White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1932-12-01

Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington, D. C.-WNU Service.
\ A EXICO City, North Americas
MI Oldest metropolis recently
lV hailed a new president. AL
most as suddenly as Pascual
Ortiz Rubio resigned, Gen. Abelardo
Rodriguez became the new master of
Mexico's "White House."
Mexico City is an astonishing place.
Things have happened here so strange
and unusual that were they not set
down in authentic records they would
tax all belief. 1t looms largest in the
mind Of the average American because
relations with washington, growing
out of the many old, unsolved ques-
lions between the two republics; but
in modern, superficial aspects it is not
unlike some other Latin-American cap
itals. 1t has old palaces, parks, paint
ings, and libraries; colleges, converts,
great newspapers, and brOadcasting
stations; likewise diplomats, soldiers,
traffic jams, and jails. 1t buys and
sells, and makes soap, soda water,
shoes, shirts, candy, cigarettes, furni-
ture machinery, leatherware, patent
medicines, and textiles.
Sit in one Of it's theaters and watch
news reels; swim, dance play golf
or tennis at a club, or land at Bal
buena field in passenger plane from
| hot
Spanish instead of Yankee chatter
you might as we'll be in Denver. In
fact, the high top light and nearby
snow peaks much resemble the scenic
settings of Colorado.
But under all this standardized mod
ernism is much more-a blend of Span
ish and Aztec forces that goes back
400 years. You see signs of this, now
and then, in fiat, three-cornered Aztec
faces moving stolfdly in street crowds.
Probe the mystic past and you find
that certain historic events staged
here swayed the destiny Of our con-
tinent for centuries Here Christianity
got it's first foothold in North America,
when idols were turned into affairs and
a glittering but cruel pagan culture
yielded stubbornly to European civ
ilization.
Here Americas first sheet music and
first book were published. Here it's
first money was coined. And here, too,
appeared the "Flying Mercury" Some
have styled it Americas "irst news
lint b,,+
pamphlet on history or political dis
cussion.
When Cortez Came.
Imagine yourself in Mexico City that
fateful day in 1919 when Cortez came.
(You remember his first arrival was
peaceful; the dreadful 90 days of
fighting, often hand-to-hand, came on
later visit). Montezuma, glittering
with jewels and golden decorations,
gorgeous in his royal robe and gold
soled sandals, comes out to meet Cor
tez and escort him into the island city.
Unseen till then by any white mans
eye, the greatest city in North America
is astir with pagan life. Could you
have been there, walking and talking
with Cortez and the Emperor Monte
yuma, you, too, would have marveled
as the Spaniards did.
Down a broad, Fifth avenue-like
thoroughfare Cortez and his amazed
men followed the Aztec emperor.
Throughout the Venice-like city ran
canals crowded with thousands of busy
canoes laden with passengers, fruit,
fowls, flowers, grain, and fuel. Stone
buildings lined both paved streets and
canals, and on great plaza stood the
palace of Montezuma's father, faced
by great teocalli, or sacriicial temple.
Here, in 1925, the Aztecs first saw
the symbolic snake and eagle and
built their first temples. Here, in 1921,
was staged one of the most bloody of
all combats between Aztec and Span
lard, when Spanish prisoners of war
were sacrificed to the idols. Undoubt-
edly more people were executed here
than at any other spot on earth. More
than 100000 skulls were found in one
temple, and it is estimated that at
lodSl -O,ooo IuCL, "oiich anu SHlluleu
were sacrificed here each year. Even
the Spaniards themselves, after the
conquest, executed their own Castilian
criminals here and exposed their
heads after the manner of the Aztecs,
to the establishment of visiting Indians.
Here Iturbide was proclaimed EN-.
peror in 1922. Here the American
general. Winfield Scott, raised the
Stars and Stripes in 1S47, and here,