42 www.thebusinessjournal.com FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2012noinipO noinipO

QUESTION:

ABOUT THE RESULTS:

WEB POLL

Tastes, sights, sounds of Mexico transcend the headlines

The majority of respondents to this week’s web poll agree with recent hire of a new police auditor for the city of Fresno, saying they believe the Fresno Police Department needs an independent source of over-sight. Only 35 percent felt Fresno PD doesn’t need an outside editor, while 3 percent were not sure either way. One hundred ninety-seven votes were cast in this poll.

Yes 62%

No 35%

Not sure 3%

Does the Fresno Police Department need an outside auditor?

REPORTER

Ben Keller

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOKArriving in Mexico City, I told

myself I didn’t harbor any stereo-types. But in the back of my mind flashed headlines of murders, drug trafficking, poverty and other con-ditions that cause many to view the country in the negative light.

It took a trip like the one recently hosted by the Mexican Consul-ate in Fresno to truly dispel in me all the unpleasant myths constantly reinforced in the media and in our daily conversa-tions.

After tour-ing the city for a week with travel agents and other

members of the local news circuit, I experienced a charm and culture that is sadly lacking in Fresno and many parts of the U.S.

We spent some of our most enjoy-able hours whiling away in Mexico City’s many cafés and restaurants, often on outside patios where wait-ers swiftly juggled plates of food and background music hummed from both radios and street musi-cians.

In the borough of Coyoacán, for instance, men chimed away on large music boxes and groups played tunes on every corner, some offering to entertain nearby diners.

In the Villa Maria restaurant in the Polanco district, a mariachi band complete with trumpets and fiddles treated virtually every table to special songs that rung through-out the establishment. At a restau-rant near Teotihuacan, the host in painted Aztec fashion entertained guests by pounding a drum as an-other performed a traditional folk dance.

Later, the night life in Mexico City was buzzing with activity as crowds gathered in bars, clubs and cafes looking to blow off steam. In the barrio of Condesa, thousands of business people, artists, musi-cians and other intellectuals meet up each evening into the early morning hours over drinks, food or simply good conversation.

In Garibaldi Plaza, a different kind of crowd came out each night, listening and singing along as hun-dreds of mariachis played familiar tunes while others roamed the grounds for a bit to eat or to peruse the surrounding vendor booths for marionettes and other trinkets.

One little old lady was offering to shock folks with a car battery for 30 pesos, an admittedly careless but enlivening activity that is probably unheard of in the U.S.

In fact, vendors literally dot the city hawking everything from beads, books and bobbleheads to shirts, shot glasses and wind-up paper planes.

And if you can’t find that perfect item from them, you can search the abundant neighborhood mar-ketplaces and roadside stores that, while perhaps cluttered and un-clean, are in no danger of going vacant.

Unlike Fresno, art also seems to pop up everywhere in Mexico City. Museums like the Casa Azul where Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera painted reveal a passion for sur-realism while collections and stone monuments like the ones near the Aztec ruins of Teotihuacan high-light the ingenuity of Mexico’s ancient past.

Sculptures and statues in ran-dom locations depict great figures, including America’s own Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., not to forget the towering and majestic Angel of Independence marking the country’s break from Spain. Other strange and inexpli-cable works are simply fun to look at and flowing fountains serve as a decorated gathering place in nearly every city park and square.

The buildings themselves are fascinating works of craftsmanship as well. Some, like the city’s many museums and churches, are breath-taking as they are old, with marble and stone hewn in florid, elaborate detail. Others are more modern and stylish, like the wavy, metallic Musea Soumaya named for the late wife of Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim.

When it was time to kick back and relax, we drifted along the Xomilcho River on colorful boats propelled by skilled oarsmen, sip-ping beer, eating freshly cooked corn and listening to the music of passing bands while gazing at the hanging vegetation on the water’s edge.

Saving perhaps the best for last, food in Mexico City is an art unto itself. While not all of it appealed to me, I could tell right away the care taken into every dish, which ranged from exotic appetizers like chapulinas (grasshoppers) to the more traditional oozing cheese quesadillas. In Mexico, food is not just something thrown on a plate, but something to be talked about as you eat. According to the Mexico City’s Ministry of Tourism, more than 12.4 million visited the city last year and that number is only expected to rise.

A chunk of those came directly from the San Joaquin Valley thanks to two Mexican airlines, Volaris and Aeromexico, both of which started up service into the country in April 2011.

In the year since the airlines be-gan flying from Fresno to Guadala-jara, more than 135,000 passengers took advantage of the trip.

The scene in Fresno is quite dif-ferent. On the Fulton Mall in down-town, for instance, all of the shops and restaurants close up before dark, vacant buildings abound and the area lacks a certain robustness that one would expect to see in a city’s downtown center.

Even in the mall-like atmosphere of River Park in north Fresno, the sense of community is lost in the commercialism and advertise-ments. The stores and shoppers

themselves also seem contrived, like they just jumped out of the pages of some retailer’s catalog. Street musicians are almost non-existent because they would prob-ably be excused from the premises as soon as they opened a guitar case. I know. It happened to me once.

As far as art, most of Fresno’s outdoor art scene is summed up in the sporadic murals and sculptures in the downtown area while few museums come to mind anymore other than the Veterans Memorial Museum and the Fresno Art Mu-seum.

Naturally, there are aspects about Fresno and the San Joaquin Valley that are missing amidst Mexico City’s vibrant attractions, history and culture. Here in this city of around 500,000 people, I find a greater sense of peace and some-thing I believe small, rural commu-nities take for granted; space.

Parks and playgrounds provide recreation and respite from the traffic and crowds. Grassy yards are a rare site in Mexico City, espe-cially in the dusty slums outlying the city where small, makeshift dwellings butt against one another along narrow, treeless streets.

The smooth flowing traffic of Fresno was also sight for sore eyes compared to Mexico City’s bumper-to-bumper congestion and chaotic near misses, no doubt caused by the lack of signs, coordination and courtesy.

In addition, California’s Central Valley provides numerous oppor-tunities to getaway, with three na-tional parks all within 50 miles and a cornucopia of pools, streams and swimming holes are even closer. If not for the spraying fountains at the Monumento a la Revolución in Mexico City, many residents would be without any place to gather and cool off.

Alas, Valley communities like Fresno could stand to learn a thing or two from Mexico City’s random charm. But the more important lesson I could offer from my trip is don’t be so quick to judge. I have met some people that are quick to express their distaste for the coun-try without ever having been there. To them, I would say that Mexico is not all that Americans read in the headlines. It’s a beautiful and fas-cinating place that I would be very eager to visit again someday.

Ben Keller covers transportation and tourism as a reporter for The Business Journal. He can be reached at (559) 490-3465 or ben@thebusi-nessjournal.com.