6 Dias en Mexico

Dia 1 – 8:45pm

A couple of days ago I realised that I know absolutely nothing about Mexico, besides the elementary. Another depressing example of the monumental totality of what I don’t know. However, my invitation to the Kosmica conference - on the cultural and artistic evocations of space travel – has afforded me the opportunity to visit the country for the first time. Such occasions always inspire a renewal of the lifelong project of trying to make up for my lack of education but in a fashion that is integrated in the cultural experience of place. My first task in this endeavour is to buy a book by a Mexican author. Perhaps Carlos Fuentes who I have never read. The literary evocations of a nation, used as a canvas for a specific story, imbue a sense of the identity of a country and its people more than any travel guide could.  Nonsensically, I didn’t buy an appropriate book before the start of my trip and airport bookstores seem to exist solely for the purpose of furthering the readership Ken Follett and James Patterson, or offer the salacious ghost-written inanities of some celebrity or other.  I hope to get something suitable when I am there. Perhaps finding a book in Mexico is more in keeping with my aim of soaking up the aura, although my inexcusably lamentable Spanish prevents me from reading in the appropriate language. This will be the first task of día uno. In the meantime this is the first entry of what I intend as sporadic account of 6 días en Mexico. Writing as I am now during the dead time airport hours I’m not sure of the form this ‘diary’ will take. I will just write and see what comes out. Ok, Gate 7. Time to fly.