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681210.02-Capernaum

In the intervening years, the synagogue at Capernaum has been reconstructed, which is to say that pillars have been stood upright and lentils placed back.   The footprint of the synagogue fills up most of the precinct so one has to figure that it was merely the center of what must have been a rather extensive community, of which little remains.

The synagogue ruins stand at odds with today's propagandized version of the Diaspora.  Given that the synagogue dates from the Fifth or Fourth century, it bespeaks a prosperous Jewish community in Palestine at that time under Roman-Christian rule. 

The other remains in the area are beautiful mosaics from the late Roman or early Byzantine period in the floors and foundations of erstwhile buildings and churches.   The Sea of Galilee has to come from somewhere and these mosaics often covered natural springs or were built alongside fresh pools of water. 

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681210.01-Galilee

      

At the time i visited, Tiberias still retained the character of an Arab township, although Hebrew signs were common.    The salient image i have of Arab towns is one of languid ruination, as depicted in these photographs from the 1920's and 1930's.

Roman or more likely Crusader Fort

Waters Edge, Tiberias. 

The Sixties were a transitional time.   New roads,  new buildings and electricity were proliferating but between the cracks in modernism one could still see and sense the remains of former ruination. 

And interesting collection of photographs of Arab Palestine can be found: [here]

These photos are frol: http://www.palestineremembered.com/Tiberias/Tiberias/

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520505-01 El Castillo

    

Almost every country or city has some structure which is emblematic of the place: the Parthenon in Athens,  the Forbidden City in Peking, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.  Some places have more than one emblem such as New York City's Empire State and its Statue of Liberty.  Mexico, rich in history and art has mutliple emblems:  the Pyramid of the Sun, the Cathedral in the Zócalo,  the Church of the Virigin atop the pyramid at Cholula... and, of course, El Castillo, the fortress-turned palace-turned residence astride Chapultepec (Grasshopper) Hill.  

El Castillo in 1880 with one of the two aqueducts still standing

In such cases, choice of emblem is also a question of personal significance.  For me, the Empire State is emblematic of New York City because it was always close and visible from where i lived as a child. I  loved going to the top when i could and would stare at its glowing crown at night.

La Reforma on the Eve of the 1910 Revolution

Chapultepec Castle played an emblematic role in Mexico's post-conquest history.  It served as the viceroy's summer palace and then, when used as a military academy, as the scene of the last battle before the fall of Mexico City to the Americans in 1847.  During the brief Second Empire, it served as the emperor Maximillian's residence at which time it was also connected to the center city by a magnificent tree lined boulevard, at first called Paseo de los Emperadores and, upon the re-establishement of the Republic, el Paseo de la Reforma.   Architecturally, El Castillo plays the part of L'Arc de Triumph at the summit of the Champs Elysee. 

For me, El Castillo played the part of the Empire State.  We always lived within close proximity to the castle and throughout the better part of my childhood we lived within a short walk from the forests, gardens and lake of Chapultepec Park, which became the playground for me and my cuates.

Pals Juan (l.) and "Chucho" stump hopping in the woods.

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500505-02 Niños Heroes

Father meant, los niños heroes, the six young military cadets who refused to give up the fight against the invading Americans when the rest of the country had either laid down arms or, worse yet, connived with the invader.  

On 13 September 1847, with the Mexican Army in rout, the last impediment to General Scott's taking of the capital was the military academy in el castillo atop the commanding Chapultepec Hill, defended by perhaps 600 regulars at the base of the hill and 400 cadets in the castle itself standing against 5,000 U.S. troops.  Murderous artillery made short shrift of the regulars and by mid-morning swarms of American troops began scaling the castle walls. 

A certain amount of legend and lore has surrounded los niños heroes, the most common of which is that last surviving six cadets retreated to the last parapet where they compacted suicide, after which the last of them, Juan Escutia, wrapped himself in the Mexican flag and jumped to his death.  The truth was a little more prosaic but no less heroic.  Four of the cadets died in combat, a fifth was wounded and taken prisoner.  But there is no question that, surrounded on all sides, Escutia retreated to the ballustrade where flag in hand, he leaped.  

Thermopylae, Massada, the Alamo, and Los Niños Heroes are among history's few instances of unalloyed heroism and in Mexico, so often the scene of duplicity and treason, the boy cadets are universally given the somber reverence that is their due.

It was therefore, not particulary appreciated, when mother remarked that the monument to Los Niños rather looked like six giant stalks of asparagus, which of course they do, especially once the bronze caps which were supposed to represent flames had oxidized.   I certainly respect the heroism of the boy cadets but, thanks to mother's unsparing wit, their monument will always stand as an example of overworked patriotism. 

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