Angel:Mexico Day at the University of Bristol 30/04/12

I've just got this email few days ago regarding the Mexico Day at UoB next Monday, which maybe could be interesting for some of you. This special event is not only an opportunity to hear the Mexican Embassador, Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza, besides the audience will have the chance to look over some posters on currently research projects concerning Mexico:

I'm pleased to announce that next Monday 30th April will be Mexico Day at the University of Bristol. We would like to invite you to a special event to celebrate the University of Bristol's links with Mexico.

Bristol is proud to host the Mexican Ambassador, Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza, for the day and he'll be giving a question-and-answer session for all interested students and staff.

It will be running from 3 o'clock in the Seminar Room of the Nanoscience Building on Tyndall Avenue. The hour-long session will be a rare opportunity to put your questions to the ambassador.

This event will be free of charge and we hope you will be able to attend.

Following the Q&A the Ambassador will be introducing a special lecture 'Rethinking Nineteenth-century Mexico: Following in the steps of Professor Michael P. Costeloe' by Bristol alumnus Professor Will Fowler of St Andrews. This will culminate with a wine reception. Please see here for details.

For directions to the Nanoscience building please see here.

The Faculty of Science can't be out of this special event, Marisol Correa, a current PhD student in the School of Chemistry under the supervision of Professor Richard Evershed, is conducting a research project about absorbed organic residues analysis from utilitarian ‘cooking’ pottery in Mexico. The analysis of organic residues has been a successful tool in order to answer archaeological  questions relating to ancient diet and agriculture in other parts of the world. Besides, the outcome from this project would be useful to achieve a better knowledge of social patterns such as strategies of land use in the urban hinterland.

Trajineras, colorful gondolas - Xochimilco, Mexico, 2011

Angel: Like water for Chocolate

Alebrije (ali-bre-haze) - hand carved and hand painted wooden animals created by artisans in small towns outside the city of Oaxaca, Mexico.

The winter has just faded away, I have to mention that I am a little bit sad to say goodbye to delightful coffee-&-chocolate afternoons, and say hello to lemon sorbet times, laid down on the Royal Foyer fields. However, I’m not going to lie, saying such a delicious ritual has gone, nope, not at all, but winter weather is one of the reaction conditions needed to finish off long lab days, full of creativity and motivation. Bringing up to the surface this memorable experience: Have you ever thought which is the best cocoa butter crystalline polymorph for either preparing double chocolate cookies or creamy bar chocolates?

The diverse polymorphs are formed under different crystallization conditions. The thermodynamically most stable form, VI, has a dull surface and soft texture; only form V shows the hardness and glossy surface appreciated by the consumer.

Gourmets only accept chocolate in its crystal form V, as it is this form that has the noble surface sheen, crisp hardness and the pleasant melting sensation in the mouth.

I am sure, if someone comes up with such a weird question, I would give a what-face in answer, and then, transform it into an OMG face due to the fact, cocoa butter can crystallize into six polymorphic forms! Now, are you intrigued? The click on the following links to find the secrets behind the chocolate experience:

• Chocolate - The Noblest Polymorphism: part I, II and III
• A reason to eat chocolate

Finally, If you ask where to find the best chocolate in Mexico, unfortunately, I don’t know many options due to our chocolate tradition vanishing, mainly because of big corporations and the bad economy. Nevertheless, according with my experience, I can recommend visit the city of Oxaca which offers a great sensory experience. Yep! If you have been there once, then now your nose is being mesmerized by the smell of sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and toasted nuts - What a wonderful place is the city market of Oaxaca!

Also later, in the Mayan and Aztec cultures, cocoa, here called xocoatl, played an important role, although it was only available to the rich and privileged. Cocoa was preferably consumed in frothed up form and was prepared in various ways. In addition to corn meal, flowers and diverse spices, particularly chili powder and vanilla, were added.

Angel: Bridgebook

Such a great idea!!! The Mexican people's used to read 2.7 books per year. Then one day, the biggest bookshop in Mexico (Gandhi bookshop) took on the challenge of making people read "The Bridge" written by Franz Kafka while riding by subway. The implementation of this brilliant idea made that 600,000 people could read the full short story. 

The Bridge was cut in 13 excerpts, one per each station that conforms the yellow line of Mexico City's underground. Then, each part was used to cover only one ad board located in a strategic place along the platform. So that every time the subway train stopped, people inside the carriage wrapped in yellow could read each fragment. Leaflets were handed out for people that didn't ride the entire line.

 

I think, in days like these where marketing campaigns are designed to create some pointless necessities around people, projects like this are highly remarkable. I agree with the idea that reading or getting close to culture are not going to magically pop up the solution for injustices, corruption, sadness, wars, and society at large. Nevertheless, it's a good start to address problems, to come up with questions, to get criteria about what is good and what is not for ourselves, to dream and to build bridges...

Check out the video to get a better picture about the project!