Encountering Mexico City's Many Volcanoes, Part II: Little Volcanoes With Big Histories

The huge volcanoes of Popocatéptl, Iztaccíhuatl and Ajusco, and the other volcanoes of the Cordillera de Chichinautzin dominate the Valley and the interest of residents and visitors. We wrote about them in our first post on the many volcanoes of the Valley of Mexico, Giants on All Sides.

There are, however, other volcanoes within the current city limits. They are small ash cone volcanoes, but despite their diminutive size, at least four of them have played prominent roles in the development of human settlements in the Valley and in the history of Mexico City.

Xitle, a small volcano that buried a city

Cuicuilco, now an archeological site in the south of Delegación Tlalpan, just south of the modern campus of the University City of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), was established around 1200 BCE. By the year 800 BCE, Cuilcuilco was a prosperous civic-ceremonial center, the first such urban center in the Valley of Mexico.

But sometime around 150-200 CE, Xitle, a small ash cone volcano near the slopes of Ajusco, erupted, and Cuicuilco was completely buried by the resulting flow of ash and lava. (See our spouse's post: Cuicuilco, Volcanoes and the Fragility of Life in Mesoamerica.)

Xitle is the now innocent appearing, forested low hill to the left, below Ajusco.

Xitle, with some of its lava flow.
The City of Mexico invades, building on the Pedregal, "stony ground" of lava.
Ajusco rises in the background.

Circular 'pyramid' of Cuicuilco.
Note the depth of the surrounding excavation trench below the current ground level;
It is all lava that buried the city when Xitle erupted

Cerro de la Estrella , Hill of the Star: Sacred and Strategic Center in Indigenous History

From our balcony in Colonia Parque San Andrés, in Delegación Coyoacán, we can see a wooded hill, a little less than four miles away to the East. This hill, over which easterly summer storms arrive, is an extinct ash cone volcano called Cerro de la Estrella, Hill of the Star. It sits in what is now Delegación Iztapalapa.

If you look carefully, with the help of binoculars or a telephoto lens, at the north end (to the left) of the fairly flat summit, you can see a large white cross and a flat structure behind it. Both have stories to tell.

Cerro de la Estrella, Hill of the Star
It was called Huizachtecatl (Náhuatl) by the Mexicas
Telephoto from the roof of our apartment building.

The cross obviously has to do with a Christian narrative. (See: Iztapalapa's Holy Week Passion Play). The flat structure is a temple. The temple, in its final form, was built by the Mexicas (Aztecs) of Tenochtitlán, after they took over the surrounding area in 1430 BCE.

The temple had existed there, however, since the end of the first millennium of the Common Era. It was built by the Toltec residents of the town of Culhuacán (also spelled Colhuacán, "place of the Culhua"—"the ancient or venerable ones"). Coming from the Toltec city of Tula, north of the Valley of Mexico, they settled on the south side of the hill around 600 CE.

Temple on the summit of Cerro de la Estrella

The first settlements around the base of the extinct volcano date from 500 BCE. At some time around 150 CE, an influx of people arrived fleeing the Xitle eruptions on the southwest side of Lake Texcoco that buried Cuicuilco.

When the Mexicas of Tenochtitlán took the peninsula, they rebuilt the temple on the summit of what they called Huizachtecatl and made it the site of one of their most important rituals, xiuhmolpilli (sheeoo-mol-PEEL-yee), the Binding of the Years. In Spanish it is called Nuevo Fuego, the New Fire. (See our post: Cerro de la Estrella and the Origins of Culhuacán and Iztapalapa.)

La Sierra de Santa Catarina

Southeast of la Estrella is a chain of ash cone volcanoes called la Sierra de Santa Catarina. Although they are now totally surrounded by the urban development of Delegaciones Iztapalapa, to the north, and Tláhuac, to the south, they have been emblematic over the centuries in images of the Valley of Mexico.

Sierra de Santa Catarina
runs southeast of Cerro de la Estrella 

Tecuauhtzin and Guadalupe,
the two volcanoes at the east end of la Sierra Santa Catarina

that forms the boundary between Delegaciones Iztapalapa  and Tlahuac.

The Valley of Mexico
by José María Velasco 
Wikipedia

In front of snow-capped Iztac and Popo
lies the Sierra de Santa Catarina

Sierra de Santa Catarina in the 1920s.
Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl are in the background.
From Facebook: Cronista de Nuestra Antiguo Iztapaluca-Chalco

Mexico City and Its Many Volcanoes.
(Mexico City's boundaries and sixteen component delegaciones are outlined in white.)

