THE ELOQUENCE OF CUERNAVACA; LANGUAGE SCHOOLS AMONG MANY REASONS TO VISIT COLONIAL TOWN IN MEXICO.

Byline: Reed Johnson Daily News Staff Writer

Some of the world's great cities are vertical, like New York, others horizontal, like Los Angeles, and still others, like this elegantly faded former Spanish citadel, are layered.

Dig down through the substrata of petrified brick and bone and you'll stumble upon half-forgotten cultural identities, stacked one upon another like shale. In Cuernavaca, as in most of Mexico, European culture has been superimposed over a pre-Columbian past, creating a topsoil that is rich with history and memory.

The provincial capital of Morelos, one of Mexico's smallest and most affluent states, Cuernavaca is 1-1/2 hours by car from the aggressive sprawl and toxic air of Mexico City, which sits on the other side of a volcanic mountain range, 50 miles away.

Located within a half-day's drive of the white-sand beaches of Acapulco, plus a number of fascinating, historic hill towns such as the exquisite colonial silver-mining village of Taxco and the mysterious Tepoztlan, legendary birthplace of the serpent god Quetzalcoatl, Cuernavaca makes an ideal base camp or jumping-off point for virtually all of Central Mexico.

Blessed with a springlike climate so benign that it makes even Southern California's seem surly by comparison, Cuernavaca has long been a favorite haunt of Mexico's rich and powerful. The British writer Malcolm Lowry captured its lingering ambience of post-colonial decadence in his incendiary 1947 novel ``Under the Volcano,'' which John Huston made into a 1984 feature film. On clear days, you can make out the distant apparition of Popocatepetl (po-po-ka-TEH-pettle), the 5,452-meter volcanic peak whose most recent outburst - in December 1994 - sent thousands of tons of molten ash leaping into the night sky.

As the city has grown, so has its share of urban ills. Car and bus fumes can be oppressive at times, especially along the main commercial drag of Avenida Morelos. Shanty towns, some of whose residents lack water and electricity, dot Cuernavaca's outskirts.

Both lush and gritty, cosmopolitan and backward-looking, this shabby-genteel metropolis of 316,000 embodies many of Mexico's charms, as well as its troubling contradictions.

In search of fluency

My wife and I had come to Cuernavaca mainly to improve our written and spoken Spanish, which we'd been studying on and off for the previous five years. As residents of the nation's most Latinized state, we planned to hone our skills at one of the 18 or so Spanish-language schools that have burst like bougainvillea throughout Cuernavaca during the past three decades.

After thumbing through numerous brochures, we'd settled on Cemanahuac Educational Community, an accredited 25-year-old program run by Charles Goff and Harriet Goff Guerrero, an expatriate American brother and sister, and their respective spouses. The school employs some 25 language teachers, more during the peak summer months, and a small but highly efficient administrative staff.

Offering classes and lectures in Mexican history, politics and culture, as well as its core Spanish-language curriculum, Cemanahuac (pronounced seh-man-NOW-wac) caters to all kinds: business executives needing basic conversational skills; Pacific Northwest farmers desiring to converse more freely with their migrant help; teachers; journalists; social service workers; Peace Corps volunteers; retirees looking for something besides golf and bridge to fill their golden years; and large contingents of college students from Ohio, Minnesota and Massachusetts. Students are tested for proficiency upon arrival, and may enroll and study for as many weeks as time and budget permit.

Like most Cemanahuac students, we opted to stay with a local family, which supplied our clean, comfortable room and three meals a day at a modest cost. Bilingual conversations during the large midday comida (dinner) were among the most pleasant parts of our daily ritual.

While the bulk of our time in Cuernavaca was spent in classes - the school offers instruction of between four and eight hours daily, five days a week - we found ample opportunity on weekends to explore the surrounding region and test our rough-hewn Spanish with the unfailingly kind and good-humored locals.

Small-scale metropolis

Carved out of a high-desert valley, 5,280 feet above sea level, Cuernavaca is in some ways a miniature version of the nation's teeming capital.

It boasts tranquil parks and boisterous nightclubs, a number of good, inexpensive restaurants (particularly by U.S. standards), and several economical if unluxurious hotels. There's also one world-class getaway, the hotel Las Mananitas, where haughty peacocks patrol the parklike grounds and every blade of grass looks separately sculpted.

