Mexico City

In a corner near the Alameda lies the Church of San Hipólito.
It was built by Cortés, as a shrine to the fallen Conquistadores, in the same street where they fled the one big Aztec victory, known as "La Noche Triste" (The Sad Night). Dozens of Spaniards died, and others were captured and their hearts ripped out in a ritual ceremony.

Now, the most interesting thing about this church is that it has a miracoulous statue of St. Judas Tadeus, which has inspired a weird cult, now second only to the Virgin of Guadalupe.

St. Judas Tadeus (or, popularly, San Juditas) is the patron of lost and difficult causes.
He's always been popular. But in the last two decades the cult has flourished, specially among the lowest urban classes, and an urban tribe known as "los chakas" (young, unemployed, often drug addicts, fond of raeggeton music).



So every 28th day of the month, and specially on October 28th, thousands (or ten of thousands) of San Juditas followers visit the church to ask for a favor (get a job, leave drugs, get married, get pregnant, have a friend, brother or son out of jail, etc). And they carry images of the saint.



As you see, San Juditas travels by subway.
The bigger the image, the bigger the favor the saint has to do:



He can be really big:

Behind Avenida Juárez lies Chinatown.
It used to be bigger one century ago, but the Chinese have mingled very much with the rest of the population. It's only about 3-4 squares.

Looks like things are changing in Mexico.

Vandals don't change things in a country.

The video is edited as to show that the riots downtown took place while Peña was taking his oath. They happened hours later.

They were done by a fringe group of Anarchists, and wanted to hit both the new President and the moderate left-wing administration of Mexico City.

But this is not a thread about politics. Later, more posts about the city.

A few blocks away from Chinatown, you can find the Ciudadela, the Citadel. There's a park in front of it.



There is also your typical handcraft market, attractive to foreign tourists:

Ciudadela is an important site of the Mexican Revolution.
The military that started a coup d'Etat against Madero in 1913 captured the Ciudadela -which was the most import weapon depository- and bombed the loyals who were at Zocalo. "The Tragic Ten Days" that ended in Madero's assasination.

A soldier at Ciudadela 1913



Corpses at Zocalo 1913

The old building of the Citadel is now Biblioteca México, a big, eclectic, public library:

The Citadel was in the margins of the city in 1900.

With this, we have finished our tour on Centro Histórico (the picture is from near Zócalo).



But there's a lot more to see.

THIS POST WORKS AS KEY.

Mexico City is divided by delegaciones "delegations" (buroughs, like in NYC, which are like counties).
Each delegación has several neighborhoods, that can be named "Colonia", "Barrio" or "Unidad Habitacional" depending on their history and urban characteristics.
Colonias have a more formal urban structure, barrios are old and usually maze-like and unidades habitacionales consist in big multi-family buildings set together.

The following is a map of the Delegaciones:



Centro Histórico is known a "Colonia Centro", part of Delegación Cuauhtémoc (slightly North).

We'll start later by visiting Delegación Cuauhtémoc, we'll move west and then go clockwise.

I remember visiting such a market a few blocks from Reforma Hilton where we stayed two years ago.

Must have been that one: Ciudadela Market is 5 blocks away from the Hilton.

That's about the right distance. I just remember walking the other way from the park; turning left and left from the entrance to the hotel then and going straight.

Exactly.

If you are playing tour guide for DF I have a question.

In January or so I plan to head north to Texas and was considering taking a more interesting flight than the easy, 1-hour-layover Houston stop I usually do with United. Areomexico has flights that have something like a 5 or 6 hour layover in DF and I was thinking of stopping by again for a few hours each way if it makes sense. Do you know if I can get in and out of the airport and do anything worthwhile in that kind of time? Sounds like I'd have only an hour or two on the ground and I remember how difficult it is to get around there (certainly not going to rent a car this time) and I seem to remember the airport being a bit away from anything worthwhile. Do you think trying to get out and about in DF in a 5-hour layover is worth it? I'd hate to sit in the airport for a 5-hour layover so if I can't make it fun I'd just go with the usual flight and layover in Houston.

I'd plan to spend at least two of the five hours in traffic.

This picture looks like magic Oh Oh

That was my experience, and I don't know how fast I can clear customs so I suspect I'd need something worthwhile to be nearby, or a longer layover (I think they have some overnight layovers).

I should probably just go straight to Texas and not try to get an extra country into the trip. Last time I tried something like this they didn't let me out of the airport in Lima for my 8-hour layover there. That was torture.

If you have to go through customs, I don't think you'll have enough time. DFW is huge, and it may take a while to get to your next gate.

I'll be at DFW on Jan 10. Staying overnight and flying out at 3:40PM. I've written to an old USAF buddy who lives in Terrell, and asked if we could meet for a few hours on Jan 11 before my flight.

Leaving for Austin tomorrow morning to visit our son for one week.

For a moment I thought maybe we might bump into each other at the airport in January but I am talking about DF as in Distrito Federal or Mexico City (MEX) are you talking about Dallas (DFW)? I too am headed to Austin on my trip if time permits.