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

Original Villages | Iztacalco's Barrio Santiago Atoyac Honors the Virgin of Guadalupe

One of our goals in our Ambles through the orginal indigenous villages now immersed in Mexico City is to get to every one of its sixteen delegaciónes (boroughs). In the nearly two years we have been on this peregrinación (pilgrimage), we have made it to pueblos or barrios in ten of the sixteen.

Delegación Iztacalco

One of the remaining six is Delegación Iztacalco, which happens to be the smallest of all (and easily confused by fuereños (outsiders, Mexican or otherwise) with its large southern neighbor, Iztapalapa). Unlike the rural delegaciones in the south, such as Tláhuac (which we reached in recent months) and Milpa Alta (which we haven't), and those in the western mountains, like Magdalena Contreras and Cuajimalpa (which we also haven't yet managed to reach), Iztacalco isn't difficult to get to. Immediately southeast of Delegación Cuauhtémoc (Centro Histórico's borough), it has major highways and avenues surrounding and crossing it. And it is no more than fifteen minutes from our apartment in Coyoacán. The challenge has been finding out when its barrios, neighborhoods, are holding fiestas.

Recently, our desire to find and attend a fiesta in one of Iztacalco's barrios was finally satisfied via our now indispensible source, the Facebook page Fiestas Mágicas de los Pueblos y Barrios Originarios del Valle de México, Magical Fiestas of the Original Villages and Neighborhoods of the Valley of Mexico. So it was time to begin to get to know Iztacalco.

Delegaciones of Mexico City
Iztacalco is the small, olive green delegación in the northeast.

Delegación Iztacalco
Its Pueblos, Barrios and Colonias

Island in an Urban Lake

When the Spanish arrived in the Valley in 1519, Iztacalco was an island or group of islands in the middle of Lake Texcoco. They were settled by Nahuatl speakers some time before the Mexica/Aztecas arrived in the Valley of Anahuac in 1225. A hundred years later, the Mexica, after working as mercenary soldiers for the powers in the Valley—first for Culhuacán, then for Azcapotzalco—began their search for a permanent place to found their own village. As a possible location, they tried to settle on Iztacalco, but were forced by the island's residents to move on. Iztacalcans made their living from the brackish waters of the lake (which has no outlet), drying salt that they traded with other settlements. Their activity gave rise to their name Iztacalco, House of Salt, in the Nahuatl language. 

Iztacalco
(blue star)
was one of a group of islands in Lake Texcoco
just southeast of Tenochtitlan

The Spanish conquered the Mexica City of Tenochtitlan and took control of the Valley in 1521. In the next century, in an attempt to protect the City from flooding, they began to drain Lake Texcoco, leaving Iztacalco and other island villages both high and dry, and without their traditional sources of income. 

However, to provide a route for transport of food and other goods from Lake Xochimilco, in the south, to the Centro Histórico, the Spanish constructed the Royal Canal (after Independence it was renamed the National Canal, known popularly as La Viga, The Beam). It passed through Iztacalco, which became a major stopover for canoes coming and going from the City Center. The canal was used for nearly three hundred years, until the 1920s, when motor vehicles and roadways took its place. The route of the old Canal through Iztacalco is now the main avenue, Calzada de la Viga. 

The Viga (former Royal) Canal in 1850.
It is superimposed on a map of Mexico City of 1970.

Iztacalco lies about midway on the route.
Heavy red line up the center is modern outer-ring expressway.
Thin red line up the left side is Calzada de Tlalpan,
the former Mexica cuepotli, causeway across Lake Texcoco.
From the blog: Historia: Geografía y Rarezas

Paseo (trip) de Viceroy Don Francisco Fernandez de la Cueva, duke of Albuquerque, 
and his wife, Doña Juana de la Cerda, up the Royal Canal. 

Their barge is in the foreground.

The church of San Matías Ixtacalco is in the left background. 
(The pueblo's name was spelled with an 'x' until the 20th century.)

Painted by Pedro Villegas in 1706, 
it is the oldest representation of the Canal de la Viga and chinampas (man-made island gardens, on the right). 
Wikipedia en español

The original village still retains its seven barrios: Santa Cruz, La Asunción, San Miguel, Los Reyes, San Sebastián Zapotla, San Francisco Xicaltongo and Santiago Atoyac, along with the adjacent Pueblo Santa Anita Zacatlalmanco Huéhuetl. These barrios lie near the western boundary of the modern delegación, mostly along the Calzada de la Viga.

