June 10, 2002 Documentary by UCSC faculty captures life in the Zócalo By Ann M. Gibb A Mexican flag so huge 12 soldiers are needed to carry it to shelter on a rain-soaked day. An elderly man making music with a hand-cranked calliope. The green-and-white Volkswagen Beetle taxi, appearing again and again throughout the day. El Zócalo, a documentary about the great plaza in Mexico City, was produced by Chip Lord and Gustavo Vazquez. These are moments in the ebb and flow of life on the Zócalo, the great open square at the heart of Mexico City, whose past and present is captured in a new video entitled El Zócalo. Produced by Chip Lord and Gustavo Vazquez, faculty in UCSC's Film and Digital Media Department, El Zócalo premiered in San Francisco and will be shown at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival in July. "I love urban spaces, and after I visited Mexico City in 1998 and shot some footage, I became interested in doing a film about the Zócalo," said Lord, who directed and edited the video. Vazquez, who is originally from Tijuana, shot El Zócalo on digital video during six days in August 2001. The 28-minute observational documentary uses narration only briefly at the beginning, relying primarily on images, editing, and pacing to tell the story of a day in the life of the Zócalo. Each side of the square--officially known as the Plaza de la Constitución--is longer than two and half football fields. It began as part of Tenochtitlán, a city built on an island more than 600 years ago. Spanish conquistadors destroyed the Aztec buildings on the site, including a temple and Montezuma's palace, and built a cathedral and colonial palace over the ruins. The Metropolitan Cathedral and the National Palace still anchor the square, which has been the scene of huge rallies and demonstrations. "Every Mexican town has a central plaza, but the interesting thing about the Zócalo is that it's completely empty," said Lord. In the late 1960s, the police asked the government to remove anything, such as park benches, that might become weapons if a gathering turned violent. Devoid of landscaping, furniture, and ornamentation, except for the flagpole and enormous flag, the Zócalo becomes a stage where citizens and tourists act out moments of their lives. Lord edited the footage to represent the passage of one late summer day, from before dawn to after dark. The flag is hoisted, vendors open shops, street performers act, two women without coats are caught in a downpour, ranks of prayer candles are fanned out in the cathedral, and only occasionally does anyone appear to notice the camera, and then only briefly. "People seemed to respond to the camera in a totally different way than I've experienced filming in the United States," said Lord. "They reacted with a kind of politeness. There were instances when we were three or four feet from people, and they ignored the camera." This respectful indifference, combined with Vazquez's eye for catching the telling moments in everyday occurrences, makes seeing El Zócalo a discreetly voyeuristic experience. Viewers of the video observe life from a protected vantage point, as unseen watchers of an urban space at the center of a city of 10 million people. Return to Front Page