{"id":12352,"date":"2019-03-07T10:00:32","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T15:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/?p=12352"},"modified":"2019-03-07T03:58:18","modified_gmt":"2019-03-07T08:58:18","slug":"the-blooming-jacarandas-in-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/the-blooming-jacarandas-in-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"The Blooming Jacarandas in Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spring is here and many streets in Mexico City are already adornadas<\/em> or decorated with the lovely flores de Jacaranda. <\/em>\u00a0Spring and the 40 days of lent are distinctly marked by the beautiful violeta<\/em> flower that blooms until Easter, until it falls and the tree turns green. How did this beautiful tree come to M\u00e9xico why are there so many in Mexico City?<\/p>\n

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Photo taken by Carl Campbell found on Flickr.com with license CC BY 2.0<\/p><\/div>\n

A Japanese Immigrant<\/h3>\n

Tatsugoro Matsumoto was an imperial gardener in Tokyo who traveled to Per\u00fa in the late 19th century to put his talents in jardiner\u00eda <\/em>or gardening to use for a particular garden there. On his way to Per\u00fa, Matsumoto visited M\u00e9xico and was taken back by the care and appreciation people had for flowers. After his work in Per\u00fa, the Japanese government sent him to M\u00e9xico to work. After working on some gardens there, he decided M\u00e9xico was the place for him, and he moved there indefinitely.<\/p>\n

Once in M\u00e9xico, he started working for wealthy families looking for beautiful gardens for their homes in the famous and prestigious\u00a0Colonias Condesa and Roma<\/em> (you can read more about it in the post I wrote about the Oscar winning movie Roma<\/a>). Matsumoto quickly became famous and even the Mexican president Porfirio D\u00edaz had him design some gardens including those surrounding the Castillo de Chapultepec<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In the early 20th century, Matsumoto together with his son, who had traveled from Japan to help his father with his business, proposed to the government of President \u00c1lvaro Obreg\u00f3n an ingenious project: planting the Jacaranda trees in the main avenidas<\/em> of M\u00e9xico to fill the city with color. Matsumoto had brought this beautiful tree from Brazil, and he believed it would bloom for a considerable time in the very dry spring of Mexico City. He was right.<\/p>\n

Paseo de la Reforma<\/h3>\n

One of the streets where you can really appreciate the\u00a0Jacarandas<\/em> is Paseo de la Reforma. This avenue is one of Mexico’s most important and iconic roads connecting the Castillo de Chapultepec <\/em>to the\u00a0centro hist\u00f3rico <\/em>or\u00a0city center. Emperador Maximiliano <\/em>from Austria, who ousted the then president Benito Ju\u00e1rez in 1864,\u00a0 had this street designed with inspiration from Champs-\u00c8lys\u00e9es in Paris. His wanted to feel he was in Europe when he looked out from the castle. Reforma was originally named Paseo de la Emperatriz in honor of Maxmiliano’s cousin, however, after Ju\u00e1rez took back the government from Maximiliano in 1867, it was renamed Paseo de la Reforma.<\/p>\n

Many years later, Matsumoto and his son put a splash of color in this iconic street with Jacarandas that are violet in the spring and green the rest of the year.<\/p>\n

The video below is from a Mexican radio show where they talk about the history of this iconic tree.<\/p>\n