The "stepping stone-like row of islands" across what was once lake bed (taupe) are:
Cerro de la Estrella (alone, in dead-center of the map) and
la Sierra de Santa Catarina (the middle "island", right-center).

Actually, they were on the Iztapalapa peninsula
separating Lake Texcoco to the north
from Lake Xochimilco to the south.

The biggest "stepping stone," to the east, outside City limits
is Volcán Pino, the Pine, in the State of Mexico.

Hill of Tepeyac

Mexico City is shaped rather like a lumpy pear (see map above). At its wide bottom are the largest delegaciones of Tlalpan and Milpa Alta, which contain the large volcanoes of la Sierra de Chichinautzin. In the pear's narrow neck sits the City's Centro Histórico, now in Delegación Cuauhtémoc. At the top is the "stem", which is the northern end of Delegacion Gustavo Madero. This "stem" is so narrow because it is bounded by another set of hills, la Sierra de Guadalupe. 

La Sierra de Guadalupe.
The tallest, and most northern hill is Zacateco (2,475 meters, 8,120 ft.)
(white line shows the boundary between Mexico City and the State of Mexico.)

The group of small hills to the south are called Los Gachupines
(a derogatory word used by natives in Colonial New Spain for the Spanish).
At the southern end of these is the Hill of Tepeyac,
at the base of which sits the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Like la Sierra de Santa Catarina, la Sierra de Guadalupe is composed of a chain of cinder cone volcanoes that originally extended south as a peninsula into Lake Texcoco. At the tip of that peninsula was a hill known as Tepeyac. 

The Hill of Tepeyac is one of the most famous of hills in all of Christendom, certainly in the Roman Catholic world. It is here that, according to legend, in December of 1531, the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared several times to the indigenous peasant, now saint, Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin. She told him that she was personally adopting the people of Nueva España as her own and directed him to go to the bishop of Mexico City to request that a chapel be built for her on the site, previously the site of an indigenous temple to the mother goddess, Tonantzin. From this sacred place, the Virgin promised that she would look after her pueblo (people). 

The first, temporary chapel built for her was replaced a number of times over the centuries by larger churches. The last two were given the status of basilicas (churches of special importance) by the Pope. Over time, a complex of additional churches was built around the base of Tepeyac and on its summit. The Basilica is the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world, and one of the world's most-visited sacred sites of any religion. (Wikipedia. See our post: Tepeyac and the Virgin of Guadalupe)

Hill of Tepeyac
Chapel of the Hill is at the top.

Chapúltepec Hill, Hill of the Grasshopper

Chapúltepec Hill, Hill of the Grasshopper, is a small cinder cone volcano that originally sat near the West shore of Lake Texcoco. Freshwater springs arose from its base, making it valuable for human settlements. It was a sacred site for the indigenous peoples who lived in the area before the arrival of the Mexicas in the Valley of Anahuac in 1225 CE. In their search for a place to settle in the Valley, the Mexica were able to live on Chapultepec from 1279 to 1299, when they were attacked by other altepetls (city-states) and forced to move on further south along Lake Texococo.

The glyph identifies Chapultepec Hill (Hill of the Grasshopper)
The glyphs at the top name the years 13 House, 1 Rabbit and 2 Reed, 
(1297, 1298 and 1299 CE)
The attack on the Mexica occurred in 2 Reed, 1299.From Codex Aubin
written by a Mexica in the mid 16th century, at the request of Spanish monks,
it presents the history of the Azteca/Mexica
 from their migration out of their legendary home of Aztlan in the year 1 Flint, (1168 CE)
through the foundation of Tenochtitlan in 1325,
to the cataclysmic events of the Spanish conquest in 1521.
(Wikipedia) (Photograph and translation of Nahuatl from Fordham University)

Two hundred years later, after the Mexicas defeated the Tepanecas of the altepetl Azcapotzalco, located just north of Chapúltepec, they took over Chapúltepec and made it into a private reserve for royalty. They built baths and an aqueduct to carry spring water to their island city of Tenochtitlán. When the Spanish defeated the Mexicas, they rebuilt the aqueduct and continued its use as a preserve for the ruling class. 

In 1775, the Spanish Viceroy, Bernardo de Gálvez, ordered the construction of a stately home for himself on top of Chapúltepec Hill. Construction began the same year. However, in November 1786, the viceroy died suddenly, and the Spanish Crown ordered the building to be auctioned. For twenty years there were no buyers. In 1806, the building was finally bought by Mexico City's municipal government. However, it remained empty throughout the War for Independence (1810-21) and the early years of Mexico's new government.

