Flying men of Mexico City
Short thoughts and moments caught on a film camera from spring 2024 in Mexico City. Written and photographed by Angelica Ruzanova.
A man and woman selling caramelized dried coconut on the pavement, facing a crowded smudging ceremony for tourists. Photo by Angelica Ruzanova.
Built on top of Mesoamerican ruins, Mexico City is an enchanting maze of life. Streets named after assassinated Aztec emperors inspire a sense of doom for a once-collapsed society, and the exposed electrical wires hanging from the buildings seem to agree.
Andre called Mexico City an “ant hill” where roads overlap and tangle with each other. Many of them simply end. Photo by Angelica Ruzanova.
Amid the chaos, one might come across the meditative ritual of Los Voladores de Papantla. It consists of four men spinning around a 30-meter pole to which they are tied to upside-down, with a fifth man known as the Caporal playing the flute to the sun and winds.
Bus stop in front of Museo Soumaya, a free-entrance private museum dedicated to its patron’s deceased wife. Photo by Angelica Ruzanova.
Flying men are immortal men, for they carry knowledge long forgotten. Loud in movement, mute in speech, they represent the lost traditions and mourned ancestors of their people’s history. The flying men of Voladores channel spirits of the natural world.
Pink taxis at the heart of the city center. Photo by Angelica Ruzanova.
Inexplicably closed roads force Andre and I to be dropped off in the middle of an overcrowded bazaar. The diversity of mannequins blends well with the merchants of textiles; they somehow manage to get a word into the auditory static of the streets.
Man with amputated leg selling “patitos,” toy ducks, on the sidewalk of the Av. 5 de Mayo. Photo by Angelica Ruzanova.
Merchant of toy cars being wheeled down Av. 5 de Mayo. Photo by Angelica Ruzanova.
Young girl with her three dogs, chained and protected, on the sidewalk of Av. 5 de Mayo. Photo by Angelica Ruzanova.
The Aztec shamanic dance hypnotizes me. I witness a therianthrope (part human, part animal) jaguar conquer its prey with a patient leap. The barefooted dancers harmonize with burnt coals which they circle before coming together in life and death. The lesson is simple: the cycle of life finds its way everywhere.
Ritual dancer circling the entrance to the National Museum of Anthropology, one of the largest museums in the world where the Aztec Stone of the Sun calendar and the Xochipilli statue are stored. Photo by Angelica Ruzanova.
The dancers freely step on burning coal during their 30 minute dance. Photo by Angelica Ruzanova.
Food stands are filled with agave maguey worms, ant larvae, and chapuline grasshopper delicacies. The mamey pulp stands out with its luscious pink spectrum, like the soporific lotus in the Odyssey, considered by ancient Central American cultures as the fruit of the gods.
