Mexico City, Mexico (Day 11 - 7/1/14 and 8/1/14)

Welcome to Mexico City

It doesn't help that we came into Mexico City so late, but there's a definite feeling of anxiety buzzing between us as we get off the plane and into an airport where all the signs, all the people, all the language is Espanol. At a few points we trip in our confusion, unable to understand what's required of us from the staff upon entering their country. About one in two airport staff speak broken English, and I begin to make use of the Duck's little phrasebook.

Hola! Por favor! Bano?

Security checks are a lot less full-on than in Australia or America, although I do pass through a full body scanner at one point. The security guy tells me to raise my arms in the air but I can only manage one due to my broken collarbone. Duck begins to panic, worried that they'll roughly force my arms up if they don't understand me as I valiantly try to explain through hand gestures that my shoulder is unable to move in the way that they want it to...

The guy just kind of shrugs and waves me through after asking me to raise my bung arm up as high as I can (which aint very high at all).

We float around the airport for a bit before finding our hotel, the Courtyard Marriott. It turns out to be quite a swanky affair - far classier than the Duck and I. As has become the norm for this trip, our room gets upgraded when we mention that we're on our honeymoon, and the steward also gives us two vouchers for alcoholic drinks so we can celebrate tomorrow. The room turns out to be amazing, the best we've stayed in yet; nonetheless we both feel a little apprehensive still. We're yet to step into the real Mexico. This hotel is clearly a heavily Westernised welcoming bridge for rich white folk. And yet, here we are, a thousand or more kilometres south of America in an entirely different country where they don't speak the same language as everyone else.

At breakfast, the hotel staff present us with a slice of cake to help our 'celebration'. It's very unexpected and quite touching, however their enthusiasm dims somewhat when Duck and myself decide to cash in our drink vouchers at the ripe time of 11 AM. Have we committed a faux pas? Is alcohol just not consumed before midday on a Wednesday? If it's any consolation, the Duck regrets her margarita almost immediately. I try some, it's a very strong and salty way to start the day, and I don't begrudge the fact that we leave it unfinished.

Mexican candy

I'd done a lot of research about safety in Mexico prior (and during) this trip and the consensus seems to be that it isn't advisable to just hail a taxi off the street. The hotel seems reputable, so we let them take us to a trusted taxi with a driver who speaks English. His name is Alejandro and he's quite chatty, offering to chauffeur us around all day for US $20 an hour. It's cheaper than it was to hire a car for day in America, so we decide to take him up on this just to avoid the stress of trying to figure out transport. He lets us take our bags into our hotel room without us paying him a cent yet, so I feel that he's fairly trustworthy. Plus he has a great set of pearly false teeth that he grins at us with constantly, which only endears him to us further. 

Much like America, everyone we talk to is incredibly polite and friendly. They're just regular people... 33 million regular people in one city. It seems silly to assume that they're all criminals now that we're here among them, and I feel a little ashamed that I let certain fears gnaw at me after hearing various Americans tell us not to risk a trip to Mexico. I guess this is the nature of our fear of the unknown.

As we drive around the city the sheer size of it begins to dawn on me, the abstract transferring into a reality of noise, smells, traffic, smells, people, smells, and highly engaging architecture.

And smells.

The buildings range from the derelict and shambolic to the modern and sleek, but the ones that really put America and Australia to shame are the older ones - Spanish buildings between 300 and 500 years old, painted a light blue or pale orange, or a crinkled rainbow of grey shades clinging to intricate archways and buttresses. A huge flag of Mexico, the biggest flag I've ever seen, flaps in the low breeze at the end of one street.

One of the more middle class areas of the city

Alejandro, no doubt eager to secure our patronage for the day and any days after, reveals a vast store of historical and local knowledge as he drives us around. For instance, he talks to us about Mexico City, the fact that it was built here to subsume the previous Aztec city (Tenochtitlan) in a bid to help convert the natives to Christianity. Also, there are very few skyscrapers due to the fact that the city sits on a former lake and the spongy ground therefore cannot support heavy foundations.

Mexico City skyline

And even though I could open the taxi door myself (and often did just that), Alejandro insisted on getting out and trying to open it for me first. That's service.