Sometime between 1833 and 1840 (different sources give different dates), the Military Academy, founded in 1823, was moved to the Castle. This move set the stage for the Castle's major role in Mexican history.

Chapúltepec Castle
sits on Chapúltepec (Grasshopper) Hill
above the Monument to the Niños Héroes, the Boy Heroes,
military cadets who fought to their deaths against U.S. forces
taking Mexico City in the Mexican-American War in 1847.

In  May 1846, the United States declared war against Mexico, based on an armed conflict it had provoked along the Rio Grande River. The river was the disputed border with Mexico after the secession of Texas from Mexico in 1836 and its entrance into the Union as a state in 1845. President James Polk, who took office in March 1845, wanted Mexican territory west of what had been the Louisiana Purchase, all the way to California, to gain U.S. access to the Pacific Ocean. He offered to buy it from Mexico. When Mexico refused to sell it, Polk sent troops into the disputed territory along the Rio Grande. When Mexican forces attacked those troops, Polk obtained a declaration of war from Congress.

As part of a three-pronged strategy, U.S. troops invaded Mexico from Texas, went west into Nueva México and Alta California, and, in March 1847, undertook an amphibious attack on the port of Veracruz in the Gulf of Mexico. Led by Gen. Winfred Scott, U.S. marines and army seized the port city and marched inland toward Mexico City.

After a series of battles, U.S. troops arrived at the doorstep of the capital in August. On Sept. 12, 1847, the final battle was fought at Chapúltepec Castle. There, young Mexican Army cadets fought to the last man. Five of them, los Niños Heroes, the Boy Heroes, are honored for their sacrifice by a large monument at the base of Chapúltepec Hill.

Encountering the Small but Mighty Volcanoes

While they lack the geologic awesomeness of the big volcanoes ringing the Valley of Mexico, the small volcanoes within the city make up for their size via their impact on human history in the Valley. They are also relatively easy to visit. 

Xitle and Cuicuilco

Xitle now lies within El parque ecológico de la ciudad de México, The Ecological Park of the City of Mexico, in Delegación Tlalpan. Cuicuilco, the city buried by Xitle, is an archeological park, also in Tlalpan. Both are reachable only by car.

Cerro de la Estrella

Cerro de la Estrella is within a park in Delegacion Iztapalapa. You can take Metro line 8 (green line) to the Iztapalapa station and get a taxi from there or take a taxi from other parts of the City. Part way up the hill is the Museo del Nuevo Fuego, Museum of the New Fire. It is small but with excellent exhibits explaining the ritual of the Binding of the Years and its significance. From there, you can walk up a roadway, through the park to the base of the summit. There you climb stairs to the temple at the top. On a clear day, you have a view of the entire Valley of Mexico, including the big volcanoes of Popocatépetl, Iztaccíhuatl and Ajusco. You also get a good view of the nearby Sierra de Santa Catarina. 

Hill of Tepeyac

The Hill of Tepeyac is easy to visit. La Villa Basílica is a station on Line 6 (red) of the Metro. Depending on where you start, you will have to make some changes between Metro lines. The hill is, of course, within the Villa Guadalupe, the complex of churches associated with the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Delegación Gustavo Madero. The Hill, itself, has been transformed into a beautiful garden with flowering trees, roses and a waterfall. At the top is the Chapel of the Hill.

Chapúltepec Hill

Chapúltepec Hill is near the main entrance to Chapúltepec Woods, down the Paseo de la Reforma from Centro Histórico. The main walkway from the Chapúltepec Metro Station on Line 1 (pink) leads directly to the Monument to the Boy Heroes. From there, you can walk up a wide roadway or take a tram to the top of the hill. 

The Castle now contains the National Museum of Mexican History. Exhibits include original portraits of many of the Spanish viceroys, rooms as they were decorated by Emperor Maximillian I, and the dramatically contrasting carriages of Maximillian (ornate) and President Bentio Juárez (simple), who defeated him. There are also stunning murals by David Siqueiros portraying aspects of the Mexican Revolution. We think they are the best work by Siqueiros in the City. There is also a wonderful roof garden and a large porch where, on clear days, visitors can get a great view of Paseo de la Reforma and Mexico City.

See also: Encountering Mexico City's Many Volcanoes, Part I: Giants on All Sides

Mexico Before the Spanish: Cuicuilco, Volcanoes and the Fragility of Life in Mesoamerica

Non-Mexicans often assume that the Aztecs or Mexicas of Tenochtitlan were a long-standing civilization in the Valley of Mexico. However, they were, in fact, late arrivals, entering the Valley in 1225 CE. Other Nahua speaking "Aztecs" had arrived a century or two before them. The Mexicas were hunter-gatherers, chichimechas, i.e. barbarians in the eyes of the the argrarian, urbanized peoples of the Valley. They did not begin to build their own city, on a group of islands in Lake Texcoco, until 1325. They did not come to dominate the Valley, and Central Mexico until they defeated rival city Azcapotzalco in 1428, barely one hundred years before the Spanish arrived.

