Thus began one of the weekly columns in the Mexico City News, Mexico's English-language daily. The column was written by Sarita Rosenfield, and it provided readers with a critique of the week's bullfight in the Plaza Mexico bullring. Although discontinued in 1972 after ten years, the column is just one of the many features that over the years have made the News such a distinctive journalistic institution.
The News is forty years old this July, and to celebrate the anniversary, the management of the paper has planned a three day celebration for the staff and far-flung alumni. As an alumnus, I received an invitation to the July 5-8 festivities from Shari Rettig, circulation manager for the paper and coordinator of the reunion activities. Among the scheduled events are a luncheon at the Arroyo restaurant, featuring Mexican cuisine plus mariachi music (and for the daring, the opportunity to fight baby bulls in the restaurant's own ring), tours of the city, a marathon bull session, and a formal dinner dance.
Horn-Honking Traffic
"The News," Rettig writes on the invitation, "has survived many crises, some natural and some manmade. It has continued to publish daily despite earthquakes, financial hardships, massive personnel walkouts, computer crashes, and the death of two of its editors. Each of us who has worked on the News, in turn, has played its part in making us what we are today."
I became acquainted with the News upon my arrival in Mexico City in March 1972. I had saved some money during a three-year stint as a naval officer and decided to use my funds and newfound freedom to spend some time abroad.
I packed my things in my Triumph Spitfire and made a leisurely drive from Ohio to Mexico City, the leisurely pace ending when I entered the city's Paseo de la Reforma boulevard at rush hour - a terrifying maelstrom of horn-honking traffic surging along four lanes abreast around numerous monumental traffic circles. I managed to get trapped in the inside lane and ended up circumnavigating the independence monument for a good half hour before finally escaping to a side street, where I stopped at the first hotel I came to. It was several days before I drove again, but I quickly adapted to Mexico City's traffic and, using the Spanish I had studied in high school and college, was soon able to function reasonably well.
I rented a room in the large home of a Mexican family in the Colonia Condesa section of the capital and began exploring the city and surrounding countryside. As I began to make friends and learn my way around, I developed a growing affection for Mexico City and decided to extend my stay. Since my funds were pretty well depleted, this meant finding a job. For a young American without a work permit, this means one of two options: teaching English or working at the News. I tried the first option and discovered the income to be too unpredictable, so off I went to apply at the News.
I filled out a questionnaire and had a short interview with Jaime Plenn, the editor, who offered me a job on the spot. My salary, Plenn told me, would sixty dollars - per week. That wasn't a lot of money even then, even in Mexico, but it was either take it or leave Mexico, so I accepted and began one of the most interesting years of
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