The Duck laughs ruefully after a few minutes of riding in the taxi as a passenger, "I'm glad we never considered driving around Mexico ourselves..." There are a few key differences with driving in Mexico. There are no lanes, no indicators, and no rules. Everyone just drives where they like, only it's much slower than our traffic so if anyone hits anyone else it'll just be a gentle bump (no doubt accompanied by some yelling and shaking of fists). At some intersections there are police officers with whistles directing traffic. The traffic lights still work in these areas, the cops are just there to 'help' drivers obey them.

Here are the things we saw on our journey around the city:

Mexico City :)

The Frida Kahlo Museum

This was one of our main reasons for coming to Mexico City. The Duck is a huge Frida fan, and we got discounted entry because I'm a teacher - which was a little bit marvellous because it shows the integrity of the museum towards artists and educators. To call it a 'museum' is a bit of misnomer though, I'd say it's more a shrine. Even for a weekday it's very busy, with intellectuals and hipsters and elderly art fans all jostling to get close to Kahlo's bed, art materials, etc. As we walk through her house we get a pretty good sense of who she was, and the suffering and triumphs of her life.

Duck got confused in the toilets though as she was told to put her toilet paper into a bin rather than the toilet. Welcome to Mexican toilets.

Outside the Frida Kahlo Museum, formerly her house

Courtyard in Frida Kahlo Museum

Frida Kahlo's studio

Frida Kahlo Museum

Artwork #1

Artwork #2

Artwork #3

Artwork #4 + a Duck

Kahlo's leg brace

The Leon Trotsky Museum

This is just around the corner from Frida Kahlo's house. The two were actually friends in Mexico City's bohemian distract, Coyoacan, and Trotsky's house has been remarkably preserved since his assassination back in 1940. It's much quieter than Kahlo's place, and we walk through the famous revolutionary's gardens, study, bedroom... his wire chicken coop still stands too. I take photos of every room.

Trotsky's courtyard

Trotsky's house

Trotsky's dining room

Just in case we didn't realise who's garden we were in

Trotsky's personal library

Trotsky's backyard

The Temple of San Juan Bautiste

I'm not even sure if this is the right name for it but Alejandro takes us to a park in Coyoacan that leads to a plaza outside a huge Catholic Church. Duck spots squirrels in the park, and this takes up a good 15 minutes of our attention. The church is a huge, intimidating structure of advanced age, incredibly ornate and well looked-after. The insides are gold and stained glass and a hundred serious looking saints that stare accusatorily down from an impossibly high ceiling. Alejandro tells us it's okay to take photos but I feel very cautious about offending someone in this huge, silent place of prayer... so I only manage three pictures.

Oh, hello there!

Inside the church

Markets

Alejandro takes us to what he calls a 'middle class' part of the city where there are some artsy markets. It turns out, however, that these markets are closed so he tells us to go off and have a look around anyway. We see another park and decide to walk through it in the hope of finding some street food on the other side but the park seems scary - scores of people sit around quietly in large groups, just staring at us while they do nothing in particular. We soldier on, neither of us admitting our nervousness until a good half an hour later! We eventually find some markets but these are very much like flea markets, with fruit and dodgy knock-off shirts lining the street.

Market shot

Everywhere you look in Mexico City there are lots of people trying to make a buck. Little food stalls spring up out of every corner, entire streets are devoted to selling just one kind of thing (such as bicycles) out of what could be best described as nondescript 'shop holes', and guys walk between seemingly aimless lines of traffic with toys strapped to their chest.

There were endless streets with wares on them like this

The Duck and I find a place advertising antojitos (street snacks - literally translating to 'little cravings') and we manage to order some quesadillas through the use of very basic Spanish. I can say about ten things, but it doesn't get me very far. Mostly I just point at things or gesticulate with an almost futile enthusiasm. Not knowing the language has given me a whole new perspective on non-English speaking visitors to Australia. Only now do I fully understand the gormless smile and glazed eyes, because that's how I react when Mexicans speak to me in Espanol. And all I'll add to that is: Mexicans are much more patient with me than most Australians (sadly) would be with them.  

