Pilsen

They say Chicago is a city of neighborhoods. Pilsen is a neighborhood south west of the center and is primarily a Mexican one.

After a run with Anne 3 or so Sunday's ago, Maggie and I took a bus downtown. Unfortunately they were doing some work on the trains so, after much back and forth and delays, we eventually got to Pilsen. Maggie felt at home because she said it smelled like a Mexican neighborhood (combination of fabric softener and something else, I think she said). She was eager to try some of the food too, you know her people's food ;)

Because I had run 10 or so miles and because it was mid morning, we were both very hungry. We headed in the direction of a museum we planned on going to but were hoping to find someplace to eat before reaching it. We landed at a small diner (counter space only) with three Mexican women cooking up pancakes, gorditas, bacon, and chilaquiles. One of the cooks asked us what we got the last time but, Maggie assured her we had never been to the diner before. I thought it was odd that she would think that Maggie and I were recognizable characters since, I wondered how many Spanish speaking white girls go there with their Mexican friend; the owner even made a comment about my speaking Spanish when Maggie went to pay. While I was in the teeny-tiny bathroom, she told Maggie that the owner of the diner, one of the other women there, was such a staple of the area that she was featured on a mural by the trains on the next block.

 

The museum was only a block from the diner and we went right in to the National Mexican Museum of Art. It was founded by a handful of teachers with just a few hundred dollars and features art from Mexico and of Mexican Americans. There were paintings and sculptures from ancient civilizations as well as a neon sign that read, "MAKE TACOS NOT WAR" and a tricked out kids toy car that doubled as a lawn mower (a play on the stereotype, Mexicans in CA are all gardeners/mow lawns). The middle exhibit was centered around Mexicans in Chicago and particularly Pilsen. There was also, because of the proximity of the holiday, a day of the dead display. (Look below for my pumpkin socks I bought in September and had been eagerly waiting to wear so I wore them for a week straight) A fairly small museum but very neat, and free!

That's right, a skeleton is decorating sugar skulls!

When left, we walked in the opposite direction from which we came and noticed a long line. I mean a LONG line. We thought there was maybe a special event being featured at the museum but when we asked someone what the line was for they simply said, "the museum." Did Maggie and I cut the line, unnoticed, in front of a hundred people? Or did we miss some cool event we didn't know about? I'll let you decide.

We were next heading to pick up my race packet since I had signed up to run a 5k in Pilsen the following weekend.

This is the Piedra del Sol, sometimes called the Aztec calendar.

Maggie and I saw the read deal in Mexico City on our way to Oaxaca a few years ago!

After that quick trip we continued our walk through Pilsen, attempting to find a street where there were supposed to be many murals. This was a free attraction mentioned in one of my books, which are ten years old so it's no surprise that the murals looked a bit decrepit and faded. They were still interesting to check out and there were clearly newer ones that had been painted over others.

You can't read it but the titles of those books are either about Chicago or by Chicago authors; 

I read one of them in the stack!