In fact, the first monumental civic-ceremonial center in the Valley was Cuicuilco. Cuicuilco was first settled about 1200 BCE. By 800 BCE it was a thriving civic-ceremonial center. Sometime around 150-200 CE Cuicuilco was utterly destroyed by ash and lava flow from Xitle, a small cone volcano nearby. But we´re getting ahead of ourselves.

Volcanic Axis Runs through Mexico City's 'South Side'

Living in Michoacán, we had become acquainted with the Volcanic Axis running East-West across Mexico. So many volcanic craters are visible that 'flying' over Michoacán via GoogleEarth, Reed exclaimed, "is like viewing a moonscape."

Volcanic Axis (red) cinches Mexico's midsection;
four black triangles represent the largest volcanoes: (West to East)
Colima (active);
Popocatéptl (active), linked by a mountain ridge to Iztaccíhuatl (dormant);
La Malinche (dormant 3,100 years); and
Pico de Orizaba (active, indigenous name is Citlaltépetl), 
 Reaching 18,406ft.,
it is the tallest mountain in Mexico and third tallest mountain in 
North America.

Lake Texcoco:
Red lines indicate Volcanic Axis;
Cuicuilco is on West Side (left, triangle just below top red line);
Cerro Xitle (Extinct Volcano) is Southwest of Cuicuilco;
North of Cuilco is site of Tenochtitlan, (today's Mexico City Historic Center).

"If you would understand a man, walk a mile in his sandals..."

I've taken liberties with this traditional saying, because it is a useful reminder as I try to understand the circumstances of Mexico's earliest peoples—specifically, how they coped with natural forces that periodically threatened to destroy them. (See our: Geography: Ground of Mexico's History and Culture. Here our focus is on volcanic activity.

Mexico's volcanoes are of two types:

• Large, violently erupting volcanoes characterized by long periods of repose between eruptions (Popocatépetl); and
• Smaller volcanoes that tend to form and erupt where there has been no previous volcanic activity; once eruption occurs, the activity shifts to a new locality where an eruption occurs at a later time (Paricutin, Michoacán, the most recent, which erupted between 1943 and 1952 ... and Xitle).

Xitle, in fact, formed on the flank of Ajusco, a larger volcano in the same area. When Xitle erupted, lava flows poured into the Basin of Mexico, covering the area of what is now known as the Pedregal de San Ángel, upon which has been built the campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico [UNAM].

Cuicuilco's First Settlers

Cuicuilco provides a rare snapshot of life in these early periods. The first peoples to settle Cuicuilco about 1200 BCE were small family groups making the transition from hunter-foragers to village-based farmers. Their agriculture was based on cultivation of maís (corn).

During this period, the central and southern regions of the Basin of Mexico (modern-day Mexico City) enjoyed greater rainfall, which fostered settlement of tribal farming villages. The well-watered valley floors were green with maís, and irrigation techniques enhanced crop yields. People continued to hunt and trap and collect important (often medicinal) plants. The landscape was clearly divided between cultivated land and the wilderness—forested mountainsides that served as watersheds for the valley, dotted with natural springs, the source of small rivers that supplied the lakes.

In the eyes of these early settlers, their farming villages and milpas (farm plots in Nahuatl) represented the point of connection between heaven and earth—a fruitful union of water, earth and mountains. The earth was viewed as the milpa of the gods. Outside the milpa, chaos reigned. In this worldview, prosperity sprang from proper regulation of the agricultural (solar) year, and from effective mediation with controlling natural forces, which were viewed as spiritual in nature.

At Cuicuilco, Cerro Xitle (Xitle Hill) would have been an active presence, spewing smokey plumes as Popocatéptl does today, providing a daily reminder of the people's vulnerability before la naturaleza (natural forces). The natural follow-up question is: How might these early settlers have sought to 'mediate' let alone 'regulate' these natural forces?

Cuicuilco: Monumental Civic-Ceremonial Center

Perhaps the best answer to that question is found in the words of renowned art historian George Kubler (1984):

"[The people engaged in] collective endeavors to guarantee the continuity of the creation of the universe against catastrophic dissolution in an unstable world." (Emphasis added)

In this context, Cuicuilco presents a good example of how Mesoamerica culture attempted to control the vital forces of the natural world by replicating them in ritual practices. The deity most associated with Cuicuilco was Huehuetéotl (Old Old God of Fire).

