Sunday, 17 November 2024

How to sell a lie

 

A spokesperson for the Israeli government was interviewed recently by Michal Hussain on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. The interviewer referred to a report published by an Israeli human rights group that documented mistreatment of Palestinians detainees by Israeli soldiers. The spokesperson began his response by aggressively attacking the person asking the question, congratulating Hussain sarcastically for winning the Hamas journalist of the year award. He then dismissed the human rights group as representing a very small minority of Israeli opinion. Finally, he dismissed the notion that Palestinian detainees are mistreated as nonsense, but offered no evidence and did not address the evidence produced by the human rights NGO.

 

The method here was immediately to discredit the interviewer as biased (especially since her name was Hussain). Next discredit the source as not worthy of credence. Then deny without addressing any evidence to the contrary.

 

Friday 15 November we were watching Channel 4 news, which included a report about Robert F. Kennedy’s appointment as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Now, Channel 4 is not in the least sympathetic to president-elect Trump and his supporters, so the tone of the report was somewhat acerbic and. It noted his anti-vaccine opinions, his intention to remove fluoride from drinking water, and observed that he criticized Donald Trump when he was campaigning as an independent candidate but is now a Trump loyalist. The report did not mention Kennedy’s criticism of the damage to health caused by ultra-processed foods, which a more balanced report might have referred to. Nevertheless, as far as I could tell nothing in the report was untrue.

 

The report was followed by an interview with a “Republican strategist” who responded to the interviewer’s first question not by answering it, but by attacking the news report as “Orwellian.” The interviewer asked him to explain himself. The strategist replied that Kennedy had criticized Trump and that it is therefore false to describe him as a loyalist. The interviewer responded that the report had made precisely the point that Kennedy had initially criticized Trump, but is now a loyal supporter. The strategist was then asked whether Kennedy’s views about vaccines make him a suitable Secretary of Health. He responded that “big pharma” and those in power (not defined) were over-medicalizing the population. As evidence of this he asserted that restrictions on school attendance and mandatory mask-wearing in schools had done more harm than Covid itself. He then said that it is absurd that children are vaccinated against Covid every three months. The interviewer looked puzzled and ask the strategist to confirm whether this latter claim is correct; the strategist confirmed that it is. The interviewer, presumably having no information to the contrary did not challenge the statement further. Finally, the strategist limed that Kennedy’s critics oppose his appointment only because it threatens their power.

 

I could not quite believe the claim that children are vaccinated every three months, so the next morning I checked the website of the Centers for Disease Control. The detailed advice there recommends the following:

 

Ages 6months-4 years and unvaccinated: 2 doses of the 2024–2025 Moderna vaccine

OR 3 doses of the 2024–2025 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Children who have been previously vaccinated should receive 1 or 2 doses depending on the vaccine administered.

 

Aged 5-11 years: 1 dose of the 2024–2025 Moderna OR Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines.

 

Aged 12 years+: 1 dose of the 2024–2025 Moderna OR Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines, OR 1 dose of the 2024–2025 Novavax vaccine unless you are receiving a COVID-19 vaccine for the very first time. If you have never received any COVID-19 vaccine and you choose to get Novavax, you need 2 doses of 2024–2025 Novavax COVID-19 vaccine to be up to date.

 

If the child is immunocompromised, the recommendations, as one might expect, depend on age and the child’s previous vaccine history, but to summarize:

·      Children not previously vaccinated should receive 3 doses.

·      Those who have been vaccinated previously should receive 1 or 2 doses, depending on their vaccination history and the vaccines received.

 

Nowhere in the CDC recommendations is it stated that any child should receive vaccine doses every quarter. But I doubt that any such fact could inhibit the strategist from confidently propagating his lie.

Sunday, 10 November 2024

Me and my new MP

 

When Jan and I voted in the last election our constituency boundaries had been changed to include Englefield Green, close to Royal Holloway College (student votes), and parts of Slough (less prosperous than the rest of the constituency and with a large population of South Asian origin). We had hoped that the demographics would be sufficiently changed to give opponents of the Conservative Party a chance. During our more than 40 years in Sunninghill, the Conservative candidate had always won more than 50% of votes (58.6% in 2019). The result was MPs of low calibre and little interest in their constituents’ views. This year the result was very different: the Conservative candidate received 36.45 of the votes, Labour 22.2% (a candidate from Slough) and the Liberal Democrats 21.1% (a borough councillor from Windsor).

