Tlatelolco, Miguel from Merida, Yucatan and his spiky cowboy boots

I Left my house at 10:30 am to get to Tlatelolco (situated on the edges of the city centre ) by 12 pm.

As I stepped out I bump into my Mom who complained about how exhausted she was from all the work she had been carrying out over the past few weeks.

It was a sunny day so no room for complaints about the weather, leave the moanings on that topic to the good people in the UK and beyond…

I took the ‘once upon a time’ exciting route from home to the metro, now turned into a repetitive journey to my first stop, Metro Taxqueña.

Just a little before 11 am an earthquake alarm went off. The date of the earthquake that devastated many parts of Mexico in 1985 was being remembered so the local Government conducted a drill in order to alert and prevent people from another human catastrophe of the similar scale as seen back then.

Whilst the alarm was still ringing, I looked at a disconcerted man who was waiting for the train at the platform. After a few minutes I decided to break the ice and warned him, - excuse me Sir, don’t worry, the alarm is just a drill exercise.

He already knew it was a drill. He then went on to add that when the earthquake of 1985 took place he was at his home. As soon as he felt the floors drastically shaking, all he did was grab his little daughter and run out of the house to join his wife who was fortunately already in safe grounds.

As the earthquake stopped, the family started walking around the streets only to realise the wreckage that had taken place all around their neighbourhood in Ecatepec where they used to live. He was perplexed at seeing the whole destruction, not seen in his entire life time.

When reaching the final stop and given that I had got there fairly early, I decide to wander around Tlatelolco, an iconic place in Mexican history for the students massacre that took place in 1968. I recently attended a photography workshop on the topic of that location, delivered by a great photographer and friend of mine Adam so it was a perfect excuse for me to investigate the area, so I thought.

I revisited the location where the massacre and disappearance of many students and non students happened under orders of former president Diaz Ordaz.

I shot a few pictures and had very little time to assimilate my surroundings on the context, maybe it was that I just did not want to make a reflection of what happened there almost 50 years ago? who knows…

A the meeting place I waited around 25 minutes though the person I was meant to see did not arrive so I decided to make a quick move. I have to say that my sixth sense warned me to leave as I did not feel entirely safe waiting there with my camera for the world to see. I was in fact on the fringes of the Peralvillo area, quite close to Tepito which is not the safest of places in town.

My next move was to catch the bus to head into town. 
Whilst waiting at the bus stop I decided to let three buses go past me. I clearly was not inclined to hop on the bus so I started to walk towards Buenavista station.

During my walk, I passed the National PRI Party headquarters. On the gates to the building a sign read, ‘Internet for all’. I guess it is their way of giving the idea that that political Party wishes to modernise Mexico but in reality, little progress has been achieved in my humble opinion.

I was then seduced to walk past the Mexico City PRI Headquarters as well. The reason for my interest was to do with the fact that a brave Mexican journalist, Carmen Aristegui and her valuable team of objective journalists revealed an alleged prostitute business supposedly lead by the PRI director in Mexico City and carried out inside the Party’s headquarters. I just wanted to have a peep around the place. 
My understanding is that such claims made by Aristegui and her team have been dismissed by a high court, hence the man himself has been cleared from all wrong doings. Typical of the Mexican legal system when someone is in fact guilty of any wrong doing.

Soon, I arrived at the Alameda Central in the centre of Mexico City where I sat at a bench for a while as I checked the internet on my phone. A man seated right next to me suddenly said, - I am impressed at the speed with which you type the digits on your phone. I turned round and instantly reacted by saying that I was surprised at his level of human engagement, and that sadly, most human beings like myself had lost the ability to communicate with other fellow human beings around us.

I slowly broke the ice and eased into the conversation. I continued asking the man, - So, tell me, what is your name? He responded , - My name is Mario and I am from Merida, Yucatan but I am stranded here in the DF. I was offered a job but it never came about. In fact, I arrived here with a ‘friend’ of mine who turned out not to be my friend, he is actually the one who back in Merida had offered me the job. 
This supposed friend of his escaped with his mobile phone whilst Mario was in the toilet. He now has no job and just wants to go back to Merida but has no money.

Mario sleeps at the Bus terminal in the North of Mexico and has been travelling for the past 8 days into town to try and get a job that can pay him some quick cash.

He then adds, - I have been trying to contact my family and friends via Facebook but nobody responds. I lost all my contact phone numbers as these were in the phone that was stolen. I came here with a pair of good and solid spiky cowboy boots to work but amongst all the building sites I have visited to ask for a job as a bricklayer or whatever, they have all rejected me as the boots I was wearing were not appropriate for the job.

In the end I had to swap them for this pair, as Mario pointing towards them. My cowboy boots were so much nicer and better looking. As he explains this, I can sense that he misses his once beloved spiky cowboy boots.

I was not entirely sure whether the man was in fact telling me the truth but he seemed pretty desperate. He did not ask for any money but I felt pretty sorry for Mario so I decided to hand him $50.00 so he could fix himself a meal for the night.

Before handing the few pesos to him I let him know that I was not entirely sure whether what he was telling me was true or not but I was sure that at that point in time, he needed that money more then I did. He flashed his ID to me in order to prove that he was the person he said he was but I responded that there was no need as I trusted him.

I kept on chatting with Mario for a few more minutes about life and his views on Mexico and particularly how he perceives life in his hometown.

Soon after, I said goodbye to Mario and walked off in order to complete more than 20 km around the city…