Antijotos in production

The Zocalo

Alejandro convinces us that we would be crazy to not at least look at the Zocalo, Mexico City's spiritual centre and town square. Nearly all major Mexican cities or towns have a zocalo of their own. In this case, the traffic in this area is absolutely chocked, but it's worth the time and money. The central square is boxed by a huge cathedral some 450 years old, the largest in all of Mexico and perhaps the entire Americas, and on another side is the palace in which the Mexican President resides. These are truly fearsome buildings, and the streets behind them hold lesser known but no less impressive aged feats of Old World architecture in to the New World. In the centre of the Zocalo is an outside ice rink, set up by the government for 'the kids', and there's also the biggest Christmas tree I've ever seen - bright and towering; a yuletide titan.

The Presidential Palace

The Zocalo

Alejandro drops us at an upmarket Mexican restaurant called El Cardenal - where the true value of the Australian dollar turns us into royalty. For the equivalent of $50 Australian, the two of us drink and eat a bountiful and beautiful dinner. The Duck has mole beef wrapped in cactus leaves, and I have a huge green chili stuffed with pork and a whole lot of exotic Latin American ingredients - also smothered in the burnt chili-chocolate goodness of mole sauce.

Chili stuffed with pork, covered in mole, with frijoles (bean paste - found on nearly every Mexican plate)

By this point we're well and truly stuffed and decide to call it a day. Alejandro seems disappointed that we don't want to explore well into the night but is happy to take us back to our hotel all the same. On our way we see fourteen-odd police cars with their lights all flashing, lined up near the Zocalo. A bus full of police in riot gear pulls up, ready to quell a protest.

Nice eats

"What are they protesting?" the Duck asks, noticing the many people holding signs along the kerbside.

"Everything," says Alejandro cynically, "Rain, no rain..." He laughs, but it's hard not to look past his casual disregard. Throughout today we've seen police on every corner, and near every church and museum. Stern sentinels ensuring the protection of Mexico City's increasingly improved reputation.

No one seems to pay any heed to the protestors. Indeed, everyone around this sudden concentration of police cars and riot squad soldiers is determined to be very blase and barely aware of what's happening - implying that this is business as usual in Mexico City, and perhaps you're best off just pretending it isn't happening. 

It highlights a disturbing contrast between the culture we've experienced as tourists and the reality for those who live here; something that can't be understood in just one day.

Goodnight, Mexico City!

Breadth and Depth

This is my third year now taking my students along to the HTA Senior History HSC Study Day that's held annually at the University of Sydney, and one thing I've noticed (in comparison to previous years) is the emphasis on breadth and depth when instructing students on the best strategy for tackling Modern History essays. 

It makes sense, and it's not particularly revolutionary in concept, but I really like the use of these terms to bring clarity to the art of writing an extended response in the History topics. I have a tendency to sometimes think of Modern History essays as a poor cousin to the kinds of essays we have students write for Standard and Advanced English, but in the adoption of a model that emphasises breadth and depth it becomes a bit more specific to History. 

At the HSC Study Day, the presenters Jonathon Dallimore and Michael Molkentin both spoke in some detail about this essay model in a periphery sense. Here's an example given by Molkentin in relationship to Part A of the Personality Section of the HSC Modern History exam (for our comrade Trotsky, of course):

Let's say there's a question about Leon Trotsky's rise to prominence (and it's fairly likely, as this is one of the four major dot points of the Trotsky syllabus).

In order to achieve breadth, the student will need to cover at least three different aspects of Trotsky's rise to prominence, with good examples being:

• Trotsky's role in the 1905 Revolution
• Trotsky's writing between 1906-1917
• Trotsky's role in October 1917  

These act as themes for students to hang their response on. You could also call these 'ideas', and it wouldn't be a bad thing at all if a student structured their response as a paragraph per theme or idea.

Of course, it isn't enough to just have breadth. That doesn't make for a very long essay. In addition to breadth, there needs to be depth. That is, there needs to be detail or elaboration on the points that have been made about the themes.

Here is what Molkentin offers as depth for the examples given above:

• Trotsky's role in the 1905 Revolution
• Belief that workers should be involved in the revolution (which contrasted with Lenin's belief that the Party should act as the vanguard of the revolution).
• His role in the Petersburg Soviet as its leader before his arrest.
• Speaking for the workers in the General Strikes (which acted as a prelude to the revolution).

