Today after our mid morning nap, we walked aimlessly around the city. As we did, we had an interesting chat about a time when México... and therefore Guadalajara, lived under the dictatorship of a castizo man from Oaxaca, who rose to power after heroically fighting off the French occupation during the battle of Cinco de Mayo. Ironically, once he had bravely fought for México's physical sovereignty, his own internalized oppression kept him from being able to defend and support the preservation of our collective cultural identity and basic human rights...Making his 35 years in power very oppressive and Eurocentric.
We talked about this being the reason why, as we walked around the city, we found remnants of an era where the French influence of city planning is evident and where French and English style mansions can be found just blocks away from an impressive Neo-gothic style church, built during the years he was in power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
It is impressive and sad to see how our people struggled with identity and internalized oppression during that era as evidenced by the amount of money spent on these lavish projects.
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