 

The new Conservative candidate, Jack Rankin, is an apparatchik whose mentor was the powerful former leader of the council of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. In order to declare himself a local man, he moved into a small house about three minutes’ walk from our home. So we find ourselves in the curious position of living in grander (but still modest) style than our elected representative. Quite a change from the plutocrat who was our former representative. Rankin is clearly an ambitious man out to form a political career: his campaigning has been much more vigorous than any of his predecessors: lots of colour leaflets with photos of Jack out and about in the constituency. He has very much emphasized the local, but on other issues his publicity has been very much the Conservative Party line.

 

Jan and I have for some time donated to a charity, MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians: https://www.map.org.uk/), which provides health care in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, so this has been a busy year. We were in far away Mexico on 7 October 2023 when I saw the first news of the Hamas massacres and kindappings. I realized immediately that the Israeli response would be fierce, but I could not have imagined the sustained ferocity of Benjamin Netanyahu’s war, no matter the provocations of Hamas’ appalling crimes. So, I decided that, whether he agreed with me or not (I expected not) I would write to my MP.  I realize that you may not agree with me (and feel free to tell me why), but I thought my correspondence with Mr Rankin might interest you.

 

My email of 29 August 2024:

 

Dear Mr Rankin,

 

I am writing to you as a concerned constituent to ask you to urge Foreign Secretary David Lammy to take more urgent action to protect civilians and prevent further disease, starvation, and deaths in Gaza, including by immediately halting all transfers of arms to Israel that could be used to commit violations of international law.

 

Israel's attack on Gaza has gone well beyond what is needed to protect Israel from further attacks such as those of 7 October. More than 40,000 people have been killed and 63% of buildings damaged or destroyed. Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war and systematic attacks on healthcare and vital infrastructure are making Palestinian survival impossible. Independent UN human rights experts and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded in January Israel’s actions may plausibly amount to atrocity crimes, including genocide. Since then the situation has only worsened.

The healthcare system is collapsing, with no hospitals fully functional. The World Health Organization says that a significant proportion of Gaza’s population faces famine-like conditions. Thousands of children are suffering from malnutrition, and at least 32 people have already died due to lack of food. Now a baby has died of polio - the first case of the disease in Gaza in 25 years.

Despite the appalling consequences of Israel's actions, the new government has failed to take the urgent action needed to protect civilians and ensure the UK is not complicit in serious violations of international law. Israel’s military bombardment and systematic attacks on healthcare continue, and Israel is still preventing essential aid from reaching those in desperate need. The provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice to prevent genocide remain unimplemented.

The new UK government has pledged to rapidly increase aid into Gaza and push for an immediate ceasefire. It has also made welcome commitments to upholding international law in the Middle East, and respect for the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court.

But much more needs to be done urgently.  I therefore ask that you write to Foreign Secretary David Lammy to take the following action:

1. Immediately halt the transfer of all arms to Israel that could be used to commit violations of international law, including attacks on healthcare.

2. While continuing to work urgently to secure an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, ensure that this would enable humanitarian aid to reach all who need it, people to return to and rebuild their homes and essential infrastructure, and reject the entrenchment of Israel’s military control over Palestinian territory.

3. Demand an end to attacks on civilians and civilian objects, including healthcare personnel and facilities, and ensure there are genuine, rapid, and independent investigations and accountability for those responsible to provide justice to victims and prevent recurrence.

4. Uphold the UK’s responsibility to protect civilians in Gaza from atrocities, including genocide, and ensure the provisional measures of the International Court of Justice are implemented.

5. Urgently press Israel to end barriers to effective aid delivery in Gaza, including lifting its siege, reopening the crossing points, and allowing the safe and unimpeded movement of aid and aid workers, medical personnel and sick and wounded people.

6. Ensure that humanitarian aid is effective in meeting priority health needs and helps to preserve existing institutions and critical infrastructure, and that Palestinians remain in control of the recovery and rebuilding of Gaza.

I urge you to speak out in Parliament and on social media, advocating these vital measures. The UK Government must not stand by while the people of Gaza endure such unimaginable suffering.

