Benito Juárez

Xoco, the Little Barrio That Survives

San Sebastián Xoco (HO-ko) is an original indigenous pueblo, that, until a hundred years ago, sat in the countryside on the north bank of the Churubusco River. It is now a tiny barrio hemmed in and nearly obliterated by a wall composed of virtually all the components of the modern, global world. But on each side of this intimidating monolith, there is an entrance, a narrow side-street. On an initial visit, we noticed a banner above the door of a house. "The families Gutiérrez Chávez, Luna Gutiérrez and Juárez Chavéz invite you next Monday, April 18, to the reception of the image of the Saintly Child Pa of Xochimilco." So on the afternoon of Monday, April 18, with great curiosity, we returned to Calle Real Mayorazgo. In the narrow street we found a fiesta in full swing.

Mixcoac, Place of the Milky Way

Mixcoac (MEESH-quack) lay at the conjunction of two rivers originating in the mountains rimming the Valley of Anahuac to the west and flowing eastward towards Lake Texcoco. The Spanish named them Río Mixcoac and Río Magdelena. Their merger formed Río Churubusco. It now lies in the western part of Delegación Benito Juárez. The name "Mixcoac" comes from the Nahuatl mixtli (cloud) and coatl (serpent), meaning "Place of the Serpent Cloud." For Mesoamericans the Milky Way was perceived as a great serpent spreading across the night sky, rather like a super-constellation. Hence, we could "translate" Mixcoac as "Place of the Milky Way." The god Mixcóatl was god of the hunt (think Orion). In nearby Colonia San Pedro de los Pinos, in an almost hidden corner below the intersection of two elevated expressways, there still stands the Temple of Mixcoatl.

Santa Maria de la Natividad Tepetlalzingo, Original Village Hidden in Plain Sight

The Church of Santa María Natividad sits in Colonia Niños Heroes. From the fiesta announcement, we learned that when the Spanish arrived it was the pueblo of Tepetlalzingo, near the western shore of Lake Texcoco, or possibly on an island in the lake. In 1585, Franciscans built a chapel and a convent there dedicated to the Nativity, the birth, of the Virgin Maria. It still stands as one of the original Catholic Churches built in the 16th century in the Valley of Mexico. 

San Simón Ticumac Celebrates Its Continuity Surrounded by Modernity

San Simón Ticumac is another original village in Delegación of Benito Juárez. When the Spanish arrived in 1519, it was a village on an island in Lake Texcoco. It retains the original 16th century chapel of San Simón, built by the Franciscans, and has a new, larger church. When we arrive for the annual patron saint fiesta, Mass is in process and two comparsas, fiesta dance troupes are preparing to perform. When Mass is over, the procession takes shape, led by a senior lady as Queen of the Fiesta. Clearly, there will be much to experience today in San Simón Ticumac. 

Santa Cruz Atoyac: Fiesta of the Lord of the Precious Blood Renews Ties Between Nearly Forgotten Pueblos

In the early days of our living in Mexico City, we frequently returned via taxi from Centro Histórico to delegación/alcaldía Coyoacán, where we live, down Cuauhtémoc, one of the main, one-way axis roads. As we traveled through the southern end of delegación/alcaldía Benito Juárez, we would notice what appeared to be a very old, simple, yellow adobe church, mostly hidden behind its atrio (atrium) wall. From its simple style and adobe composition, we thought it might be one of the original Franciscan chapels from the 16th century, a landmark of the so-called Spiritual Conquest. 

Some research told us it was the Church of Santa Cruz de Atoyac and that Atoyac had been an originally indigenous pueblo, now almost totally replaced by contemporary commercial establishments and high rise apartment buildings typical of upper-middle-class Benito Juárez. 

After the Conquest, Cortés granted the area around Atoyac to Ixtoñique, the tlatoani (speaker, i.e. head man) of Coyoacán. Baptized a Christian with the name Juan Gúzman Ixtoñique, he used the land for grazing sheep introduced by the Spanish for the production of wool. Over time, the land was purchased or taken from Ixtoñique's descendants by Spaniards and became a rancho, a small hacienda; that is, a private agricultural estate owned by Spaniards, which it remained, amazingly, until the end of the 19th century.

The indigenous pueblo also remained, but with the loss of what had been their communally held and worked land and the intentional draining of Lake Texcoco to prevent the flooding of Mexico City, the villagers were left with no other source of livelihood than to become gañanes (from the Spanish verb ganar = to earn), paid laborers on the rancho. 

On the doorway of the chapel of Santa Cruz is engraved the date September 29, 1563. Other documents say the building of the chapel was begun in 1568. Likely, at first it was an open-air chapel, with just the altar covered, while the congregation stood in the atrio. In 1587, a convent was built for a resident monk. It is likely that the existing enclosed chapel was built at that time. While the church is dedicated to the Holy Cross, its major fiesta is to celebrate the Lord of the Precious Blood the first Sunday in January. The Lord is a santo popular, i.e. one who, according to tradition, miraculously chose to stay in the chapel while he was visiting from another pueblo. (See our post on a number of such saints: Santos Populares, Saints of the People)