1 AN IMPOSSIBLE TASK?: HÉCTOR PEREA’S MÉXICO, CRÓNICA EN ESPIRAL AND THE PROBLEMS OF WRITING A TRAVEL-CHRONICLE OF CONTEMPORARY MEXICO CITY Thea Pitman That major physical displacements constituting travel within an ever-expanding megalopolis such as Mexico City are not only possible but daily necessities for the vast majority of the resident population is something which has already been adequately established by sociologists and anthropologists, chroniclers and historians, novelists and poets. An overview of the multiple faces of travel in the Federal District is provided by Néstor García Canclini et al.’s recently published book, La ciudad de los viajeros: travesías e imaginarios urbanos, México, 1940-2000 (1996). In the introduction, García Canclini makes it clear that, “La ciudad moderna no es sólo lugar de residencia y de trabajo. Se ha hecho también para viajar: a ella, desde ella y a través de ella”. 1 In fact, Mexico City has been the site of intensive chronicling and travel-chronicling since the time of the Conquest onwards. The city itself has had an official chronicler since the mid- sixteenth century, and the role is currently fulfilled by the Consejo de la Crónica de la Ciudad de México, a whole committee of chroniclers. Even in the early days of the Colonia, Mexico City was a place where travel to, from, and across the city was an important daily concern. One of the earliest chronicles of the city, written in 1554 by the Spaniard Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, took the format of a tour given by two locals to a visitor from Spain. Almost four centuries later, Salvador Novo’s prize-winning Nueva grandeza mexicana (1946) gave new vigour to Cervantes de Salazar’s format - once again, the narrator was a local giving a tour of the city to a friend from the provinces. Since 1946 there have been an infinite number of chroniclers who have situated their narratives in contemporary Mexico City. There are those who seek to recreate lost images of the city through memory (Octavio Paz, Gonzalo Celorio, José Emilio Pacheco and many of the