FROM A MEXICAN NOTEBOOK

[Music] the republic of mexico is shaped like a cornucopia or horn of plenty a worthy symbol of the overflowing memories from my mexican notebook i see her now fast and various before me as if it were only yesterday when i saw her last the impatient rush of mexico city in the frenetic pace of our times overlies a nation that is both vibrant and classic a nation renewing itself before my eyes and yet the mexican past lives on not as a prologue to the present but as part of it the cathedral that offers mass to the faithful today gave communion to the conquistadores who built her art outlives the artist housed in palaces as nobly as the visitors in great hotels rising above the city where montezuma was emperor before mexico became the prime jewel in the crown of [Music] spain chapultepec park has known the tread of the aztecs of viceroys and grandes the hoof beats of noble horses and the splendor of fine carriages her memories re-echo in the minds of those who visit her today there is a world that knows no borders the fleeting world of childhood when all the earth is a miracle of awakening joy in life and its pastimes i turn the pages of my journal and once more i see before me the ancient waters here the chichi canoes traced their way through floating islands of flowers sochi milko on a sunday afternoon bombed to the troubled souls of men so it was yesterday and so if god disposes will it be tomorrow and tomorrow until the last syllable [Music] [Applause] mexico is tradition and mexico is action on our sunday afternoon recalled in the conflict between man and beast at the fiesta the deepening shadows of the waning sunday stark in the drama of the sport that is also an art night has our own awakenings [Music] [Applause] night has our own diversions and night has ever tomorrow as my mexican notebook contains the memories of many days the broad land of mexico stretches before me in many directions from heartland to hinterland the road links together the many strands of mexico the great valley that cortez saw in mute wonder the mountains he crossed these rugged hackles of mexico's fierce backbone of peaks and canyons ridges and ramparts to the unending ocean that bounds the hemisphere and to the bay that knew the galleons and the corsairs the treasures of the indies and of the inca mines the port of explorers to california the unknown the acapulco of yore the travelers glittering refuge of today from lands undreamed of by drake and magellan by coronado and balboa the visitors stream to mexico's greatest resort an enclave of all nations on mexican soil the co-fraternity of the vacation spirit the mind at rest this is acapulco's harvest from the mexican cornucopia [Music] it is a truth universally acknowledged that water skiers are a transient type to be found everywhere at the drop of an outboard that they delight in movement without destination and flourish mostly in front of cameramen some will go to any lengths or any heights the pages of my mexican notebook lie open before me and the memories rush to the forefront of my thoughts some places will ever remain as i knew them unchanging through all the days of men [Music] the mountains bind her on all sides older than the hand of spain that carved her stone older than the mind of spain that shaped her faith more than two centuries have passed since tasco rose in the form preserved to this day tosco the unchanging a city frozen in the sweep of time [Music] silver is where you find it and tasco was and is the place in colonial days her minds enriched the spanish crowd producing an age of opulence that was the wonder of the world for generations the silver trade lay fallow however and only in our own times did it revive and flourish again today the art and craft of tasco silver evoke the yesteryears that are ever with us in mexican land like an engraving from an old book san miguel allende stands tinted in the sun an inspiration for the muses of brush and paint and crayon this village once knew the impassioned feet of armies today our tranquility is fit haven for those who venture in the arts spain in mexico abiding through the centuries nowhere else more poignant to the senses than in guanajuato where spanish power tottered before the armies of father hidalgo there is a spain that lives forever in the minds of men it is peopled with noblemen and grandes cavaliers and their ladies fair gallon swordsmen and daring robes tales of gold and of witchcraft of youthful love and fading hopes of troubadours singing in tones of joy and of melancholy this is the world of miguel de cervantes enacted by amateur performers in pageant form in guanajuato [Music] the author himself overlooking the scene is portrayed in contemplation of the characters he created [Music] the characters freeze the author passes through his world followed by the night of the sad countenance and his loyal squire the age of chivalry is gone but don quixote and sancho panza will live forever [Music] as old as the chronicles of man in mexico is the indian marketplace old before the bearded strangers came in from the unknown sea an indian wedding party makes its way happy in the mood of the day across the mexican land of their father's fathers these are the annals of the mexican village and countryside ever alive in my memory for the indian in mexico is to this day a prevailing force in mexican life his ancient art lives and flourishes the humble and submissive clay taking on the shape of beauty beneath his hands his is an art untroubled by the passing ages its own excuse for being [Music] when the bearded invaders encountered the aztecs the taraskins and the zapotecs they rubbed their eyes in disbelief at the civilizations before their gaze cortez brought the sword and the bible the instruments of change montezuma fell his mexico changed but did not die the zapotec kings are gone but their monuments remain and something of the gods who have fled still abides in mexico's oaxaca the men who built these temples were the forefathers of benito juarez who kindle the spirit of modern mexico [Music] here the toltecs built their metropolis of tula where the rough human gods still glare in the proud awareness of their divinity tahin is the place of smoke a fire and of thunder whose fierce gods dwell in the sky and in the waters in the all-embracing earth from the depths of time that no man remembers the sounds and movements of worshippers are heard and seen to this day in the rain dance [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] so from the great plain of teotihuacan rises the pyramid of the sun in splendor undimmed by the deeds of modern men for three thousand years men have wandered this way but no man knows who were the builders of this colossal temple indian life prevailing on mexican earth morning mists rise over the lake of pot squirrel near the island of hanitzio as a giant statue of morelos hero of mexican independence looks over a way of life more ancient than his own times as they have for centuries untold the butterfly net fishermen fly the waters in search of the food of life these descendants of the brave terraskins who defied the power of spain a time for the labors of every day a time for filling the nets with the bounty of the gods of the waters as there is a time for the sowing and the reaping so there is a time to forget the cares of life and make mockery of its slender living thread so do the young teraskins make fun of the old men that they will become [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] i recall the sweep and majesty of the mexican countryside the grandeur of mountains that house volcanic fires the greatest recorder of mexico's memories is our national university here the many faces of mexico reflect their own vision of a land that is both new and ancient on the same level of consciousness the university buildings as fantastic to the eye of the visitor as the mexico they symbolize are alive with the art and color of the land and its peoples puebla remembers what mexico is what mexico was the future is fairest for men who remember the past and mexico's memories are a million-fold drama of the surge of armies the passions of men the simpler chronicles of every day from all the pages of my mexican notebook i draw the memories of the mexico i knew and watch her as it were on parade before me i see many mexicos before me the mexico of the fierce gods before the conquest the spanish mexico of baroque flavor the newer mexico of men who are building a nation strong and free unto themselves the mexico of ours and future times meeting the full challenge of a wide but shrinking world [Music] [Applause] [Music] my mexican notebook is but a sampling of mexico's universe i leap through its pages and once again i see mexico sites hear mexico sounds and feel at one with mexico's people [Music] you