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Mexico City
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2021-07-30
Covid Was Over
In 2021 my Mom and I planned a trip to Mexico to visit her side of the Family. We had been putting off the trip because of a lack of money and then Covid hit. It had been seven years since my mom had been able to visit her mother and her siblings. At this point in time, travel restrictions and quarantines were largely a thing of the past. People in my area no longer considered Covid to be a threat in the way it was viewed in the early part of 2020. Masks weren’t in common use and people went about as they pleased. Deaths were still rising. By June of 2021 our trip took place. Most of the big travel restrictions had been lifted, but oddly enough America still had testing restrictions for reentry. Mexico, a nation that still cared about limiting the spread of the virus, had no testing or vaccination requirements for entry. We went on our trip and had a great time visiting our family in Mexico City. While staying we decided to visit the Museum of Anthropology in the city center. To enter, we had to go one at a time and be sprayed with some sort of sanitization chemicals by guards in the front. Being a poor Spanish speaker I was afraid I would do something wrong and that they wouldn’t let me enter. Thankfully everything went well at that time. When the time came to leave we had to locate a pharmacy that would do rapid testing for our return trip. America had very specific instructions that only allowed for certain pharmacies to do the testing. This made it very difficult to find one that would work. When we got to the testing site it reminded me of zombie movies. The pharmacy was surrounded by tall iron fences with razor wire at the top. People wanting to be tested were funneled one by one to a testing kiosk. The kiosk itself was a glass paneled box complete with attached glove arms and a ventilation system. The test itself was a simple swab test that was much more painful than I thought it would be. My nose hurt for an hour afterward. On the day of our departure I was nervous that something would not be correct with our records and we would be stopped from leaving Mexico. The person who officially went over our records was in the baggage check in area. She took our documents and didn’t even look at them for one second before handing them back. I was confused but this, since our American travel sites made such a big deal about it. Honestly, we could have easily faked the records to get back into America. Ultimately we got home safe and sound. A little over a month later everything went to hell. My cousin, Aunt, and Abuelita all contracted Covid and were hospitalized. My Aunt and Abuelita passed away from the virus, only my cousin survived. My mom had to deal with the loss of two close family members less than two weeks apart. It felt so wrong, how could they have both died when Covid was over? -
2020-06-25
“In Mexico City, the Coronavirus Is Bringing Back Aztec-Era ‘Floating Gardens’” - Atlas Obscura
In Mexico, the COVID-19 pandemic has seen the revitalization of an ancient, indigenous farming method: chinampas, or floating gardens. As described in Amanda Gokee's article for Atlas Obscura, this indigenous farming method had been in decline for several centuries, but the disruption of Mexico's food supply chain has created an opening for indigenous farmers to sell their produce on the market. According to Gokee, the chinampa system, which dates back to Pre-Columbian times, is one of the most productive agricultural systems in the world. So it is no surprise that it has seen a resurgence thanks to the pandemic. Gokee's article showcases the efforts of one agricultural collective Colectivo Ahuejote, to further develop the use of the chinampa system in the Valley of Mexico.