Original barrios of Iztacalco
and Pueblo Santa Anita Zacatlalmanco Huéhuetl
(Santa Anita is the large, light green area on north side.)

Barrio Santiago Atoyac, the focus of this post, is marked by green/yellow star.
For some reason, it has been divided into North (dark green) and South (tan) sections.

The Church of Santiago (St. James) Atoyac sits on Avenida Santiago,
which is the boundary between the barrio's two sections.
The church is near the eastern end of the avenue, at about the star's right point.
The north-south road marking the barrio's eastern boundary is Calzada de la Viga.

Barrio Santiago Atoyac and the Virgin of Guadalupe

Recently, the Facebook page, Fiestas Mágicas de los Pueblos y Barrios Originarios del Valle de México, Magical Fiestas of the Original Villages and Neighborhoods of the Valley of Mexico, posted an announcement of a fiesta in the Barrio Santiago (St. James) Atoyac, to be held the weekend of January 12. Curiously, it is to be a celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe, whose feast day was exactly a month prior, on December 12. We wonder why this fiesta is being held a month after the biggest saint's fiesta in Mexico, but we jump at the chance to visit a barrio in Iztacalco.

The posted schedule says a procession through the barrio will begin at noon on Saturday, the 13th. So half an hour before, we take a taxi north on the Calazada de Tlalpan, the main highway into Centro, which passes near Iztacalco. Our driver then takes us east to Calzada de la Viga, turns north and soon turns west into Avenida Santiago. Immediately, we see that the street is closed by juegos mechanicos, mechanical carnival rides, so we know we have found the fiesta and get out of the taxi. 

As we walk past the rides, empty and awaiting their evening customers, the steeple of the church comes into view. At the same time, we hear a banda playing, directly ahead of us in the street. 

Church of Santiago Apóstol Atoyac
Church of St. James the Apostle, Atoyac.

As we get to the church, we see the banda and a small group of people moving away from us along the avenue. It is ten minutes before noon, but obviously, the procession has started early. We hurry to catch up. Fortunately, the procession turns at the first corner it reaches and then stops, so we are easily able to join it.

La Procesión

An image of the Virgin of Guadalupe
being carried through the streets of Barrio Santiago Atoyac;
a banda and some barrio residents follow behind

La banda Principes de Oaxaca
Princes of Oaxaca Band
(The phone numbers are for Mexico City; it is likely that
band members live in one of the City's Oaxaca neighborhoods.)

Papel picado, cut paper, announces the celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
The neighborhood appears to be a mixture of newer apartment buildings
and older, one- and two-story, single family homes.

"Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe"
"Long Live the Virgin of Guadalupe"
(At this point we still don't know why the Virgin is being honored
 a month after Her Feast Day)

Turning into a narrow callejon, alleyway, the procession enters the patio
of a modest cinderblock home, typical in working-class neighborhoods.

Waiting is a comparsa de caporales,
a group of cowboy and cowgirl-style dancers who accompany processions.
The procession will be much more colorful and lively with them. 

Passing the tradition from mother to daughter.

¡Belleza mexicana!
Mexican beauty!

Authentic (ones) of Ixtacalco
(The old spelling of the pueblo's name is used. )

Charro
preparing to join the procession.
Charros are fancy, Spanish-style
cowboys traditional to the western
state of Jalisco.
They have become a symbol of
traditional (rural, pre-20th century)
Mexico.

The residents of the house provide drinks of agua de jamaica (hah-MAE-kah),
Jamaica water,
a kind of cold tea made from red hibiscus flowers.
Delicious and full of vitamin C!

El patron y la patrona de la casa.
The owners of the house. 

The Virgin of the Day and Wax Virgins

We approach a family—the homeowners—standing in the patio. Introducing ourselves, we ask about today's celebration of the Virgin. They kindly explain that the barrio does participate in one of the many peregrinaciónes, pilgrimages, carried out by pueblos and barrios of Mexico City (as well as others coming from surrounding states) to the Basilica of the Virgin during the weeks leading up to December 12.

It is, however, the barrio's tradition that they carry with them Virgenes de cera, wax Virgins. The image displayed today always remains in the Church of Santiago Atoyac and is specially honored on this day as the barrio's Virgin.

El Señor 

We are puzzled by what a Virgin of wax is. We have never heard of such before. A young man accompanying the homeowners, apparently their grandson, is also a serious photographer and will be following the procession to photograph it. He has a portfolio of his photos with him and shows us a photo of a Virgen de cera. He explains that this is what is carried to the Basilica.

