Luchadors, Dashboard Shrines and the Virgin of Quadalupe

In this episode, Michael recounts a late-night cab ride in Mexico City that turned out to be anything but ordinary. From an unexpected decision to a ride full of surprises, he explores how even the smallest details can transform a simple journey into a story worth remembering. Tune in for a tale about risk, observation, and the unexpected beauty of the road less traveled.

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Transcript

  Hey, everybody. Welcome to Michael Demeng's Junk and Disorderly. So, in this podcast, we're going to explore some of the curious things that have happened to me as an artist, as well as some of the strange objects that I have collected and transformed into art. There'll be a few other things as well, mixed in, but Sit back and take a listen. 

This week's episode, Luchadors,  Dashboard Shrines and the Virgin of Guadalupe. 

So I want to start off by saying this. I'm not an idiot.  I have traveled enough in various places around the world and across the U. S. and wherever to know that what you never, never, ever, ever do is grab a ride from someone who just approaches you at the airport.  Now, with that said, I want to tell you a little story about the time that I did not listen to that sound travel advice.

No, no, no, I did the thing that you should never, ever do.  All right, so it's, it's late, it's midnight ish in Mexico City. I am friggin tired. Exhausted. You know, it was one cancelled flight and one connection error and you know, you name it. It was just a bad day. Long custom lines.  The line for taxis was long and then I see this guy.

He's approaching me. He's got a nice suit. He says, Hey, would you like a ride? Do you need a ride to your hotel? And I did need a ride to my hotel. So I said, yes, I'll take a ride with you. So he grabs my large bag. Now, by the way, I am in Mexico to teach a workshop. So in that bag, I have a whole bunch of art supplies.

paints, and I also have power tools. Um, I have some of my original art. So there's a lot of stuff that's worth some money in there. And, you know, he takes it and he's leading, leading the way. I'm following with my two other bags.  Now, as we're walking out the airport door, it sort of just then dawns on me what I've done.

I, I've just given this stranger who has no little taxi certificate on him or anything like that.  My bags. And I'm starting to think, well, you know, maybe this guy isn't legit.  And so the further I follow him, the more that thought sort of creeps into my head because the first thing he does is we start walking across this four lane street, you know, across traffic.

And of course, I'm hustling. I'm hustling to keep up with him because I don't want to see him run off with my bag. So I'm following him around some dark corners until we come to a really. Really, really dark parking lot. Now, at any point, I could have just ditched my bag. I could have said, screw it. I'm out of here.

I'm not gonna take the risk. I could have just said, okay, you keep my paints. You keep my art. You keep my power tools. But I didn't.  I just kept following him. I am, of course, looking in every little corner of this parking lot. I mean, every little shadow was suspect. It was something nefarious lurking around.

At least, that's what I felt like. And all I could think was,  this might super suck.  So in this lot, did I mention it was dark? Well, in this lot, there was a car. It wasn't a taxi, it was a car. It was this 1980s beat up sedan. I think it might have been, you know, a Buick Skylark. I'm not sure. Of course, the first thing I do is I'm looking in the windows.

I want to make sure like there's nobody sort of hanging around in there waiting for me. Meanwhile, of course, I've got my eye in the shadows making sure somebody doesn't come up behind me.  And then we walk towards the trunk.  Now, I have to tell you, I would not have been surprised, in fact I was sort of anticipating  to see a shovel in there, and maybe some plastic tarp, and maybe a machine gun.

I don't know. But nonetheless, I was mentally preparing myself for a really bad scenario. Now and granted, you know, I'm just an artist, you know, I don't make tons of money, I'm not some corporate CEO that has wads of cash. But, you know, maybe times are tough. You know, you take what you can get, right? So, the trunk creaks open.

Big, long, eerie creak. Eeeeee!  It was empty.  Alright. So far, so good. So he takes my big bag and he puts it in there. I, at this point, decide, you know, maybe I'll just keep my other bags with me. They were small enough. So I hopped into the back of the car. And I notice that the seats are sort of this maroon velvet.

And of course, me being in a somewhat paranoid state of mind by this point, I'm thinking, hmm.  Is this to hide the stain of blood?  So now what I'm nervous about is somebody sneaking up to the back of the car, opening the trunk, and grabbing my bag out.  Which doesn't happen.  We drive off.  All right, we're cruising along.

We're cruising through the nighttime Mexico city streets, which Mexico city at night, it can actually be pretty eerie, especially, you know, early morning, you know, like one in the morning or so  for as big a city as it is, it's actually strangely serene.  Now, he's taking me to an area that I'm not that familiar with.

