In the Summer of 1989 my husband and I spent 7 weeks in Mexico as students. We spent most of our time in Cholula, just south of Mexico City.
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| It is said that Cholula has a cathedral for every day of the year, actually there were only about 32, but in a small town it was easy to see how the Church dominated things. | This cathedral was built when the Spanish conquered Mexico in the sixteenth century. It is sitting atop an Aztec pyramid that the Spaniards covered with dirt. At the foot of the pyramid is a psychiatric hospital and in the foreground there is manure waiting to be spread across a field. |
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| Each year the town of Cholula celebrates for two weeks when the icon of the virgin of Guadalupe is brought down from the cathedral on top of the pyramid. | Fireworks were an important part of the celebration. |
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| Constuction projects are often abandoned when money runs out. | Copyright laws are rather loose. |
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| Shards of glass over walls are common for keeping people out of unwanted places, and for decorative purposes. Here a wall surrounds the women's dorm at the University of the Américas. | This little girl was out almost everyday selling "chicle" (gum). Sometimes she was also in charge of watching her younger brother. |
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| Bargaining is expected at the open-air markets. | You can buy a variety of things there. |
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| We were there during the rainy season. It rained almost everyday for about 10 minutes in the late afternoon. Rainbows were common. | Many people kept dogs on their roofs as watch dogs. The dogs lived up there and would bark whenever they saw someone they didn't recognize. |
More pictures
The smallest volcano in the world
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