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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

High-heel racers blaze through Mexico City

By Jeremy Schwartz | Wednesday, October 31, 2007, 11:33 AM

I haven’t worn high heels in the Mexican capital, but I’ve walked next to high-heeled women, and it doesn’t look like fun. Pitted, undulating sidewalks ravaged by constant mini-earthquakes make navigating the city a treacherous experience even in tennis shoes.

So it was a little strange this weekend when about 500 women strapped on stilettos for the city’s first 100-meter High Heel Race.

The women, decked out in running gear and heels of at least seven centimeters (2.75 inches), galloped through a downtown street. Several collapsed to the ground, casualties of the city’s broken asphalt. The eventual winner was an ex-national champion 1,500-meter runner, who said she practiced for the event for a week.

The event was not without its detractors: A group calling itself “Totally Indignant” (a play on the “Totally Palacio” slogan of the sponsor Palacio del Hierro, a department store) blasted race organizers for putting the women’s health at risk and making a caricature out of women.

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Halloween vs. Day of the Dead: a scary mix

By Jeremy Schwartz | Wednesday, October 31, 2007, 11:30 AM

Tonight is Halloween, and in our Mexico City neighborhood that means not one, but three nights of trick or treating by the local kids. Tomorrow is All Saints Day and Friday is Day of the Dead, and the mixture of holidays is amazing to see here in Mexico City.

Colorful, traditional Day of the Dead altars are everywhere here, but so are scary masks, haunted houses and bowls of candy. The melding of celebrations is on full display at neighborhood markets and supermarkets alike: sugar skulls, pan de muerto and papel picado (elaborately cut-out tissue paper) crowd next to Spiderman costumes and bite-size Snickers.

According to poll of youngsters in this morning’s Reforma newspaper, the Day of the Dead still takes precedence over the American import, but not by much. Fifty-three percent of the kids say they like Day of the Dead better, and 48 percent say they would rather build a Day of the Dead altar than dress up for Halloween. Sixty percent of kids say they will go to a cemetery to celebrate Day of the Dead, while 39 percent are planning on going to a Halloween party.

As would be expected, the lure of the Day of the Dead diminishes as one gets closer to the U.S. border: Only 38 percent of kids are big fans of making altars in the north of Mexico, compared to 57 percent in the south.

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