In fact, I was not recognizing the route he was taking. I had taken cabs from the airport to the hotel that I was going to many, many times. And so I was pretty familiar with the usual route. that, that the cab would take me. And he didn't seem to be going that way. Now it was at this point that I noticed his dashboard and it was still a bit dark inside and I couldn't get a really good look, but it seemed to be covered in various toys or toy figures.

I mean, tons of them.  And here we pull up to a street corner and he says to me,  mucho prostituto.  And I'm like, What?  Mucho Prostituto? Uh, and sure enough, I look out the window and there was indeed Mucho Prostituto. I mean, there was sequins and high heels to the sky and, uh, Fringe everywhere in and prostitutes in every shape and size and form and I'm thinking okay So where is my driver taking me? 

This doesn't look like my hotel nervously, I just say no no gracias. No gracias  So, at this point, the driver sort of laughs, and he sort of explains in clunky English, like, look, I wasn't going to drop you off in the red light district. I just wanted to point out, you know, there's quite a sight to see if you look out the window.

And that was an understatement, because I'd say any number of those ensembles would look perfectly at home on RuPaul's Drag Race.  Feeling a little more at ease, I laugh along with him, and suddenly I get a way better look at the dashboard.  The city streets are bringing a lot more light into the cab and suddenly I realize what actually is going on there. 

All the toys scattered around the dashboard are actually little luchador figurines. Little plastic Mexican wrestler toys. And they're all standing upright, arms and legs and limbs in various poses, different outfits. You know, some had bright red masks and some had neon green tights and others, gold capes, you name it.

It was a plethora that I'm sure were actually based on actual Mexican wrestlers.  It was at this point that my driver noticed my interest in the dashboard, and so he turns on the light. It was friggin amazing. It was this great mosaic of these human forms and all the various colors. Now, what was really cool was in, amidst this sea of, of random wrestling characters, almost like perched like a little island, was this Virgin of Guadalupe statue that sort of stood above them all, like some guardian.

Kind of like a weird beacon of serenity surrounded by chaos. This was quintessentially Mexican. It was this great mixture of humor and faith and art. So naturally, I, I had to ask, I had to ask in my broken Spanish, you know, what is the deal with this collection? I asked him, you know, are you a big Lucha Libre fan?

And he said, no, no, no, no. Um, he said he actually did it for his son.  Because his son is a big Lucha Libre fan, and it was a way to keep him busy while his dad was driving around. So then my driver, you know, grabbed one of the action figures and tore it off the dash, and you could hear the sound of Velcro.

It was then that I noticed that all the little action figures had little Velcro padding on the bottom of their feet. Now the corresponding type of Velcro, um, was placed like a big sheet across the entirety of the dashboard. So, when the son wanted to play, he would grab himself a little action figure or two and do their little wrestling match.

And, when he was done, he would just plunk them right back on their little dashboard world.  He then went on to explain that, while the action figures were for his son, the Virgin Mary statue, the Virgin of Guadalupe, was actually his, to protect over him, and actually his son, when they were out driving around together. 

The rest of the ride was really quite pleasant. You know, him with his clunky English, me with my clunky Spanish, which by the way, my Spanish is very clunky.  And what I learned was he was originally from Peru and moved to Mexico city to help support his family.  Yeah, there were no guns. There were no machetes, no slow motion shootouts that I was all worried about. 

Just a friendly Peruvian with some friends. the most extraordinary dashboard I have ever, ever seen.  So when we finally pulled up to my hotel, you know, he gave me his card if I ever needed a ride again, which, you know, I had thought about, but ultimately never took him up on it. And then he drove off with his dashboard complete with a cast of thousands.

And the funny thing is, is since that night,  I don't think I've taken a cab in Mexico where the thought of that driver in his dashboard, doesn't. Crossed my mind, at least briefly.  So you might think that after such a  really nice, pretty magical experience that  I might not use authorized cabs ever again, I was going to get some random guy to give me a ride. 

In a word, no, I'm back to the old authorized cabs. I mean, you know, things could have gone south. I could have gotten a wrong guy just as easily as the right guy. And here's the thing with travel. You know, travel is usually a series of mishaps. Things happen all the time when you're traveling. Things happen that you don't expect.

And some of those really are a pain in the ass. But you know, other times when missteps happen, they can actually lead to really memorable events, even when they're uncomfortable.  I'm a firm believer in trying to follow the road less traveled.  But that said,  always use the authorized taxis.  Thanks for listening, everyone.

I hope you enjoyed this week's podcast and look forward to future podcasts related to the things that I like. Weird things, strange things, unusual things. Sometimes everyday things. Hope to see you then!