The region's pre-Columbian roots date at least to the early 13th century, when Indians began establishing farms and villages. Soon the area came under the dominion of the Aztecs, irresistible warriors who exacted steep tributes from their conquered neighbors.

The Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes passed through Cuernavaca en route to his brutal rendezvous with destiny in the great Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City). He routed the local Tlahuica Indians, burned their village, tore down their main pyramid, and used its stones to construct two massive edifices: a palace and the Catedral de la Asuncion.

Fortunately, a slice of Cuernavaca's indigenous past has been preserved at the Piramide deTeopanzolco, a walk-in archaeological site, which is actually two pyramids in one. The first, built around A.D. 1200, later was surrounded by the walls of the newer temple. A related complex of low stone platforms, including some where human remains were discovered, apparently was used for religious practices, including ritual sacrifice.

After sacking Tenochtitlan and subjugating what was left of the 10 million-strong Aztec empire, Cortes settled down in Cuernavaca to preside over the extensive estate he'd been granted by the Spanish crown. Today, the sturdy Palacio de Cortes, dating from 1523, houses an interesting museum of pre-Hispanic and Spanish culture, the Museo de Cuauhnahuac. It also anchors the southeast corner of Cuernavaca's zocalo, or central plaza, also known as the Plaza de Armas or Plaza de la Constitucion.

Guarded by a gargantuan statue of Jose Maria Morelos (1765-1815), a mixed-raced priest who became a leader of Mexico's 19th-century war of independence from Spain, the zocalo is a place to meet friends, listen to free mariachi music on Tuesday nights or have a drink at one of the numerous open-air cafes.

Immediately to the northwest of the zocalo lies the smaller Jardin Juarez (Juarez Garden). Its central landmark is a green gazebo designed by Gustave Eiffel, architect of Paris' famous tower, where bands play on Sunday afternoons.

Cultural crossroad

If you really want a respite, head further west across Avenidea Morelos and enter the Jardin Borda, a tranquil if somewhat worn-at-the-heels urban oasis. Built in 1783, the gardens, filled with many varieties of tropical trees and plants, form part of a silver magnate's estate. The poinsettia-lined paths will bring you to a colonnaded outdoor pool, where you can feed the swans or take one of the small rental rowboats for a spin.

The gardens are attached to a colonial-style house that also contains a museum and several small art galleries. During the imperialist French occupation of Mexico (1864-67), the Emperor Maximillian occasionally used the estate as a summer retreat, where he'd indulge in frequent liaisons with his Indian mistress.

Directly across Morelos from the gardens is the immense walled compound that encompasses the city's hulking cathedral, the Templo de la Asuncion de Maria. This imposing, workmanlike structure, built in the 1520s with Indian labor under Franciscan supervision, is flanked by the Capilla Abierta de San Jose, an open-air chapel that is reputedly the oldest colonial Spanish structure still standing in the Western Hemisphere.

Cuernavaca houses a handful of great artworks, notably the superb Diego Rivera murals that grace the elegant Palacio Cortes. Sweeping from right to left, they depict the violent history of the Spanish conquest, the War of Independence and the Revolution that set the course of Mexican politics for the 20th century. Painted in 1929 and 1930, the murals were the gift of then U.S. ambassador to Mexico Dwight Morrow, father of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the wife of aviator Charles Lindbergh.

Tucked just a few blocks east of the cathedral is the Robert Brady Museum. Named for an independently wealthy American artist and collector who lived 24 years in Cuernavaca, this beautifully restored villa is stuffed with Brady's personal art collection. It includes paintings by such well-known modern Mexican artists as Frida Kahlo and Rufino Tamayo, as well as masks, sculptures and curios from Africa, New Guinea, Bali and elsewhere.

Slightly out of the way, but worth a visit, is the taller, or studio, once belonging to the great Mexican painter-muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. Located in a bohemian enclave, it's now a museum housing a photo display of the artist's life, as well as four monumental murals he was working on at the time of his death.

Many of Cuernavaca's private treasures are hidden behind gated walls, guarded by jealous attack dogs. But at least two of its grandest residences are largely open to the public. The Hacienda de San Antonio Atlacomulco, about three miles southeast of the center, is a cavernous former colonial villa reborn as a beautifully manicured hotel.

Not far away, but definitely way-out, is the Sumiya hotel, which was originally built by Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton. It's a Japanese fantasy, made with rocks, tiles and a kabuki theater imported directly from Japan.