• Trotsky's writing between 1906-17
• Results and Prospects (1906) and its expression of the theory of Permanent Revolution.
• His work as a war correspondent in the Balkans in 1912-13, and on the Western Front.

• Trotsky's role in October 1917
• Making amends with Lenin and the Bolsheviks during 1917.
• His role in the July Days and his continued disagreements with Lenin.
• The seizure of power in October. 

Pretty good, huh? There's more than enough there to fill approximately 17 minutes worth of writing in the HSC exam (17 minutes being the projected time that students should limit themselves to in completing Part A of the Personality Section of the paper).

So, in summation, students are asked to come to terms with questions in the Modern History HSC exam, whether it be the National Study, Conflict Study, Personality Study or even an extended response at the end of the World War I section (the extended response draft structure above is just one example). In doing this, students need to demonstrate both breadth and depth of understanding. This means constructing a response that makes use of multiple themes, and with each theme backed up with sufficient detail. 

That's one way to do it, and I reckon its worth getting your students to give it a try, especially if they're struggling with structuring their responses in exam conditions.

Trotsky and the Splitting of the Socialist Democratic Workers' Party.

Lenin; the leader of the Bolshevik faction, and Martov; an historical footnote.

From a teacher's point of view, untangling the political landscape of Socialist Russia circa 1900-1905 can be a little tricky. I see one of the primary challenges as this:

How do I make this interesting or clear enough for my students to remember it? 

Of course, there are other issues to consider as well, like: 

• How much of this stuff is going to be relevant to the study of Trotsky?
• How do I avoid getting bogged down in just teaching content rather than skills?
• How can I check that students have taken in what I want them to take in?

What follows is a single lesson that covers the narrative of Trotsky's first escape from Russia, his meeting with Lenin in London, the split of the Socialist Democratic Workers' Party into Mensheviks and Bolsheviks, and the Menshevik attempt to ally themselves with the Liberals.

It's a lot to ask students to process all this, especially when it concerns such a small segment of Trotsky's overall story, so I've deliberately kept my PowerPoint presentation quite simplistic in terms of detail. The real goal of the lesson is for students to be able to take in this information and then retell it in their own words. Here's a breakdown of the lesson and resources:

1. Move through the PPT with the students, reading each slide out and clarifying details. This presentation covers the narrative.

2. Students use the Scaffold Grid to summarise the PPT. For each slide, students are to write one point into a square of the grid. There are 12 squares for the 12 slides.

3a. Ask students to read over the notes they've put into the Scaffold Grid. Then tell them to flip the sheet over so they can't see what they've written. The final step is for students to retell the story of Trotsky and the Bolsheviks/Mensheviks using their (fresh) memory. The previous sheet should assist the students in building up their summary skills before they are asked to work in a semi-exam condition where they can't rely on their notes.

3b. It is, of course, possible to negotiate with your students. I might say to one, "You may look at your notes only 3 times while writing the 'story' out". The important thing is that they just have a go and try to increase their reliance on themselves because - as we all know - once they sit down in the HSC exam 'themselves' is all they've got. The trick is to get them writing without having to refer to any notes.

Resources:

1. PowerPoint presentation

2. Scaffold Grid

Trotsky: Evaluating the Way he Faced Challenges.

One of the more distinct and unique parts of the Modern History HSC course is the paper in which students are required to write about the personality they have studied. This paper is divided into two sections; Part A, a question that requires something in the way of a retell about the personality's life (a response where most students can demonstrate their knowledge of the content they've studied) and Part B, a question where the personality itself must be analysed (a more historiographical question in which students must take a position on the personality in relation to the question). For this blog, I want to focus on Part B.

2015's Part B question was:

It is the way an individual faces challenges that shapes them and their achievements.

To what extent is this statement accurate in relation to the personality you have studied and their role in history?

When looking at a question like this, the student is best off identifying the key terms that will direct them in their response. In this case, it's 'challenges', 'shapes' and 'achievements'. In other words: Look at the challenges that the personality faced, and how did these challenges affect their ability to achieve?
 

The challenge of teaching the personality is that you need to cover all your bases in terms of content, and then also provide a range of interpretations for this personality so that students can make some informed decisions about how they are going to evaluate the historical figure. 