Vigen de cera,
Virgin of wax. Created by an aunt of the family.

The Procession Moves On

With everyone refreshed and las caporales and el charro ready to go, the procession once again gets underway.

Caporal
(Literally, foreman of cattle herders,
i.e. another name for cowboys),
dressed in blue jeans and cowboy boots,
leads the procession to direct its route
through the streets.

As the procession moves back into the streets,
more charros are waiting at a corner
to join it.

The procession, now with several charro and caporal dancers,
moves through the barrio.

Charro del muerte,
Charro of death.
(Our term. We have yet to uncover
an explanation for these.)

Charro

Spanish-style charro mask

         

This joven (young man)
has all the moves!

       

           

                

As does this one!

Beautiful mother!

Beautiful daughter!

This girl spreads petals of mums
in the path of the Virgin.

People of the barrio
watch as the procession goes by.

(The woman, upper right, had a teenage granddaughter with her who was shy
and didn't want to be photographed.
But la abuela was most happy to greet us and our camera.

Church of Santiago

Eventually, the procession returns to Avenida Santiago and arrives back at the Church. While we expect it to enter the atrio and end there, it moves on. We do not. Tired, the shaded atrio, with benches, beckons us as a most welcome and tranquil place to rest. We find we are not the only ones attracted to the oasis of peace in the midst of urban bullicio (boo-YEE-ceeoh, hubbub).

Fiesta portada (archway) portrays and honors
the Virgin of Guadalupe.
Legend says, "You are the light that illumines my way."

Carved doors portray the church's and barrio's patron saint,
Santiago Matamoros,
St. James, the Moorslayer.

Santiago Matamoros,
St. James the Moorslayer

The Apostle St. James is believed to have come to
the Roman province of Hispania after the Ascension of Christ,
to preach the Gospel
(Good News of Christ' victory over sin and death),
and convert the residents,
thus founding the Catholic Church in Spain
(separate from Sts. Peter and Paul, and Rome).
He then returned to Judea and was martyred.

According to Spanish Christian legend, in the mid 800s,
St. James reappeared at the Battle of Clavijo. Riding a white
horse, he helped the outnumbered Christian forces defeat the Moors,
(Muslims from North Africa),
in the early stages of the Reconquista of the land.
He was then called Santiago Matamoros
and became the patron saint of Spain.

The Reconquest was not completed until 1492.
The victorious King and Queen, Ferdinand and Isabella,
first rulers of a united Spain, celebrated by
commissioning Christopher Columbus to sail west to reach Asia.
He happened upon the "New World".

Nearly thirty years later, Hernán Cortés undertook the Conquest of Mexico
(the Aztec Empire).
The Spanish conquistadores prayed to Santiago
to help them defeat the Mexicas and their allies.

So Santiago Matamoros, 
representing this new Christian Conquest of a "pagan" people,
is the patron saint of many Mexican churches and their barrios.

While the church and parish of Santiago Atoyac date back to the 16th century,
the building was restored in 1953. The doors are quite new;
carved at the bottom right is the name,
Maximo Díaz, and the date, July 1986.

Atrio muy arboleado y sombreado
(Well-treed and shady atrium.)

Amigos descansando
Friends resting 

Barrio Holding onto Tradition

Iztacalco, as we have said, is the smallest delegación in Mexico City, and not far from the Centro Histórico. Ixtacalco, once upon a time a village on an island in Lake Texcoco, is now surrounded by urban neighborhoods that have developed in the last century as the City expanded into the former lakebed. As our walk through Barrio Santiago revealed, even this original barrio has been invaded by modern apartment buildings. Generally inhabited by outsiders lacking roots in the neighborhood, the support for maintaining traditional fiestas is hence weakened. 

The fiesta for the Virgin of Guadalupe was a modest one, with the procession attended by fewer than two dozen people. It was not, of course, the barrio's primary fiesta. Held in July, the fiesta for the barrio's patron saint Santiago, St. James, would likely better represent the barrio's support for tradition. 

Nevertheless, we did get to witness and experience the animo (spirit, vitality) and beauty of the comparsa Autenticos de Ixtacalco. We got to meet a traditional family, learn about Virgenes de cera and walk some of the callejas (narrow side streets) of Barrio Santiago. And we have finally taken our first steps in the original barrios of Iztacalco.