[MEXICO CITY, 1941]

[Music] this is the ancient and modern heart of Mexico City your guide book calls it the plasa of but you can't fool our Mexican neighbors they've called it the zoko almost since Aztec days it was the zoko even when Hanan Cortez wrecked mum's Palace began building the Mexican National Palace with the same [Music] stones and it was the center of the city when the cathedral began to rise over the ruins of a temple pyramid where the azcs sacrificed their prisoners of [Music] War the new and the old is always picturesquely mixed in Mexico narrow streets open into broad avenues like this and letters to the folks drop down solid onx slots in the post office this is the Palace of Fine Arts but it started as the National Theater with a modest little Tiffany glass curtain weighing 20 tons [Music] the hotels are modern down to the Bellboy shining buttons and whether you speak Spanish or not you can get the best food you ever ate strange fish and exotic fruit then worn out from trying to see everything at once you can rest weary bones in rooms like these [Music] the P de la reforma is really something to look at if you're in a car it's continually swinging around statues like this [Music] one a statue to Mexican Independence [Music] this is the VGA Canal the last of the old atic Waterway systems in the valley of [Music] Mexico moaz Zuma the emperor maxmillion and former presidents of Mexico all use the hill culture pipek as a summer home because of the Cypress Forest and the ideal climate [Music] nowadays chapek Park is a Showplace for magnificent horses whose Riders wear the classic Charo costumes of Old Mexico try this sometime if you think you're a good Rider [Music] yes that saddle is silver and each one of those buttons is a work of art whether you come out to ride or merely to watch someone else take your exercise a sunny morning at chipul produces an enormous appetite you're almost sure to sleep a good long Siesta after lunch one place near Mexico City you should see is teot aan with its Great Pyramids named for the Sun and [Music] Moon one time an extensive city of mysterious Origins spread away from this pyramid but Mexican scientists are throwing more and more light on its history the history of a people who built pyramid temples of this vast [Music] size whether you like these expressions or not you must be impressed by the religious Zeal behind the making of Untold thousands of sculptures that had sered metal was used in ancient Mexico only for so these heads were laboriously fashioned out of stone with simple tools of stone [Music] Mexico's full of Ceremonies so old that only bits of the real reason for them have come down to modern times this is a there are still set rules for each step and movement but as centuries passed and meanings faded one showy detail and then another has been chosen especially for this part of the ceremony certain of the dancers climb 100t Pole [Music] while the dancers prepare for the dangerous climax the ballet Master performs his ritualistic movements on a platform hardly bigger than a dinner plate he is honoring the god of fire who is also the god of time is asking that mortals be granted a good year for their crops now each dancer casts himself self from the top of the pole so that he will spiral exactly 13 times before reaching the Earth and those spirals added together make up a 52-year time cycle which in the ancient calendar of the Aztecs corresponded to our century [Music] another thing time has not changed much is Market Day in TCA it has always been held on Friday even before modern calendars called Friday [Music] Friday this art is older than the pyramids you just saw or the fire Dance The Main Idea seems to be to use the same old basket design but to see how much better you can make the design without actually changing [Music] it it's getting late we' better be starting back to Mexico City but there's still time to stop here near such a me moment it's impossible to think of Mexico without flowers or to see flowers without remembering Mexico everyone buys them and wears them you can get a great armful for a few pennies that still doesn't mean that Mexicans think any less of them [Music] there's really only one course of conduct to follow in such a milco beg borrow or steel a picnic lunch buy a few dozen Bunches of flowers hire a guitarist and let the rest of the day take care of itself under the lovely floating gardens and music and pretty girls instead of ants bothering you be the best picnic you ever had pretty nice place Aro [Music] but by this time you want badly to get back to Mexico City and rest the