The Beatles: El Autentico Sonido Liverpool...De Mejico

As a child, I was obsessed with the Beatles.  That's why when I passed Pepperland on Avenida Insurgentes Sur I was super excited to know that I could see a Beatles cover band in DF. I've heard plenty of Beatles covers but never a Beatles cover band. 

From the advertisement, I think the name of the band is For no One. And at the time they perform Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.  For some reason, I never made it to the club.  And on my short list of regrets, not hitting up that yellow submarine decorated club.

Please someone go and report back to me! I'd love to live vicariously through you.

Pepperland

Av. Insurgentes Sur No.295A Col. Hipodromo Condesa

Casa Chocolate

We've had an unusually warm winter in D.C.  Still it is not warm enough for me and I'm looking forward to the change of season. A few years ago, I vacationed in Cuernavaca with a few Machas.   Unfortunately, my visit to the "City of Eternal Spring" was unusually rainy and chilly in this tropical city barely an hour away from D.F.

Las Machas y yo stayed in this amazing bed and breakfast that cleared my mind and relaxed my body.  

Why I love it? 

• Lesbian-owned:  The Expatriate owners, one from Canada and the other from England, are partners-in-love and partners-in-business.
• Chocolate themed rooms: Mint, White, Milk, and Caramel
• Delicious Breakfast:  Several courses with chocolate strawberries.
• Pool
• Outside Movie Watching Den with hammock

Casa Chocolate
Bed and Breakfast
www.casachocolate.com
(52) 777-312-8957

Fruit Salad and Coffee

Yogurt with lime zest

Mixing it Up!

Simple and Delicious

Last Bite of Breakfast includes Chocolate

The view from our Breakfast Nook.  Right is our room.  Left is our movie den.

My fluffy bed in the White Chocolate room

Everywhere are amazing tiles that capture that hacienda look.

What I did? What I didn't Do? --My Word Document for Distrito Federal Life Part I

I created a list of things I wanted to see and food I wanted to eat before I traveled to Mexico City.  I turned it into a word document to give to my friends that planned to visit.  It's a good idea i think for anyone who is stressed out by giving recommendations.  I spent alot of time scouring the internet for this stuff. 

And a lot of that time felt wasted because the internet is not a friendly place when your travel tastes don't match a lot of what is offered in the search engines. I am only going to post 3 or 4 items a day and also this list is not in any particular order:

1.  El Moro. I really like 24 hour food spots. Whether it's a Waffle House by the highway or The Diner in Adams Morgan, I like to know that if I'm hungry, bored, or on the run there will be some place for me to go and relax at whatever hour I choose.  And that's why I love El Moro, which is open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. El Moro is a cafeteria that serves Spanish style churros--deep-fried, sugar-coated doughnuts-- and hot chocolate on the Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas #42. I don't like hot chocolate unless it's super thick (spanish style) so I've ordered milkshakes instead.  The strawberry is pretty excellent! And for those who like old cafeteria style diners, El Moro is great to.  I think most of the waitstaff has worked there probably at least half of the age of the place.

Note: Take the green line to San Juan de Letran metro stop.

2.  Little Korea.  I'm definitely being generous by calling this area Little Korea but if you go to the gayborhood of Zona Rosa and ask where is la calle Florencia. Once you are on that street, you'll notice that there are at least a dozen korean joints either on Florencia or on some of the side streets intersecting with that street.  It's pricier in comparison to Menu options (the mexican restuarant meal(s) of the day usually between 1 and 5 p.m.) or street food.  But for one straight week, I think I ate soup at a korean restaurant every other day because I couldn't deal with traditional mexican food. And my body rejected most nutrients after the pulque disaster.

3.   Lucha Libre at Arena Mexico.  Wrestling and testosterone driven action movies starring white men (like chuck norris and steven segal) have been me and my father's only bonding points.  After reading my first Hernandez Brothers comics as a teen, I knew I loved Mexican style wrestling, Lucha Libre.  The masks, operatic drama, the absurdity, the circus quality to everything.  And I couldn't leave Mexico without seeing a lucha match.  Thanks to the motivation of Chuya we saw an awesome fight one thursday night in January. And it was only 30 pesos each for seats that were pretty good. I didn't take pictures unfortunately. 

Even though our tickets were really cheap...I think the range is from 70 to 300  pesos.  Also outside of the arena is tons of lucha merchandise that's nice to check out especially for those that love glitter.

Note: Arena Mexico is between Balderas and Cuauhtemoc metro stops on the pink line

To D.C. With Love: From one District to Another....

that was going to be my original title to this blog when I decided to move to Mexico City in the second leg of my "South of the Reimagined Border" tour.  It was such a natural decision to pick Mexico City as my temporary home after falling in love with D.C..

1.  They both started out as swamps/waterways. 

2.  They both have been known as murder capitals at some point in their history

3.  Both share similar structures of government, Mexico City (Distrito Federal) is also a federal district like Washington, DC.   Except unlike D.F., D.C. has no representation in Congress and laws that are passed by the city council must go through a federal government committee for final passage. 

Mas y Mas y Mas

Because of that structure its kind of a political miracle that the gays in D.C. celebrated this week the right to have our unions recognized as marriage if we want.  And it's a political miracle that D.F. celebrated the same victory this week in a country with a non-secular catholic stronghold. 

For folks who know me, my views on marriage are pretty caustic. I think the institution is kind of a joke because it falsely assumes that love is the primary motivation when in reality the history of marriage has everything to do with economics. It entitles people to certain rights that are denied to others who don't want to, or not ready to, or can't marry.  It denies other familial structural unions that are not seen as the husband/wife union norm. The whole thing kind of sucks to me.  And I hate how lesbian and gay organizations put so many resources into this fight when there are alot more other issues our community is facing that is killing us daily.

With all of that said, I'm happy that my d.c. and d.f. peeps have an option. I mean at the end of the day stuff like this helps people realize that we're not going through a phase. That we are the norm.  That they can't eradicate us from the face of the earth. 

But I hope these victories do not mean that gay people are marching towards the path of heteronormativity.  That this means we're going to form structures that are husband/husband...wife/wife....2 adultides with 2 1/2 childites.  When I started realizing i was a macha,   I fell in love with being 'the damn homo' because i saw that instead of crawling into holes,  us gays have created spaces to find each other outside of just being sexually compatible.  That family looks so different to a lot of us (including me) because we were kicked out of our traditional family structures.  And at the end of the day, we said fuck this.  We're just going to be fabulous.