メキシコへの学会出張

メキシコ学会。

水曜日は半日自由だったので、歴史遺産、テオティユタカン文明時代のピラミッドを見るツアーに参加しました。その前に、メキシコ国会や教会なども車窓見学。300年間もスペインの植民地だった、という歴史が重い。ピラミッドはとても大きかった。こんなものが何千年も前に建てられたとは。高度な文明があったらしい。スペイン軍に破壊されず残ったのは奇跡的だった…。ここで行われていた儀式や人々の祈りの様子が偲ばれる。

とても印象に残ったのは、行く途中で立ち寄った、大きな教会が立つ開けた場所。スペイン軍が最初に降り立って、そこにあった先住民の建物を破壊し、その瓦礫で、教会を建設した。南北アメリカ大陸の最初の「学校」だったそうだ。先住民を強制改宗させることを「教育」としていた当時。今ではその場所のすぐ隣に近代的なビルが並び、ガイドさん曰く「先住民の文化の建物の土台部分と、建てられた教会と、近代的なビル群がすぐ隣り合って見える、メキシコの歴史が詰まった場所」だそうだ。

中学生たちが下校しているのもバスから見ることができて、なかなか興味深かった。暑い国なのに、長袖長ズボンの制服を着ている。登下校の道にたくさんお菓子を売る露店があって、誘惑が多そう…。この国でも、いろんなお菓子が売られていた。昨今の世界は、飢餓と肥満の両極端の問題に直面している。お菓子を作る小麦粉を、飢饉の発生している地域に配れないものか。

アガベ。巨大！　シロップが出る。

野生サボテン。これも巨大。

黄色い小さな花が咲く木。暑かった…快晴で25℃あった。0℃の世界から来ていたので何たる違い。半袖やサンダルを持って来れば良かったと思った…。

サボテンの花。

なんかマカオを彷彿とさせるなと思った。マカオはポルトガルの植民地だったけれど。

ピラミッドからの眺め。

メキシコはいろいろな気候があるため植生も様々。砂漠、熱帯、温帯…なんでもありらしい。

Day trip to the Teotihuacan pyramids.

Visited a historical site with pyramids. Theotihutacan civilization flourished some 1000s years ago. The site consisted of the Pyramid of the Moon and that of the Sun. The straight corridor leads straight to the Moon, while the Sun is on the right side. There used to be a temple on each pyramid, where rituals were taken place. Although the Sun is bigger than the Moon, archeologists speculate that the Moon was more important than the Sun because of its position at the end of the corridor facing north, the most sacred direction at the time.

Visitors can climb a third of the Moon, and to the top to the Sun. The Moon had steeper stairs. The view from both was very good. I was able to see the buildings in the surrounding towns, trees, and dryland areas. It somewhat resembled to the dessert in Australia, but I certainly saw a hint of Middle American atmosphere there.

The good thing about this tour was that the tour guides explained the history and traditional customs that their ancestors had. They said that they wanted the tourists to learn something about their culture, rather than just climb on top of the pyramid and take pictures. I admire and support that attitude towards tourism.

They brought us to the site where you can see three things; ruins of civilization that existed before Spanish conquest, and churches that they built using the material of the temples that the civilization had, and finally modern buildings. Spanish conquerors showed their power by constructing churches, the symbol of their culture, using the material of the building that they had just destroyed. It happened in 1500s, where Europeans dominated the world, exploring frontiers looking for means to make their countries even richer. What happened after that was total control of the indigenous people by the Spanish, the language, culture, and religion was taught at the first time in both continents of Americas. So what I saw was the very first school that was built by Spanish 500 years ago. The whole concept of education and school was brought from them. Good or bad? I do not know what kind of subject was taught, I assume mainly Christianity, not math or science…       

They showed us the wild plants of agabe, a very useful cactus plant. It produces protein-rich, sweet liquid that tastes good. It also provides humans with paper, made of its thick, sturdy fibre and needle and thread again made of its fiber and sharp tip of the leaves. The sharp tip of the leaves can also be used as a utility knife. This beneficial plants grow very big, taller than humans. Once the center part of the plants is cut, the plant will produce the sweet liquid every day for a year, and then die. It was interesting to see a real agabe producing syrop.

We saw many wild cactus and aloe plants on the way, too. It is quite a different scenery I am used to. Very interesting. I had cactus salad for lunch on one day of the conference, but I did not know at that time it was cactus; I thought it was seaweed.

It was also nice to chat with the tour guides. The main guy called us “Amigos”, which was very friendly. We have experienced the typical Mexican (or Latin American) culture of positive, take-it-easy, laid-back people. One of the guide’s relatives lives in Nagasaki, which was surprising. It is a small world. I was happy to know that my name, when pronounced in Spanish, means “Smile”. They remembered my name because of that. Interacting with locals - the most interesting and fun part of a trip.

The other group travelled to one of the research institute’s headquarters, which must have also been nice. I was registered to attend that tour at first, but my advisor recommended to visit the pyramids. She said it’s more useful to be away from resaech for a while and see something new, something unique to that place you are visiting. It was a very refreshing experience indeed after sitting and listening to presentations all day long for 2.5 days. I am so happy that my advisor is lenient and kind.