Thank you for your attention and commitment to this urgent matter. I hope you will take swift action to address these issues and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely,
Ian Jacobs
15 Upper Village Rd, Sunninghill, Ascot SL5 7BA, UK

 

The response:

 

30 Oct 2024

 

Dear Ian Jacobs
 
Thank you for contacting me regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza. I am aware of the strength of feeling on this issue, not only in Windsor but around the world.
 
Like you, I want to see an end to this terrible conflict that continues to bring great suffering upon Israelis and Palestinians alike. However, it is clear that while Hamas continues to exist in Gaza there can never be peace in the region.
 
It is therefore important that Israel is ceaseless in its pursuit of these barbaric terrorists who, on October 7th, 2023, committed the worst atrocity against the Jewish people since the Second World War. In recent weeks we have seen progress in this area with a major Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, eliminated in an Israeli operation. Only with Hamas eliminated and Israeli hostages released, do I believe that we can move towards a two-state solution which is the only feasible guarantee of long-term peace.
 
It is important that the British Government uses its standing on the world stage to urge Israel to act within the remit of International Law and to promote humanitarian pauses wherever possible. These pauses are essential for allowing aid to enter Gaza and laying the foundations for a peaceful future beyond Hamas. I am proud of the previous Government’s record in this area, trebling its previous aid budget to the Palestinian people. I also welcome the steps taken by the WHO and UNICEF to deliver polio inoculations across Gaza.
 
Regarding recent developments in the Knesset, it is essential that UNRWA rebuilds trust and implements the Colonna reforms. Unreformed UNRWA is, at best, effectively adjacent to Hamas. The risk of Western aid falling into the hands of Hamas sympathizers would undermine our desire for peace in the region. I will monitor the situation closely and urge the Government and the UN to deliver aid into Gaza via various alternative routes.

With Israel now facing aggression on several borders it is more important than ever that we stand in solidarity with our democratic allies. Proscribed terrorist groups like Hezbollah seek to take advantage of an exposed Israel. This was evidenced in recent rocket attacks fired from Lebanon which killed innocent Israeli children.
 
With regard to the sale of arms to Israel, it is my view that further arms embargoes or sanctions would send the wrong message and encourage Israel’s enemies further, fanning the flames of wider regional conflict.
 
In the longer term, I support a credible and irreversible pathway towards a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, which delivers peace and security for both nations and the wider region. In my view, the primary obstacle to this is the continued existence of the genocidal views of the terrorist organisations which surround Israel but, for peace to endure, Israel will need to compromise to bring about a lasting settlement.
 
Thank you again for taking the time to write to me. I will continue to monitor this situation closely and will work with colleagues across the House to promote a future of peace and stability in the Middle East. 
 
Yours sincerely,

Jack Rankin MP
Windsor

Working for Ascot, Cheapside, Clewer and Dedworth, Colnbrook with Poyle, Datchet, Englefield Green, Eton and Eton Wick, Foxborough, Horton, Langley, Old Windsor, Sunningdale, Sunninghill, Virginia Water, Windsor and Wraysbury.

 

My reply:

 

15 Upper Village Road

Ascot SL5 7BA

(01344) 626387

ianjacobsipswich@gmail.com

 

Mr Jack Rankin MP

House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

 

4 November 2024

 

Dear Mr Rankin,

 

Case Ref: JR00455

 

Thank you for taking the time to respond at some length to my email of 29 August 2024. I fear that we are unlikely to agree and that my arguments will not change your views. Nevertheless, your email ignores some significant aspects of the long occupation of Palestine by Israel and of the resulting episodes of conflict, for there have been many such episodes and the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023, appalling as it was, is one of many, by both Israeli and Palestinian forces.

 

Your message does not once mention the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank and all that follows from that occupation. The implication of your message is that this can be dealt with later in the “two-state” solution. But decades of killings and woundings of Palestinians by Israeli civilians and the Israeli military, oppression, denial of fundamental human rights, imprisonment without trial, appropriation of land, and so on are no mere subordinate matter. The occupation is the very core of the matter. It is clear that Israel has no intention of accepting the two-state solution, and Mr Netanyahu and his coalition partners have worked for many years to make that solution increasingly impossible. Killing, and indeed mass murder is not the sole prerogative of the detestable Hamas, but also of Israel, as the massacres of Sabra and Shatila attest. And one cannot ignore the long years of violence against Palestinians by Israelis who call themselves settlers, but who surely meet the definition of terrorists, and who are not infrequently tolerated or, in extreme cases, facilitated by the Israeli military. Moreover, the UK and USA advocate the two-state solution in rhetoric only, have done nothing effective to advance it, and, as allies of Israel are not really honest brokers.

