Mexico City

We cross the park and arrive at Colonia San Rafael, one of the more traditional neigborhoods, from the late XIX Century.

It is now quite deteriorated. Formerly middle and upper-middle class, now it's mostly lower-middle.

The symbol of the decay in San Rafael is the old Cine Opera, which is being reconstructed 10 years after it was closed:

There's some official US soil at a corner of Colonia San Rafael. It's the Mexico City National Cemetery (for Americans) or the Cementerio Americano (for Mexicans).
There lie the remains of 750 American soldiers who died in the war against Mexico.





I think you Americans owe these men a lot. Namely California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona and part of Utah.

I see what you mean about the art park (well sort of, hard to see the work well), but I kind of like art parks. Or local art shows. Westwood Village used to have a yearly art show and friends and I were in it a few times. My first sale!!!

On the theater in Colonia San Rafael: oddly touching, I like old theaters. Glad it is getting refurbished, and, past that, I would break my neck on those steps.

On the Cementerio Americano, what to say....

On the Mother Child sculpture, it's certainly sturdy looking.
I looked at the baby and thought, It's Tlaloc.
I don't know if the sculpture is ugly exactly, but I don't warm to it.

Another neighborhood that has gone a bit down in the recent decades is Santa María La Ribera, just north of Colonia San Rafael. But it's still interesting.

Santa María La Ribera has some hidden jewels.

One is the park and it's Moorish Kiosk:

Another one is the Museo del Chopo (Natural History):

On weekends there's the Market of Chopo in front of the Museum. It's where punks and darkies meet, with some free concerts, too.

Those are some beautiful photos that you have shared but I do have a question for you.

These truly are some remarkable sights but why has there not been half as much energy spent on housing the homeless of these communities? Maybe I am wrong and the resources go to the homeless before it goes to art?

darkies?

We'll go about it, r.l.

The city, as I have said, has stark differences. We'll visit it all.

The city government is left-wing, since the 1st time elections for a local government were held, 15 years ago.
A lot has been done, yet not enough, obviously.

I don't know what your concept of "homeless" is.
Here it is applied to "people on street situation"; usually derelicts.
I hope you are thinking about the very poor, who are thousands, not the "homeless", who need some other kind of treatment (shelters, rehab, etc).

"Darketos", we call them, in an English-Spanish mix.

I hope the best for all of them and I do realize that there are more who are in poverty and live in homes than not but I am empathic to all of them.

tnx, I'd not heard that.

That Moorish kiosk resembles the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Was just there last month, and got a good telephoto picture of it. I'm now in Austin, so I'll post it when I get home (after Wednesday).

East of Colonia San Rafael, and next to the Monument of the Revolution, we find Colonia Tabacalera, a lower-middle & working class neighborhood...



... whose main feature is the Museo de San Carlos

...And east of Colonia Santa María La Ribera, we find Colonia Guerrero, a downtrodden working class neighbordhood:





In a corner of this neighborhood, lies the old hsitoric cemetery. Panteón de San Fernando:





Among those who rest in San Fernando are:
Former President and national hero, Benito Juárez
General Ignacio Zaragoza, who led the Mexican troops against the French on May 5th, 1862 (Cinco de Mayo).
Francisco González Bocanegra, author of the lyrics of our National Anthem.

We keep on surrounding Centro Histórico. Now we're at the North, and find Unidad Habitacional Nonoalco-Tlatelolco, known to every one here only as "Tlatelolco", a working class neighborhood.



Tlatelolco was one of the autonomous cities of Greater Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire.
The last Aztec emperor, Cuauhtémoc, was from Tlatelolco. Since the place is mostly tallish buildings, I've always imagined old Tlatelolco as a place with a lot of tallish piramids (which, of course, isn't true).



Tlatelolco's history is full of tragedies.
The first one we know of was the massacre of almost all the Aztec elite by Conquistador Pedro de Alvarado, while Cortés was away at Veracruz. This massacre ended the peace between Spaniards and Aztecs and led to the "Noche Triste", the Aztecs defeating the Conquistadores and their allies from Tlaxcala.
But other tragedies were to come.

The most important sight of Tlatelolco is the Plaza de las Tres Culturas. The Three Culture Plaza.
Aztec ruins, a Spanish colonial church and modern buildings:

On October 2nd, 1968, the Plaza de las Tres Culturas was the site of a massacre.

A student meeting who had developed a movement for political democratization of the country were repressed by police and armed forces. Many dead.



Dozens were killed; thousands, arrested.