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This is the story of my experiences living as an ex-pat in Mexico since 2003. It's to culminate in a published book. With your help, I'll be editing, selecting a title, and cover art: a participatory project. Your comments encouraged!

Letters from Mexico

Letters

ExpatsBlog.com - Where Expats Blog

February 26, 2022

Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico

A three towered large church complex adorned with rows of lights. Most lights are yellowish, but some are red or green shinning on the building.

Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. Night view of the main cathedral. Photo by author

Morelia, the capital of the state of Michoacan, is in central Mexico. It's a four hour drive northwest of Mexico City. The population is three quarters of a million. I traveled there to attend a five day conference, but was a tourist for a few extra days. In this article I will share with you my enthusiasm for this city. It is beautiful in unique ways, clean, and inexpensive for tourists.

Tour of the Streets

Both images show a backdrop of the hills surrounding the valley where the city streets are. Both have buildings and electric wires in the foreground. The photo on the right displays traffic, while on the left one the traffic is cropped out.

Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. Morelia is in a valley surrounded by rolling hills. Photo by author

The city of Morelia is in a valley surrounded by gently rolling hills. Although it is a large city, it is very clean. On weekdays, one hears a bell ringing to announce the trash collection. The hotel I stayed in is at the edge of the central historical district. Below is a photo of public art nearby.

Top: three sculptures on a tile walkway with a tree. Foreground is cast, while the two in the background are bent sheet metal. All seem to be abstracts of musicians playing instruments. Bottom left: Statue of a old fashioned dignitary wearing a ribbed collar and a long coat with many buttons sitting in a chair. On one side is a tree and the other has a lamp post. 
Bottom middle and right: Abstract very colorful murals of faces. The right one occupying  a window.

Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. Top right: A sculpture court a couple of blocks from my hotel. Bottom left: A statue in a park near there. Bottom middle and right: murals. Photo by author

To give you an idea of how clever and creative they are, here is an image of multi-colored windows, followed by a video of activities on a main street closed to traffic on a Sunday.

Two rows of barred windows on a building of three windows each. The top row has a balcony. The window frames are brightly pained, with the top left one purple, and the bottom left magenta. The middle ones are blue, and the right ones a yellowish green.

Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. Mulit-colored windows. Photo by author

Architecture of Morelia

What makes Morelia unique and impressive is its massive old style Spanish architecture. Here we will take a tour of different businesses and various churches, and then take a look at some other unusual structures.

These buildings have arched doors and windows. The doors are massive with patterned designs carved in them.  Varied designs decorate spaces between them with carving in the cement of grooves, straight and curved lines, flowers, birds, animals, and crosses.
Top: A portico with massive arches, common in the city. Bottom left: A roof topped with minarets having a series of knobs. Bottom right: Similar knobbed structures surround doubly tiered enclosed observation rooms.

Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. Note the fine detail in these two buildings. Photo by author

Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. Top: A portico with massive arches, common in the city. Bottom left: A roof topped with minarets having a series of knobs. Bottom right: Similar knobbed structures surround doubly tiered enclosed observation rooms. Photo by author

Additionally, as one might see in most Mexican cities with old Spanish architecture, here are a fountain in a park, and a kiosk at a main plaza.

A fluted bowl is supported a couple of feet above the fountain's container/base. Water sprouts from the top of this and empties from the walls of the bowl from four holes on its side.  In the background, on the right, is a walk sign and a small wired fence with bushes inside.

Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. Fountain in a park next to a church. Photo by author

Left: From a distance. Right: Close up. Orange balls hang from tree branches in front of the kiosk, with a walkway leading up to it lines with a short fence. A fountain is in front of the kiosk, which is cement mounted on a similar base, and topped with a metal fence and pole structures supporting a domed roof.

Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. Kiosk in the main central plaza. Photo by author

There were many museums housed in massive old style buildings that were open to the public and with free admission. I only had the time to visit the one shown below.

A Museum

The Conference

In the introduction to this article, I mentioned how my trip to Morelia included attendance at a five day conference. Although the conference was the main focus of the trip, I do not highlight it here. Perhaps I will in another blog. Please ask me about this in the comments if you are interested.

 

The name of the conference was The Greater Reset Activation, Part #3: Integration. The date of this conference corresponds with that of The Great Reset of the World Economic Forum, and is an alternative or offset to it. The latter is a move towards globalization and centralization of world power, while the former, the one I attended, fosters the creation of community based alternatives. The motto is "exit and build."

 

Part of what is encouraged at this conference is to form local branches of an international network set up in 2015, called The Freedom Cell Network. I put Tepoztlán, where I live, on the international map, and now we are a thriving model of what a cell can be. If you are interested to know more, please click on the links. You can request that I do a future blog on this in the comment section below, or send me an email.

 

Here is a video of some of the rap music entertainment after the conference. Derrick Broze, a co-founder of the network and conference, is featured first. You can find his music on SoundCloud and Audius: @33IsHere.

 

His journalism is here.

 After showing him, we see various artists from the conference performing at a local club.

 

 

 

In closing, here is a photo of a sign in front of a small restaurant a block from the conference hall. Ironically, it portrays a quote from one of Derrick's books.

"Be the change you want to see." Painted on wood with many bright and varied squares of color between the alternating black and white blocked out lines of text.

Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. A sign in front of a restaurant near the conference. Photo by author