Huehuetéotl (Old Old God of Fire)
He is depicted as an old man with wrinkled face (symbol of wisdom), 
On his hat—a brazier for burning coals or incense—is carved the fire symbol.
National Museum of Antropology

Also evident at Cuicuilco is evidence of a cult to the fertility of the earth is found in the numerous clay sculptures of fecund women (Cuicuilco Museum) uncovered in private homes. This cult demonstrates the community’s recognition of their dependency on natural forces to assure ample harvests.

The elaborate peinado (hairstyle) of this female figure
—dubbed 'Pretty Woman'—
is undoubtedly an early symbol of fertility.

Generally understood to be a god of the family hearth rather than a focus of civic ritual practice, Huehuetéotl nonetheless appears on a 13 ft. (4 m.) stele (stone-carved column) outside Cuicuilco's "pyramid". The "pyramid" is actually a truncated, stepped cone with ramps on its East and West sides.

Cuicuilco's "pyramid"
Its summit was crowned by an altar
where the smoke of burning incense and sacrifices rose to the heavens.

The pyramid was constructed in several stages, beginning in 800-600 BCE and hence contemporaneous with one of Popocatépetl's violent eruptions. By 100 BCE, Cuicuilco's population was about 20,000—large enough to support the pyramid construction that continued across generations until about 200 BCE.

Retaining walls of pyramid at Cuicuilco

Both the hearth god and the monumental conical pyramid are earthly replications of Xitle, the conical smoking mountain whose presence posed a constant threat to Cuicuilco's inhabitants.

Cuicuilco Museum offers this explanation of how a tribal farming village underwent the transition to become a monumental, regional civic-ceremonial center (our translation):

"A more elaborate religious cult gradually developed at Cuicuilco where an incipient elite performed not only religious rites, but political and administrative functions as well. Over time, this elite solidified its control over the entire population and, by so doing, initiated a process that ultimately defined a theocratic government."

It is not known exactly when Xitle erupted, but it likely occurred sometime between 200 BCE and 200 CE.

It is known that Popcatépetl's eruptions from 250 BCE to 50 CE severely disrupted southern Basin communities. It is also known that Xitle first spewed ash falls, followed shortly thereafter by lava flows. By the time Xitle erupted, with spectacular and frightening displays of fire and smoke, its effects would have caused Cuicuilcans and others to flee for their lives.

Archeological evidence indicates that when the Cuicuilcanos fled the ash falls and lava flows, some sought refuge across the lake at the village or city of Huizachtécatl, now Culhuacán, at the base of Cerro de La Estrella (Hill of the Star), on the peninsula of Iztapalapa. Others fled to Teotihuacán, which was, by that time, the dominant power in central Mexico.

Cuicuilco was buried by Xitle's eruptions: lava flows reached a depth of about 10 m. (33 ft.) and extended over about 80 sq. km. (32 sq. miles). The archaeological context was sealed so thoroughly that excavation at the site has proceeded with jackhammers—not ideal for preserving detail!

Aftermath of Volcanic Eruptions

It is difficult to overstate the psychological impact on early peoples of natural phenomena associated with Mexico's volcanic eruptions. But given the people’s proximity to these natural events, it is equally difficult to dismiss the idea that volcanic activity had a profound impact on how Mexico's early peoples came to view their world. Perhaps the most vivid example is found in the Aztec Creation Myth of the Five Suns.

In a nutshell:

It took the gods five trys at creating the heavens and the earth, known as the Five Suns. The Third Sun (World, or Era) was destroyed by the 'Rain of Fire', likely a volcanic eruption. The Fourth Sun was, in turn, destroyed by water (drought and flood). Then the gods sought to recreated the earth for the fifth time, but there was no light, no sun. Meeting in darkness around a great fire, two gods threw themselves into the pyre. The first became the Sun, the second the Moon.  Thus was the creation of the Fifth Sun, the era of the Aztecs.

In a profound expression of the duality that marks Mesoamerican thought, it is fire in the form of the sun that gives life to the earth through maíz, and it is fire in its various forms, including volcanic activity, that just as easily takes life.

Originally published in Jenny'a Journal of Mexican Culture.

Cuicuilco
lies near the middle of the northern boundary of Delegación Tlalpan,
the most southern borough of Mexico City.
The site is just south of the Periferico (Ring Higway) and east of Ave. Insurgentes.
Delegación Coyoacán is to its north;
Delegación Xochimilco lies to the east.