 

You mention humanitarian pauses to allow aid to be delivered to Palestinian victims of the conflict in Gaza, but your message ignores Israel’s consistent obstruction of aid deliveries as attested by numerous organizations more than worthy of credence. In particular, Israel’s current actions in northern Gaza amount to a deliberate starvation of the population. In this context, the recent Knesset legislation to prevent UNRWA from providing aid, education and healthcare, and (not an insignificant motivation in the Israeli decision) because UNRWA identifies Palestinians as refugees who have been displaced and have rights, is a further effort to deny the very identity and existence of Palestinians and to oblige them to accept aid controlled by their occupier. Viewed in a broader context, this measure is surely part of Israel’s efforts to prevent the UN from seeking to enforce UN mandates in Palestine and Lebanon. Declaring the Secretary General of the UN non grata and demanding the withdrawal of (and indeed attacking) UNIFIL in Lebanon are further measures to remove constraints on Israel’s actions.

 

You argue that UNRWA is “adjacent” to Hamas – in a small, crowded territory governed by Hamas it would be impossible not to be adjacent. However, “adjacent” is not the same as being linked to, or in league with, Hamas, and as far as I can tell (including the findings of the Colonna report) there is no proof that UNRWA has any substantial links to Hamas that exceed the practical reality of having to operate in a territory controlled by Hamas just as, for example, many NGOs do, other than a very few UNRWA employees who are known to have been guilty of terrorist acts on 7 October. Anything else is unsubstantiated or possibly Israeli propaganda.

 

Whether we come closer to agreeing with one another nor not, I thank you for your attention to my comments.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Ian Jacobs

Sunday, 27 October 2024

The Place Upon the Earth

 

On our first full day in Mexico City Jan and I had an appointment in an alcaldía (administrative district) of Mexico City called Tlalpan, a Nahuatl term meaning Place Upon the Earth. My PhD supervisor, David Brading, who died earlier this year, and his wife Celia (a historian of Peru) had sold their library in 2019 to the CEID (Centro de Estudios Interdisciplinarios: Centre of Interdisciplinary Studies) in Tlalpan. I had promised Celia that we would visit CEID and tell her what has been done with the library. We were shown round a splendid modern purpose-built building by Jaime del Arenal Fenochio, a distinguished ambassador, lawyer and historian, who is the director of one of the CEID research groups, all focused on the history and practice of Catholicism in Mexico and Latin America more generally.

After our visit we just had time for a coffee, and to notice that in the centre there is a museum of the history of Tlalpan, an attractive plaza and palacio municipal (council building), built between 1889-1900 in a Neoclassical style, which fills one side of the plaza, its façade decorated with a mural depicting key events in the history of Tlalpan. We resolved to return one our last full day in Mexico to see more of Tlalpan.

Our first stop was the plaza, shaded by trees with the inevitable kiosco (bandstand) in the centre. In one corner in front of one of the trees is a modest memorial to the Eleven Martyrs, Mexican patriots who were hung from trees in the plaza by the Prefect of the Valley of Mexico in 1865. O’Horan had fought the invading French heroically at the battle of Puebla in 1862, but when the Republican troops of President Benito Juárez abandoned the Valley of Mexico he switched sides and joined the army of Emperor Maximilian, installed on his precarious throne by Napoleon III. In 1867 he was captured and executed on the orders of Juárez.

The mural on the town hall was painted in 1987 by Roberto Rodríguez Navarro and four assistants. The tale begins, from left to right, with the first settlements on the shores of lake Texcoco, and in particular Cuicuilco, the archaeological remains of a place first occupied as an agricultural village in 1,200BC, which grew into a town of 20,000 people. A later panel depicts the people of nearby Ajusco forming an alliance with Hernán Cortés to defeat their enemies the Aztecs. In return the king of Spain granted Ajusco a coat of arms. The next scene depicts the people of Ajusco in 1548 showing the Spanish Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza the Lienzo de Ajusco, a map (which has survived to this day) of the town’s communal lands. There follow scenes of early colonial Tlalpan, including the church of San Agustín. 

