Álvaro Obregón

Pueblo Axotla & the March of the Salamanders

Diagonally across Río Churubusco highway and Avenida Universidad from Pueblo Xoxo, is another virtually hidden piece of history, Pueblo Axotla. Like Xoco, it sits behind a wall of modern commercial buildings. But when we turn off Universidad onto Calle Hidalgo, we see at once that we have entered a traditional barrio. On the day of our visit, we also see colorfull announcements that today, January 20, is the day for celebrating la fiesta patronal—the day of the pueblo's patron saint, San Sebastián Mártir. On this day, we will meet axolotes, strange salamanders from Mexico's past that gave the pueblo its name.  

San Ángel and Chimalistac:  Alliance of Indigenous Nobility and Spanish Hidalgos

San Ángel and Chimalistac, about two miles west of Villa Coyoacán, were, like Villa Coyoacán, originally indigenous villages near the southwest shore of Lake Texcoco. They are now colonias, neighborhoods, in Delegación Álvaro Obregón, immersed in the urban expansion of Mexico City. After the Spanish Conquest some of the land was turned into haciendas, estates, which were granted by the king to soldiers who had fought with Cortés and other Spanish hidalgos, "sons of somebody". The king also granted some land back to indigenous leaders who agreed to become his loyal subjects and faithful Catholics. In exchange, they were allowed to continue to manage their people's internal affairs, as long as they supported Spanish interests. San Ángel and Chimalistac contain landmarks of that alliance of Spanish and indigenous interests.

San Bartolo Ameyalco: Pueblo of the Mule Drivers

In the far south of Álvaro Obregon, far in distance and time from the Spanish Colonial style architecture but modern life-style of San Angel, is the mountainous pueblo of San Bartolo Ameyalco. At its patron saint fiesta, we encounter a cuadrilla de arrieros, a team of mule drivers. We have encountered them in two other pueblos in the southern and western mountains. They seem to be a phenomenon of these pueblos, evidently because, for centuries, the commercial trails leading into and out of the city had to cross these mountains and mules were the means of transport. The cuadrilla of San Bartolo Ameyalco gives us a demonstration of their full ritual, centered around preparing a meal for the entire pueblo, cooked in clay pots over wood fires.