Time and Life in the Zocalo

 

I took this photo when in San Miguel Allende two year ago. What I loved most about the small Mexican towns and cities are their zocalos. At the zocalo, or main square, one finds a church (which before the Spaniards arrived would have been a temple), often a gazebo where local bands play music or young women are taking photos for the quincinieras, and various other evening happenings. I am sure people have been gathering in these centers for ages and still it seem like everyone in town makes it to the zocalo to watch the sunset and the church lights turn on and just hang out. So whenever I travel to Mexico, if there happens to be a zocalo nearby, I do as the locals do and make sure I find somewhere to sit comfortably in the evening and just observe the crowds and the ambience around me - oh and the things you'll see. Sometimes you'll catch a young man proposing to his girlfriend, but to he'll sing her favorite songs with a mariachi band he's commissioned , or a young woman twirling hula hoops of fire just because she can, or chess matches with giant ground based chess boards, maybe a mother walking by with her child sleeping comfortable papoosed on her back, or an elderly couple crossing the road in to church for the evening mass, church bells ringing with a lovely passing breeze rushing through the leafy canopies. Time and life slows down in the zocalo. And that's why they are so enjoyable. This little girl had been playing with her balloon for a good hour at least, without getting tired, and without a care in the world except getting that balloon airborne, before I decided to snap this photo. We've forgotten that sort of joy, and maybe when we live through our own children or another, preferably during a lovely evening sitting on a bench in a Mexican zocalo or be it anywhere, we might be reminded of the beauty in simple things.