So how's our Spanish after a month in Cuernavaca?

Let's say that total fluency remains a long-term goal. But we're still excavating, digging deeper into a language and a culture that steadily feels more and more like our own.

IF YOU GO

Although suburban sprawl has begun to push out its borders, Cuernavaca is still an extremely walkable city, similar in design to a Tuscan hill town. Most of its principal attractions lie with a four- or five-block area centered around the zocalo. Here are some details on places to stay and see.

HOTELS: Cuernavaca has a number of hotels that are nonluxurious but reasonably pleasant and very inexpensive by U.S. standards. Hotel Espana (18-67-44), at the intersection of Morelos and Rayon, offers rooms for about $12 to $14 U.S. The 77-room Hotel Papagayo (14-17-11) costs slightly more - about $18-$27 U.S. - but its two swimming pools and children's recreation area make it a good bet.

At the higher end of the price scale, Las Mananitas (14-14-66) is one of the country's top hotels and a longtime stopover for international celebrities. Rooms go from $120 U.S. up to $250 for fancy garden suites. Its restaurant, offering a fine, eclectic mix of international cuisines, is a great place to splurge on a last-night meal. Plan to spend $20 to $30 U.S. per person (no credit cards).

The exotic Camino Real Sumiya (20-91-99), originally built as a private home by Woolworths heiress Barbara Hutton, is a gorgeous reproduction of a traditional Japanese estate, complete with ornamental gardens and a kabuki theater. It's slightly out of the way on the city's southern fringes. Rooms start at $145 U.S.

SITES: Around the zocalo: The Palacio de Cortes and Museo de Cuauhnahuac is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays (admission $2 U.S.; free on Sunday).

The Robert Brady Museum, No. 4 Calle Netzahualcoyotl, between the zocalo and the Templo de la Asuncion de Maria, is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. Admission is $2.50 U.S.

The Jardin Borda and the adjacent Museo de Sitio costs $1 U.S. (free on Wednesdays) and is open 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Tuesdays through Sundays.

You'll probably need to take a taxi to the Piramide deTeopanzolco, which is east of the city center through streets that twist endlessly around the old train station. It's open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $2 U.S.; free on Sundays.

Ditto for transportation to Taller Alfaro Siqueiros, the studio-home of painter and muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros, at 52 Venus St. It's open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays (admission $1 U.S.).

RESTAURANTS: For a treat, visit Cafe Hidalgo, a mustard-colored two-story building on the zocalo's southeast corner. Entrees such as an excellent vegetarian lasagna are between $7 and $10 U.S. Creamy artichoke soup garnished with pistachio nuts is about $3 for a large bowl, with fresh-baked bread on the side. Be sure to try and get a balcony table.

Right next door is the less expensive Restaurant Los Arcos, a favorite spot for sipping a tall beer or cafe con leche and observing the surrounding chess players, news vendors and tourists. Be prepared to be solicited by the roving Indian street sellers, many of them children, plying everything from woven baskets and clay figurines to musical instruments. The kitchen serves up solid traditional Mexican dishes, sandwiches and full breakfasts. Hours are 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

La India Bonita, a charming courtyard restaurant a couple of blocks northeast of the Jardin Borda at Morrow 106, commemorates the Emperor Maximilian's indigenous mistress. Try the chicken mole, garnished with the famous Mexican sauce that blends chocolate, chiles and other tantalizing ingredients.

CAPTION(S):

6 Photos, Box

PHOTO (1--Color) Unfinished metal sculptures hang in a workshop of the studio-home kept by the great Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros.

(2--Color) Swans glide peacefully on a reflecting pool at the Jardin Borda (Borda Gardens), an oasis in the middle of downtown Cuernavaca financed by a silver mining fortune.

(3-4--Color) Above, students fan out during morning coffee break at Cemanahuac, one of at least 18 language schools in Cuernavaca. At left, detail of fresco painting at the Dominican monastery and church in the town of Tepoztlan.

(5--Color) The well-tended grounds of the Templo de la Asuncion de Maria attract worshipers, tourists, wedding parties, street sellers and panhandlers.

(6) Built by the conquistador Hernan Cortes in the 1520s, the Palacio de Cortes now houses one of the finest Diego Rivera murals outside of Mexico City.

Reed Johnson/Daily News

BOX: IF YOU GO (See text)