México Barroco | Baroque Art: Representing Divine Ecstasy, Evoking Awe

An Erstwhile Puritan Confronts the Baroque

We have to admit upfront that we find it very hard to relate to, let alone appreciate Baroque art, especially Catholic Baroque visual art. (We love Bach, Vivaldi and all their musical cohort.) The intense religious symbology and overwhelming detail of the visual expressions, especially when covered in gold gilding, is off-putting to one raised as a Protestant with New England Puritan roots.

But in Mexico it is difficult to avoid the art of the Baroque epoch. It is the art of the height of the Spanish Empire and its realization in Nueva España.

So What Is Baroque?

The Wikipedia article on Baroque Art gives us a good introdution to its style and purposes.

The Baroque is a period of artistic style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance, theater, and music. The style began around 1600 in Rome, Italy, and spread to most of Europe.

The popularity and success of the Baroque style was encouraged by the Catholic Church, which had decided in the Council of Trent (1545 to 1563) [in which Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who was King Charles I of Spain, played a prominent role], that in response to the Protestant Reformation, the arts should communicate religious themes in a direct manner, seeking to elicit emotional involvement.

The aristocracy also saw the dramatic style of Baroque architecture and art as a means of impressing visitors and expressing triumph, power and control. Baroque palaces are built around grand courtyards, staircases and reception rooms of sequentially increasing opulence. 

A good example of the Baroque is Bernini's St. Theresa in Ecstasy (1650). He aimed to portray religious experience as an intensely physical one. Theresa described her bodily reaction to spiritual enlightenment in a language of ecstasy used by many mystics.

Theresa in Ecstasy
Wikipedia

 Grandeur, Exuberance and Drama

La Grandeza

The analysis strikes us as going to the heart of Mexican architecture and art across its history, not just that of the Baroque period. We have written about grandeur, in Spanish, grandeza, as an essential characteristic of Mexican architecture and art from its Mesoamerican, indigenous beginnings through the Spanish Conquest and Colonial period to 19th century expressions of the Porfiriato to post-Revolutionary murals and later 20th century architecture, such as in University City.

Teotihuacán, City of the Gods,
"Avenue of the Dead," looking toward Pyramid of the Moon.

The Palace, first of Cortés, then the Spanish Viceroy,
today the Mexican government.

Metropolitan Cathedral
The facade is post-Baroque Neo-classic
but with Baroque touches, such as the spiral "solomonic" columns
above the two side doors.

Mural of "Progress" on ceiling of Reception Hall
of former Secretariat of Communications,
now National Museum of Art.
Built during 30-year presidency of Porfirio Díaz,
aka the Porfiriato

Central Library of National Autonomous University
University City, Coyoacán
Mural by Juan O´Gorman is a mosaic in natural stones.
Covering the Library's four sides, it is the world's largest outdoor mural.

Exuberance

The Wikipedia author uses the word exuberance for the lavishness, the profuseness of imagery and decoration characteristic of Baroque art. Again, that lavishness is present from the beginnings of Mexican art up to the present. 

Goddess of Tenochtitlán
Mural in National Museum of Anthropology and History

Bird Jaguar IV, center,
with his father, Itzamnaaj B'alam II and grandfather, Yaxun B'alam III,
Ahaus, Lords of Maya kingdom of Yaxchilán

Baroque reredos of Church of San Ángel,
Colonia San Ángel,
Delegación Álvaro Obregón

Tianguis, Street Market
Mural in Abelardo Rodríguez Market
Artist unknown, 1930s.

Giant papier maché alebrije, fantastic creature
in the Zócalo, Day of the Dead, November 1-2

Fiesta of El Señor de la Misericordia
Lord of Compassion,
Pueblo de los Tres Santos Reyes,
Pueblo of the Three Saintly Kings,
Coyoacán

Drama

Drama is probably the central theme of Mexican art from its Mesoamerican roots to its modern expressions. From its indigenous beginnings, the Mexican worldview has been a dramatic one, full of protagonists and antagonists, heroes and villains, the forces of good versus the forces of evil, entangled in a lucha, a struggle for victory one over the other.

The Christian drama brought by the Spanish fit right in: God versus Satan, Heaven versus Hell, Christ versus Sin and Death. In the great human and divine drama, the Lord is crucified, dies, is buried and rises again.

