Moravia from Coyoacan, Mexico City

I had the opportunity to visit an old friend of mine from my childhood today. 
Moravia lives in a middle class area of the city, a place that simulates the kind of unreal Mexico, or to rephrase that thought, the kid of Mexico that the rest of Mexico aspires to turn into if you know what I mean.

Before meeting her I was with an old friend of mine who is currently studying an MA at the Universidad de Guanajuato. He is focusing his thesis on the Pachuco movement in California in the 80’s.

With Alfonso I always have the great opportunity to reason on life and to discuss the current situation that we presently live under. It’s easy to talk to him as I pretty much coincide with most of his opinions. It is comforting though it’s always healthy when you defer with other people’s views and learn other ways of seeing the world. I actually remember having pleasant and interesting conversations with my ex girlfriend Dad on politics and the world as we both viewed it.

Anyhow, I finally arrived to the meeting point on the orange metro line. I got there 30 minutes late, typical to arrive late in Mexico… What a disgrace.

We walked down the properly paved street and start talking. I instinctively ask Moravia, - What do you think about Mexico right now?

She responds, - It’s pretty bad. I don’t see things changing. I see more inequality, no job opportunities, I sometimes struggle to get by. Crime is on the rise. I mean, just by my house the police located and shut down a safe house where victims of kidnapping were kept. On the other side of the road another safe house used for human trafficking was also found by the police.

I stopped her and asked if that was really true. I was kind of surprised given that both these houses are in a very nice and prosperous part of central Mexico. 
I asked her to show me those places as I was still slightly unsure on whether the houses existed or if she was just making it up ( unfair of me to doubt her explanation I must say).

We found a nice place to eat pizza so we sat down and ordered. 
I was curious to know more about her views on the country so I carried on by asking her, - So Moravia, what made you open your eyes to the situation in the country? I mean, you used to be a different person as I remember, not quite into caring much about the country’s problems. What made you change?

Moravia responded, - I have always been concerned about things. My parents always taught me and my brother about the problem that the country suffered from so being politicised is not new to me. 
I deduce however that she is much more immersed in the real issues as she is another one of the many affected citizens who have realised that the present policies that this government has introduced are really mashing up stability and prosperity, certainly among the lower and middle class and even the upper Mexican class… Every one seems to be really pissed off with the President’s inept decisions.

Moravia and I touch on her life at present, her job and the idea of love . She responds, - I am not working right now, in fact I have been unemployed since last year but it was my decision to quit my job. I used to work in advertising but after a few years working in that industry I ended hating it. Were you doing alright financially? - Yeah!! I was earning quite good money and had the opportunity to travel once or twice to Europe but I ended up feeling miserably at the same time due to the endless hours of working non stop.
Now, although I am pretty broke I am pretty content with how I am and feel. I would like to become a writer but it’s hard to immerse myself in that world and get paid.

As Moravia keeps chatting I sense as if she is not entirely happy with herself . She talks about loneliness in life and I perceive her feeling that way. I don’t blame her for feeling like that as this is a phenomenon that many, including myself feel. Even if we might have family and friends around us we cannot help but to feel that way at times.

As we leave the pizza place I find 100 pesos on the ground, my lucky day indeed!! We reach an ice cream shop and spend the money on two lovely banana and toffee ice creams. We finally walk back towards the safe house she promised to show to me so I can take a few shots.

The house looks normal but on the door front it has a government sign that reads, ‘Secuestro’ meaning Kidnapping to indicate that the house is being investigated for that serious crime. I take a quick look through the gap and a cold chill runs down my spine.

So many thoughts run down my mind. It’s a mess inside and it looks really scary. Just knowing that someone or many were locked in that house freaks me out. I wonder what happened with the people? did they get rescued by the police? 
These kind of safe houses are located all over the damn country.

Moravia walks me to the metro station where I grab the train on route back home.

On my way back, a young man jumps on the bus to recite a few stories in order to earn a few pesos. He announces his intentions in a loud voice and begins with the first one which I cannot quite get. The second story is based on how a bunch of mice elect a cat to be their President but the cat turns to be a villain. They re-elect a black cat who turns out to be as bad as the first one. In a desperate attempt they keep electing cats until a rebel mouse poses the idea to elect one of them to run their kingdom but gets sent to prison for being a dissident to the system. The third story is a poem by Eduardo Galeano.

I smiled at some of his smart remarks and hand him 5 pesos and flash a ‘thumbs-up’ to him.

By the time he finished his act on the bus, the driver turned his narco corridos music back up. It was so surreal to drastically switch the context from a politicised participation from the young man to suddenly being forced to hear a song that talked about drug dealings and sex and the fact that the singer loves to fight when he is drunk, blah, blah, blah… utter trash to the passengers ears.

The politicised young man thanked the driver, jumped off the bus and continued his journey…