 

Almost all Government business still requires attendance at an office in person. Here Tlalpan residents queue with documents for their official business in front of the early history of their municipality. Note Cuicuilco's distinctive circular pyramid top right.

The Indigenous people of Ajusco present their title to their land to Viceroy Mendoza in 1548.

 

The French occupation of 1862-1867 is shown, including the occupation of Tlalpan by Mexican forces led my Ignacio M. Altamirano in 1867. After the French invasion and the Liberal Reforma of Benito Juárez, the long dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz brought modernity in the form of trains, a tram service, and in 1878 the first telephone call in Latin America, made in Tlalpan. At the same time, the town was a centre of traditional Mexican culture, notably the jaripeo (bull riding). A famous jaripeo rider from Tlalpan, Ponciano Díaz, is shown in his finery. The late nineteenth century brought industrialization and labour unrest, exemplified here by the figure of a ferocious half-naked woman, a striking Tlalpan textile worker of 1872 waving a banner with the slogan mueran los explotadores (down with the exploiters). Below, the revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata tells us that the Mexican Revolution of 1910 has arrived, and behind him the village of Ajusco is burned down by the forces of one of the arch villain of the Mexican history general Victoriano de la Huerta.

Modernity comes to Tlalpan in the form of the telephone and the railway, but tradition lives on in the jaripeo, exemplified by Ponciano Díaz in his splendid outfit.

Finally, the mural tells us of the planting of trees representing the desire of the people to restore balance to the ecosystem, while the modern City of Mexico, which by now has spread over the whole Valley of Mexico, including Tlalpan.

 

Citizens plnat trees to preserve the environment while the city expands.

Encouraged that the mural suggested local pride in the history of Tlalpan, we walked the short distance to the Museo de la Historia de Tlalpan, which is advertised on several official websites and on the Facebook page of the Tlalpan municipality itself. We stopped briefly to read the sign outside which gave brief information about the history of the building and then stopped into the entrance where a rather brusque police officer asked us what business we had. We stated the obvious – that we had come to visit the museum – only to be told that the new administration (which only two weeks before had switched from the Partido de la Revolución Democráticoa to MORENA (the party of the previous president and of his (female) successor, which dominates the legislature and many of the states) had closed the museum and converted it to offices. Deflated, we moved on to see what Tlalpan might still have to offer.

Until the end of Spanish colonial rule in 1821, Tlalpan was known as San Agustín de las Cuevas, named by the friars who arrived in town about 1530 The parish church of the same name was built the church in 1532. Accounts differ as to whether the first church was built by Franciscans (according to Wikipedia) or by Dominicans led by Domingo de Estanzos (so says the historical marker outside the church). In any case, the Dominicans replaced the first church between 1637 and 1647 and added cloisters for their convent. In 1898 a great fire destroyed the main altar, which was replaced by a Neoclassical altar, which was replaced in its turn by the present altar in the 1960s. The church has three naves, six confessionals and four chapels. One approaches the church through a splendid tree-shaded garden, which would once have been an open space to accommodate the substantial Indigenous population before disease devastated their numbers. Like the church of San Pedro Atocpan, which we visited last year, a garish gateway has been added to the entrance to mark the festivities of Tlalpan’s patron saint in August 2024.

 

The church of San Agustín de las Cuevas and its garden.

We paused our sightseeing for coffee and cake at the Café Victoria in Tlalpan’s market, inaugurated in the early 20th century by Porfirio Díaz. The café, we discovered is a cooperative founded a year or two before the pandemic. Our bearded waiter told us that the coffee is sourced from organic suppliers, and all the food items from organic farmers in Xochimilco, Ajusco and Puebla. There are currently 16 cooperativistas. Before the pandemic there had been 26. The café had survived closure during the pandemic by starting a food basket scheme, supplying organic fruit and vegetables, a service that continues today, as well as a coffee roaster that wholesales organic coffee to other outlets.

