Mexicans refuse to call time on historic bar

• Shutters close on drinking den favoured by presidents, revolutionaries and artists

Jo Tuckman in Mexico City
Monday February 18 2008

Mexico City's oldest licensed bar stands on a corner of the grand Zócalo plaza. Across the road is the huge National Palace, home of Mexican presidents until the 1930s and still the official seat of executive power. Behind lie the ruins of the great Aztec capital, to one side looms the Metropolitan cathedral, and in every available open space is the buzzing, often chaotic street life of the historic centre.

But while those other Mexico City landmarks will live on, the doors to El Nivel have closed, taking with them a small piece of history.

"Every big city has a sort of an iconic place. There's La Fleur in Paris, or the Chelsea hotel in New York, or the French House in Soho. This was a cantina that had a presence and a fullness that you very seldom find," said Irish-born artist Phil Kelly, who discovered the bar after moving to the Mexican capital in 1982.

The closure of El Nivel, frequented over the years by artists, writers, revolutionaries, presidents and street vendors, has provoked a passionate protest from its regulars. Kelly was among the hundred-odd demonstrators who gathered outside El Nivel last month to drink beer and chant their outrage at the shutters that have stayed down since January 2.

The reason for the closure is unclear. The owner, Ruben Aguirre, has blamed the country's biggest university for pursuing a court case to take over the building housing the bar. The National Autonomous University says this is a separate issue and that Aguirre has hidden motives for shutting up shop.

But the protesters didn't seem to care who was to blame - they just wanted their bar back. "Nivel sit tight, we're all in your fight," chanted some, as others posted signs proclaiming it "cultural and alcoholic patrimony of the nation".

"Why do people have to have huge monuments?" complained Kelly. "There can be little monuments too, you know - ones you don't have to worship."

Called El Nivel (The Level) because the building was used to measure the height of the floods that plagued the city, the bar holds the licence number 001, issued in 1855. That was the last year of the presidency of Antonio López de Santa Anna, who ruled Mexico 11 separate times in the turbulent post-independence decades, and who was, some say, one of El Nivel's first customers.

Benito Juárez, Mexico's liberator from French occupation later in the century, also reputedly drank at the bar, as did Carlos Salinas, the president who negotiated the North American Free Trade agreement in 1994, and then became the nation's favourite political hate figure. Then there were the revolutionaries: Mexico's own in 1910, followed in the 1950s by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. A steady stream of intellectuals, writers and artists pushed through the wooden swing doors. But, the legend goes, none received treatment any different from the regulars who worked on the streets nearby and would duck out of the chaos for a beer.

It was this ability to remain unpretentious and non-elitist in a country riven by inequality that made it so special for some. "We may not be able to defend our torn-up country," said Beatriz Russek, as she sipped her beer on the pavement outside. "But at least we can defend our cantina."

Fuente: The Guardian (UK)

Audio

Oldest Mexico cantina closes down

Mexico’s oldest cantina, a classic drinking dive patronised by dozens of past presidents and Cuban leader Fidel Castro when he was in exile here, has closed its doors after more than 150 years.

Nestled in a side street between the National Palace and Mexico City’s cathedral, the door of El Nivel (The Level) is now padlocked.

El Nivel’s owner, Ruben Aguirre, is looking for new premises after losing a long legal battle against the owners of the building, the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

El Nivel, a dim watering hole, opened in 1855 after being handed the first cantina license a few years after the US-Mexican war. It was named The Level because authorities used to measure the height of the city’s flood waters in the building.

Aguirre told Reuters several years ago the original No 1 license was kept in a safe at the central bank because it is a valuable historical document. A framed copy of the license hung on one wall of the cantina when it was open.

El Nivel was the haunt of writers, artists, activists, journalists and other bohemian Mexicans. It also became a favorite for tourists, too. One special house drink was a mixture of vodka, anis and orange flavored liquor. Aguirre said around 30 presidents from Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada in the 19th century to Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000) had all called in for a drink while in office. Mexican presidents used to work out of the nearby National Palace. When Cuba’s Castro lived in Mexico in the 1950s he too frequented the bar with guerrilla icon Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, according to Aguirre. Castro set out on his Cuban revolution from Mexico. reuters

Fuente: Daily Times (Pakistan)

Mexico: Shuttering of Oldest Bar Protested

By REUTERS
Published: January 30, 2008

Hundreds of former patrons protested the closing of Mexico’s oldest cantina, El Nivel, in Mexico City. The small bar, which received the first cantina license in 1855, closed on Jan. 2 after losing a 17-year legal battle against the owners of the building, the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Demonstrators, many drinking beers, protested outside the bar’s padlocked door on a side street near the National Palace. They called for the university to renegotiate a deal with the bar owner or for the city to expropriate and reopen it. Mexican presidents from the 1870s to Ernesto Zedillo in the 1990s called in for a drink while in office, and when the exiled Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro lived in Mexico in the 1950s he frequented the bar with his fellow revolutionary Che Guevara. “I am 80 years old and I used to come here when I was 18,” said Ricardo Ruiz, a local artist. “What is happening here is what is happening to the whole city. They are destroying it, taking away the historic buildings,” he said.

Fuente: The New York Times

Cantina fans cry in their beer

ANAHI RAMA, Reuters
Published: Wednesday, January 30

With beers in hand, hundreds of former patrons protested yesterday the closing of Mexico's oldest cantina, where Cuban President Fidel Castro, revolutionary Che Guevara and Mexican leaders all once drank.
Supporters called El Nivel (The Level) a national cultural treasure. The drinking dive, which was handed the first cantina licence in 1855, closed on Jan. 2 after losing a long legal battle against the owners of the building, the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Demonstrators, many drinking from beer cans, protested outside the padlocked door of the bar, nestled in a side street near where the Aztecs' main temple once stood.
"Today we declare El Nivel a Mexican cultural and drinking heritage site," read a sign they placed on the cantina's door.
"We consider it a place of learning at the university of life," said protester Marco Rascon, reading from a manifesto in defence of the cantina signed by dozens of demonstrators.
Mexico is dotted with cantinas, mostly no-frills bars where tequila and beer dominate the drinks list and hearty traditional food is served.
The protesters say they want the university to agree a deal with the owner, Ruben Aguirre, to allow El Nivel to reopen.
Failing that, they will ask Mexico City's government to expropriate the cantina and grant it a permit to continue.
The government and the university have yet to respond.
The cantina was named The Level because authorities used to measure the height of the city's flood waters in the building.

Fuente: The Gazette (Montreal)