Each spring, as Japanese celebrate cherry blossom season, Mexicans enjoy their own version of the cherished tradition thanks to the century-old legacy of a landscape gardener from the Asian nation.
However, in Mexico it is not cherry trees, but blooming jacarandas that turn the capital into a sea of violet.
Admiring the blossoms has become an annual event in Mexico City since Japanese immigrant Tatsugoro Matsumoto planted jacaranda trees in the capital’s avenues in the 1920s, National Institute of Anthropology and History professor Sergio Hernandez said.
Photo: AFP
“Hanami is Japan’s cherry tree festival and we have our hanami, which are the jacarandas,” he said.
“People go out and marvel at these colors and the falling flowers,” said Hernandez, who is specialized in Japanese culture.
Matsumoto, who settled in Mexico City in 1896, introduced jacaranda trees brought from Brazil as an alternative to cherry trees, which did not bloom fully due to the climate.
His work earned the admiration of then-Mexican president Porfirio Diaz and other elites around the turn of the 20th century.
Matsumoto was also responsible for decorating the gardens of Chapultepec Castle, a former presidential residence in Mexico City, Hernandez said.
“This is a legacy of Matsumoto and of Japanese culture in general for Mexico ... when spring arrives and our city is painted in such an intense violet color,” he added.
The ease with which jacarandas reproduce means they have “invaded” the streets of the capital, he said.
However, it is a welcome invasion for locals and visitors who enjoy the blaze of color.
“It’s very beautiful, how the city is filled with purple,” Venezuelan visitor Andreina Rondon said.
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
RSS