 

Before a lunch of enchiladas (green for me, mole for Jan) in the plaza, we strolled around central Tlalpan, which to date has escaped the urban development that so disfigured some other districts of the great metropolis. Narrow streets are lined by high walls and gates, behind which are homes of the well-to-do, a Pontifical university and public buildings such as schools. A block of Magisterio Nacional (National Teachers) street was, appropriately enough, occupied by three primary schools, and since we happened to arrive at closing time, the street was full of sellers of sweets, snacks and other items targeted at young children and their parents. In Mexico, wherever numbers of people gather, street vendors appear.

Outside a school named after El Niño Artillero Narciso Mendoza (a 12-year-old boy who broke the Royalist siege of Cuautla during the War of Independence by heroically spiking one of the enemy’s cannons) were two banners. One encouraged parents to ensure that their children arrived at school on time (7:30 am-2:30pm). Another displayed a graphic of the plan and programmes of study of the New Mexican School, consisting of:

·      The educational community: girls, boys and adolescents

·      Knowledge and critical thinking

·      Ethics, nature and societies

·      The human and the communal

·      Languages (Spanish, Indigenous Mexican languages, English)

·      Gender equality

·      Cultural education by means of reading and writing

·      Inclusion

·      Critical Thinking

·      The arts and aesthetic experiences

·      A healthy lifestyle

·      Critical interculturalism

This is new curriculum, introduced in 2022 by MORENA all sounds rather worthy. However, it has been accompanied by new government-authored textbooks which have been controversial for their political content and, I am told, errors. Seven states refused to distribute the textbooks.

The next school was named after Vidal Alcocer, another child soldier during the War of Inependence, who lived long enough to fight both the French in 1838-1839, and the Americans in 1846-1848. Here rather more rebellious banners proclaimed: ‘Tlalpan protests. We are struggling for a different [higher] salary!’ And: ‘They deceived us. The salary increased we were promised never arrived!’

Around the corner was yet another school, the Colegio Santiago Galas Arce, named not after a boy soldier hero but rather a prominent businessman who emigrated from Spain and founded in 1913 a company that printed calendars, and who lived in Tlalpan. A little further on yet another banner proclaimed an altogether different school, run by AMCO, an international organization that operates in the USA, Spain, Portugal and twelve Latin American countries. The banner offered facilities not available in state schools: English as a second mother tongue; small classes; digital classrooms; classes until 5pm; special classes (chess, dance, music, computing, human development); evening workshops (karate, robotics, French, Italian, fine arts).

 

Tlalpan public library

 Further along the same street was a modern building that housed a huge bookshop (with no visible customer or staff) of the state-owned publisher Fondo de Cultura Económica, and the public library. The latter had something I had not seen in many decades: a card catalogue. True, there were computers, but none was turned on nor in use. Alas, the rather dowdy collection would discourage any but the most determined reader: there were only two present when we visited. A few metres along the same street Jan pointed out another modern building which housed the Centro de Estudios Históricos, which I had been associated with in the 1970s, when it was located on the hill below the palace of Emperor Maximilian in Chapultepec Park. A helpful security guard told us that we were most welcome to visit provided we signed the visitor’s book, but that there was nothing to see. Not far from here was yet another educational institution, the Centro de Estudios Superiores en Antorpología Social (Centre of Higher Studies in Social Anthropology). Downtown Tlalpan is quite an educational hub.

The library of the Centro de Estudios Históricos.

Mexico City is a metropolis of colonias, some charming old-style villages such as San Angel or Coyoacán with a mixture of colonial and modern homes of wealthy families. The more central Colonia Cuauhtémoc is a district of late 19th-century mansions of the political and business elite, one of which houses the British Embassy. Nearby, in Roma and Condesa, developed in the 1920s and 1930s, many delightful Art Nouveau homes that once housed the burgeoning middle class of post-revolutionary Mexico have survived earthquakes and developers.

Calle Magisterio Nacional, one block from the primary schools.

Tlalpan is a very differerent colonia. There is money her but not, at least as far as a casual visitor can tell, at the level of San Ángel or Coyoacán. The atmosphere of Tlalpan’s streets is much more proletarian, especially when schools are out. When you turn from the broad traffic-laden avenues towards Tlalpan’s centre, one enters an area of narrow one-way streets lined by high walls, behind which, we were told, stand colonial-era buildings, 19th-century and modern mansions.

An old photo of the corner of Ignacio Allende and Benito Juárez, where the Centro de Estudios Históricos now stands.