Frida Fever

So Frida Kahlo is everywhere in Mexico. On magnets, on shirts, on posters. I think I might actually feel weird leaving Mexico without buying something bearing her image. Tonight at the Casa de la Cultura there was a unique kind of Frida celebration, "Pintate como Frida" (Paint yourself like Frida). We learned about it because the group putting it on was out on Wednesday night distributing flyers. There was a woman dressed like Frida and another woman dressed like Diego Rivera, her teacher and questionable choice of partner in life. They were painting these two models who had bravely volunteered to participate in a recreation of one of Frida's paintings.

This went on for a while and they were even doling out free shots of tequila. Not sure how that was related, but why not?

On the ground there was a huge piece of craft paper with various quotes of hers. I really like this one.

This Casa de la Cultura was amazing, and enormous. There were multiple rooms with music and dance lessons of all kinds going on. In the same square as the Frida performance there was a bachata lesson happening. It was all very impressive.

From there we made our way home and stopped for dinner at this little streetside stand. I had corundas, like tamales but served triangle-shaped and steamed in banana leaves. Candace and Shayna got pambazos, like a big chicken sandwich coated in red sauce. Yum. Oh, and for lunch today, Shayna and I went to the most amazing cocina económica just down the road from where we are staying. It was two courses, a soup and a main course, plus a jar of guava agua fresca for about $3 each. Like anywhere, you can spend a lot for food, or you can spend very little and still get great food. In many cases it's actually better than what you get if you spend a lot.

A picture from inside where we had dinner. They put bottles of soda on the table to show you what they have. It started to get dark while we were there so the waitress climbed on a chair and plugged in a lightbulb from a wire running overhead. This also was the power source for the TV.