life is depicted as a humble bicycle mechanic in his beginnings. Among my favorite cast of characters on bicycle is the knife sharpener. He blows a sharp whistle as he rides through the street, telling his clients that he is available. When I lived in Mexico City, many times I called out from my top window “I’ll be right out!” El Afilador de Cuchillos places his back wheel on a stand. He sits and peddles backwards on his bike to whirl the sharpening stone; sparks fly to give knives a new edge. For more than a century, such workers have peddled the streets of Mexico. Even in the most populated cities of Mexico, the flowers, the bread, the water, the news, the mail, still arrive on bicycle.
Knife sharpening on the streets of Mexico with a bicycle-based machine.
On Saturday, September 19th 2009, Chris and I wandered the pedestrian zones of the historical colonial center of Guadalajara during the lunch hour, here known as la hora de la comida or la hora de la siesta. La hora lasts about two hours. We spent the hour eating pistachio and prune ice paletas, while window shopping, buying a wooden spatula on the street, and people watching; I even tried on a sparkly Quinceañera crown made of silver and crystals because it was rather remarkable. In other words, we were making time before the afternoon conferences of the second day of the Second Annual National Cycling Conference. (I say making time, because while English speakers “kill time” whenever they have a surplus of time on their hand before an event, we Spanish speakers say we are haciendo tiempo: making time.)
While we wander around, making time, I see an elder gentleman with his bicycle in front of a pharmacy. I shamelessly ask him “Disculpe, señor, are you a messenger?” Messengers are on my mind. Later that afternoon, we will attend a conference delivered by a panel of bike messengers.
Well, this is my own purchase, right now”, he says pointing to a bag in the crate on the back of his bike, “But, I am a messenger in everyday life. … Once upon a time, I delivered telegrams.”
Adriana and Don Francisco Gonzalez Estrada with his 1957 bicycle.
We have a conversation, and part ways. Chris and I retrace our steps to the Museo de la Ciudad to attend the Bicycle Messenger Talk headed by bike messenger Jimmy Lazima from Los Angeles, California, one young bike messenger from Ciudad Guzman, Jalisco, and fixie bike aficionados from Guadalajara. Jimmy engages the audience with stories about riding and working through gridlocked Los Angeles streets. The Mexican messenger talks about his on-going and painstaking efforts to set-up business, create a clientele basis, and promote ecological culture in Ciudad Guzman without yet being able to make a living from his efforts.
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September 25th, 2009 | Tags: ghost bikes | Category: History, Technology?, Travel report, Work and The Economy | Leave a comment
