The Coolidge examiner., 1932-12-09

Madero, Carranza, Obregon, Gales,
and other regimes, this blood
stained area has seen Mexican his
tory made. Palaces, pawnshOps,
churches, markets. and other insti-
tutions face II now, and into 1t run
no fewer than ten thoroughfares, in
Guiding the stately avenues of Gin
co de Mayo, Madero, and the 16 de
Septlembre.
Old Market and Little Shops.
On tramcars, on foot, and in mo-
tor cars an incredible traffic stream
pours through this plaza every day.
and on its west side there flourishes
what is perhaps the clty's oldest
market. Since 1924, when city Off
clals gave merchants permission to
build porticoes to shelter goods dis
played on the sidewalk In front of
their stores, retail trade has gone
on here. For years the public let
terwriters piled their pens here,
helping many lovesick Indians to
woo by mail" A few still do busl-
ness.
Walking by the plaza market now.
you pass under arcades whose old
walls are plastered with bullfight
posters and notices of lottery draw
ings. Slow-movlng Mexican street
crowds loiter before the little shops.
These sell toys. sweet meats. news
papers, cheap jewelry. and odds and
ends of hardware and dishes, eye
glasses, postcards, and other triv-
partment stores and finest shops
are out on fashionable avenues.
Here, also, under these arcades,
stuck away in tiny hooks. are men
running little hand-printing presses
and making cheap calling cards and
stationery. and other indOlent arti-
sans who mend clocks. guitars. tell
fortunes with canary birds. and ped
die lottery tickets. And here. too,
is the beggar known in Mexican
slang as the pordiosero. or, literally,
the "for-God s-saker."
On the south side of the plaza Is
a section known as the Portal de
las Flores. This was the old flower
market In days when canals still led
to the plaza.
The Valley of Mexico.
Sheer theatrical geography. that
is the historic Valley of Mexico, or
Anahuac. A vast. mountain-fringed
oval 1t Is, of 1,75S square miles. II
tops the Mexican highlands as a
great natural colosseum, a dra-
matte sun-drenched setting for all
the stirring events 1t has staged.
Though in places more than 5000
feet above the sea, food waters long
menaced its lower areas. Lakes and
marshes were once more numerous
than now. To protect ancient Ten
ochtitlan, the Aztecs built many
dikes in the salty Lake Texcoco.
Three great cauSeways connected
their Venlce-like city of water
streets with mainland, and wa
terway for canoes and barges ran
out to Lake TexcocO.
Floods were so bad. even before
the Spaniards came. that the Az
tees had built dams. and as early
as 1858 the Viceroy Luis de Valesco
struggled with the problem.
One gigantic trench-the still fa-
nous TajO de NochistOngo-was be-
gun in 1907, in which task thou
sands of overwOrked Indians per-
ished. 1t was first opened as a
tunnel to drain the valley lakes;
then. closed in dispute, flood wa
ters rose three feet deep in the city
streets. Changed later from a tun-
mel into a great trench, in places
100 feet deep and 300 feet wide, the
Tajo de Nochistongo remains an
amazing example of what early
Spaniards could do with Indian
slave labor. From your train you
can see this historic man-made
mountain pass now, as you ride into
Mexico City from the north.
One of the strangest aspects of
Mexico City is that, though perched
so high mp near continental divide,
1t long diked and drained itself like
a seaside town in Holland. 1t was
not till 1900, after centuries of
study and work that the city was
made safe. when the great 30-mile
Canal del besague was completed.
ON 1t thousands of men worked for
years. with teams. trans and steam
shovels. II is eas:iv the mos: spec
tacIlar modern engineering feat
from the Roosevelt dam to the Pan
ANA canal.