Like all good comrades, the personality that I teach is Leon Trotsky (his colleague Alexandra Kollontai looks interesting but I don't know enough about her yet to feel confident teaching her).

I've put together a little reader of about eight different short evaluations of Trotsky (with thanks to fellow Australian History teachers Jonathan Dallimore, Kath Driver, Anne Gripton and Lianne Fisher), with the idea that students can unpack each one into some dot points and then, once they've done all eight, rank them in order of how much they agree. 

A step further from this is that they could do a practice essay by using one of these evaluations as a thesis. If you have some of those particularly eager students I think it would be really effective to get them to do this twice, with a completely separate quote each time. 

Without further delay, here are the evaluations themselves:

Michael Lynch, author, 1990...

Trotsky was a complex personality. He was one of those figures in history who may be described as having been their own worst enemy. Despite his many gifts and intellectual brilliance, he had serious weaknesses that undermined his chances of success. At times he suffered from diffidence and lack of judgment.

Anne Gripton, teacher, 2016

Trotsky's biggest mistake was to underestimate Stalin in both the Civil War and the leadership struggle. While Trotsky's performance itself in the Civil War was good, and undoubtedly contributed significantly to Bolshevik success, he alienated a lot of people which undermined him later on. Also, Trotsky's absolute and unswerving loyalty to the revolution made his response to many challenges inflexible and, to be honest, really frustrating!

Kath Driver, teacher, 2016

I think Trotsky's biggest mistake was to make assumptions based on his position as a theorist and Civil War leader rather than working to garner support. He faced an obvious challenge in exile and personally I think this is where he gained his biggest victory - by rewriting history, positioning himself as the keeper of true communist tradition, and through his writings posthumously convincing historians like Deutscher that he would have been the better alternative to Stalin.

 Tariq Ali, journalist, 1980

He was the only one of Stalin's opponents who grasped what was happening in Russia and who, as a result of his knowledge, decided to fight. Trotsky's struggle in exile was the only antiobiotic which might have rid the international workers' movement of this disease. Trotsky's legacy is the unfinished struggle: for proletarian democracy, for genuine social revolution in the 'Third World', for internationalism. 

 Lianne Fisher, teacher, 2016

...He was also not particularly popular with his peers and this did him no favours either. He should have worked harder to be a people's person. Although the position of War Commissar made him unpopular and he was seen as being cruel and calculated, setting him apart from virtually everyone.

Richard Pipes, academic, 1994

Trotsky's role in the November Revolution has been exaggerated by his admirers. Trotsky's methods in the Civil War were more brutal than those of the Tsarist regime, and his defeat by Stalin had nothing ennobling about it. He lost because he was outsmarted in a sordid struggle for political power. Trotsky's campaign against Stalin was the result of base motives rather than high ideals, he merely wanted revenge, and was willing to destroy the Party in order to achieve it.

Jonathon Dallimore, teacher, 2016

His strategy at Brest-Litovsk was an utter failure and, ultimately, incredibly costly both to the Socialist Republic and to his own position. Perhaps how an individual responds to challenges is sometimes not as important as the challenges themselves. The support base Stalin had in his formal positions far outweighed anything Trotsky could muster at the political centre. Something similar could be said for Alexandra Kollontai; she dealt with some challenges in the best possible manner but the obstacles were simply too great and once she slipped from a position of strength it was almost impossible for her to return to any position of great influence.

Isaac Deutscher, journalist, 1953

Trotsky was a revolutionary hero - a man of principle who represented the interests of the working class, and Lenin's true heir. Trotsky refrained from attacking Stalin because he felt secure... It seemed to Trotsky almost a bad joke that Stalin, the wilful and sly but shabby and inarticulate man in the background, should be his rival.

The presence of a few History teachers in this mix demonstrates the democratic nature of history itself - anyone who has done their reading and thinking should be able to engage with these debates about historical personalities. In the case of Trotsky, there is a lot to consider when talking about notions of success and failure, and hopefully some of these quotes go some way in assisting our HSC students to construct a position of their own in relation to his role in history.

Click and save Evaluating Trotsky for the student version of this resource.