Axolotls in crisis: the fight to save the 'water monster' of Mexico City

This article is more than 7 years old

The city’s floating gardens are a prime party spot – but pollution has driven the axolotl population to the verge of extinction. Can a radical plan save them?

Alan Grabinsky in Mexico City

Tue 4 Dec 2018 

Like many residents of Mexico City, my experience of the floating gardens of Xochimilco has mostly been tinged with alcohol. After all, every weekend, this Unesco world heritage site turns into a bacchanal, with groups aboard the canals’ iconic boats celebrating everything from high school graduations to engagements and weddings.

Marilyn Manson / The Path of Misery

Marilyn Manson

THE PATH OF MISERY

Colegio de San Ildefonso

México City

Frida Kahlo
by Fabian Ciar

Frida Kahlo's work is still as vibrant as her Casa Azul

This year may mark the centenary of Frida Kahlo's birth, but her paintings still feel as fresh as ever.

It is incredible to think that this year marks the centenary of Frida Kahlo's birth. Her paintings still feel so fresh and modern to me. The largest ever retrospective of her work is currently being displayed at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.

When I visited Mexico in 2002, the film Frida, starring Salma Hayek, had just been released. I was there for a conference, but managed to slip away to the cinema with a fellow truant. Having just climbed the pyramids in Teotihuacan, it was exhilarating to see them in the film as the place where Leon Trotsky and Frida embarked on their affair. We had visited Frida's home and could attest to the vibrant blue of the walls. We had seen for ourselves the bullet holes in Trotsky's house, conveniently located around the corner from Frida's Casa Azul.

I was introduced to Mexico's most famous artist couple at the 1989 Edinburgh festival, courtesy of Red Shift theatre Company's captivating production Frida and Diego by Greg Cullen. My fascination with this feminist icon, born of a macho society, has remained with me ever since.

Perhaps it is because Frida's pioneering style appeals to the female mind. She deals with acute emotions and expresses so vividly the agony and ecstasy of life. Frida frequently represented the anguish caused by her childhood polio, and the accident with a car that left her with irreparable spinal injuries and unable to have children. She committed to canvas the pain and love she felt during her on-off relationship with Diego (whom she married twice). She painted during her recovery from numerous bouts of surgery. She had long periods of introspection when she was confined to her bed that contributed to her unique vision. A whole life expressed through art.

My partner is Mexican and I am fortunate enough to be able to visit his home city regularly. He is based in the neighbourhood of Coyoácan where Frida lived and died. The Casa Azul houses one of the most stunning museums I have visited. As well as Frida's paintings, her studio, kitchen and bedroom have been lovingly preserved, laid out with a variety of her belongings and curiosities (she was a collector of Mexican artefacts), which give the impression that Frida is just around the corner in another room. The garden is sublime, and when in town I often while away an afternoon, sitting in the cool shade of a particular tree.

There will no doubt be many celebrations of Mexico's national treasure this year. But the main exhibition concludes on August 19. Sadly I won't be there to enjoy the works, some of which are being exhibited for the first time. Summer is upon us, and instead I must content myself with finding the paint that most closely matches Frida's "azul" so that I can transform my garden wall, lie back and think of Mexico.

If you have managed to see any of the Frida exhibitions, please let us know what you thought.

THE GUARDIAN

Frida Kahlo by Robert Toren

Frida Kahlo / Self - Portraits

Up close and personal / Frida Kahlo's photo album

Frida Kahlo / A life of hope and defiance

Frida Kahlo's Birthday presence / A Google doodle tribute

Secret letters unravel Frida Kahlo legend

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera at the Bowes Museum 

Frida Kahlo´s work is still as vibrant as her Casa Azul

México 2007
Spencer Tunick

Thousands of Mexicans strip for photo shoot

May 7, 2007 - 9:36AM

A record 18,000 people took off their clothes to pose for US photographic artist Spencer Tunick on Sunday in Mexico City's Zocalo square, the heart of the ancient Aztec empire.

Tunick, who has raised eyebrows by staging mass nude photo shoots in cities from Dusseldorf in Germany to Caracas in Venezuela, smashed his previous record of 7,000 volunteers set in 2003 in Barcelona, Spain.

Directing with a megaphone, Tunick shot a series of pictures with his Mexican models simultaneously raising their arms, then lying on their backs in the square, as well as another scene on a side street with volunteers arranged in the shape of an arrow.

Hundreds of police kept nosy onlookers away during the nippy early-morning shoot, and a no-fly zone was declared above the plaza.

One of the world's biggest and most imposing squares, the Zocalo is framed by a cathedral, city hall and the National Palace official seat of government, which is adorned with murals by Diego Rivera.

A ruined temple next to it was once the centre of the Aztec civilisation and was used for worship and human sacrifice. Spanish conquistadors used bricks from the temple to help build their own capital.

Some participants said the massive turnout showed that Mexicans, at least in the capital, were becoming less prudish.

Mexicans are not used to showing skin. Most men wear shorts only while on vacation, and women tend not to put on miniskirts because of unwanted whistles and stares.

"This event proves that really we're not such a conservative society anymore. We're freeing ourselves of taboos," said Fabiola Herrera, a 30-year-old university professor who volunteered to strip, along with her boyfriend.

The capital of the world's second-biggest Catholic nation, where tough-guy masculinity and family loyalty are held dear, has recently challenged some important traditions.

Last month, Mexico City legislators legalised abortion in defiance of criticism from church officials.

Also, gay couples are getting hitched in civil ceremonies thanks to recently passed laws in the capital, and lawmakers plan to debate whether to legalise euthanasia.

Not all Mexicans were impressed by the spectacle staged by Tunick, who was refused permission to hold his nude photo at the famed Teotihuacan pyramids outside the capital.

"They're losing dignity as men and women," said 63-year-old Armando Pineda, leaning against the cathedral and watching the now-dressed models leave the plaza. "It's an offence against the church."

The Mexico City metropolitan area is home to about 18 million people.

Reuters

Salma Hayek / Frida

FRIDA

***

Andrew Pulver

Friday 28 February 2003

Long in gestation, the Frida Kahlo biopic, produced by and starring Salma Hayek, finally reaches our screens, bearing with it an Oscar nomination for best actress. Was it worth the wait? Well, it's pretty stodgy stuff, by and large, that covers all the expected bases, distilling Kahlo's relatively short, incident-packed life into the conventional parameters of the artist biography - lots of wine-drinking, dramatic gestures and arguments about communism. Director Julie Taymor takes considerable pains over small, animated interpolations that briefly illustrate and draw on Kahlo's own work; however impressive these are, though, they're not enough to offset the heaviness of the rest of the film.

Kudos must go to Hayek for persisting with the project over a number of years, and she is generally relaxed and effective in the lead role. She is still let down by her rocky English, unfortunately; as hard as she tries, the jokier lines just sound lame. Alfred Molina does a big bear of a performance as Diego Rivera, Kahlo's eternal foil, grabbing every line as if his life depended on it. Geoffrey Rush, on the other hand, does a terrible cameo as Trotsky, complete with one of those awful movie R-r-r-ussian accents.

But this is still a substantial film, its story told with economy and clarity. And Taymor makes much of what opportunities there are for distinctive design, what with carefully arranged Mexican interiors, Kahlo's affectation for traditional dress, and picturesque incidents aplenty. Kahlo's iconic value - both as a poster girl for 1980s western bohemianism and for Mexico's own sense of pride - is well established, and the movie doesn't let them down.

THE GUARDIAN