Death
"Frieze of the Dream Lords,"
Maya, Toniná, Chiapas

Sarcophagus of Pakal Kínich Janaab I (Great Sun Shield),
Maya Lord of Palenque (reigned 615 - 683 AD).
Pakal lies on top of a god of the underworld.
A cruciform world tree (cosmic axis) rises from him
carrying his spirit to a bird, the supreme sky god, Itzamnaaj.

Aztec Stone of the Five Suns
National Museum of Anthropology and History
Photo: Ann Kingman Gomes

Virgin Mary (left) pleads with Heavenly Christ (in red),
seated next to God, the Father,
for "Release of the Souls in Purgatory"
(including a Pope (lower right) and
a Cardinal (lower left)
Baroque period painting in the Metropolitan Cathedral

March of Humanity Toward the Democratic, Bourgeois Revolution
Top: Primitive Man, Pregnant Proletariat Woman, March of the Mothers, with their burdens
Bottom: The Embrace and Mixing of Races, Lynched Black Man, Crow Man of the Pimas and Yaquis (indigenous peoples)

The peoples don't protect (their) memory.
Ariosto Otero Reyes, 1997
Xola ('Shola') Metro station, Line 2

Ecstasy and Awe

Ecstasy: Communion with the Divine

The word ecstasy is Greek in origin, ek-stasis, and means to stand outside (one's self); stasis has the same Indo-European root, sta, as the Spanish verb estar, to be in some place, and the English state, stance or station. We usually think of ecstasy as an experience akin to that of St. Theresa, an emotional experience so heightened in intensity as to carry a person, at least for some moments, totally beyond themselves, beyond their normal physical, mental and emotional experience.

Ecstasy, at its most intense, carries one to communion with the Divine (from Indo-European deiw, meaning "to shine"; hence, "sky," "heaven"), that is, with Ultimate Reality.

The Assumption of Mary into Heaven,
to become "Queen of Heaven."
An ecstatic event, if ever there was one.
Heavenly cherubs raise her from the human world below.

Sculpture over main door of
The Metropolitan Cathedral whose full name is
Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven

Ecstasy as intense as that of the mystics like St. Theresa, or the shamans of earlier cultures (who had visions in which their spirits left their bodies to visit the world of the supernatural), is hard to imagine for most of us mortals. But "standing outside of one's self" in less intense ways is a common experience. We all seek ways to "stand outside" our daily routines, the everyday times and places of our lives, our existential reality. Sports, games, dance, music, literature, theater, painting, parties, holidays, vacations—all forms of play—as well as alcohol, drugs and, of course, sex take us outside ourselves. All are forms of ecstasy, in greater or lesser intensity.

Yet this ecstasy, in all its forms and levels of intensity, can never totally take us out of our historical and cultural context, our imaginario, our communally shared worldview. We play the games of our culture. Our music and all our arts are of a particular time and place, an epoch. And what is more typical of a culture than how it celebrates or relaxes? Each culture has its favorite form of alcohol, be it beer made from barley, corn or rice; wine, brandy or whiskey. Drugs and sex? Well, they are universal, but even they are culturally shaped.

So is our religion: our images of God and the practices of our worship, our efforts to commune with Ultimate Reality. In the Catholic Christian world, ecstasy, communion with the Divine, is mundanely attained in the Mass, when a wafer of grain consumed by the faithful miraculously becomes the Body of Christ. However, the ultimate ecstasy is achieved by entrance into heaven after death. Baroque religious art focuses on this final realization of eternal ecstasy.

Virgin Mary, Queen of Heaven,
in her manifestation as Our Lady of Guadalupe,
on dome of Old Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Gold represents the shining, resplendent Divine Presence;
Communion with that Presence is the ultimate goal of ecstasy.

Heaven
full of cherubs, innocent infants.
On the dome of the Chapel of the Little Well
Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Awe

Awe isn't mentioned by the Wikipedia author, but it is implied in his/her analysis of Baroque art, with its grandeur and desire to impress. Awe is a powerful feeling of reverence, fear or wonder in response to an encounter with something experienced as greater or more important than our mundane concerns, something truly grand, something essentially sacred and holy (from the Indo-European roots, sak: to set aside from everyday use, and kailo: whole, healthy, wholesome). Clearly Baroque religious architecture and art was intended to evoke awe in the presence of the sacred, the holy, the divine.

Interior of Metropolitan Cathedral

Worship
Side chapel
Metropolitan Cathedral

Baroque Art as Expressions of Ecstasy Evoking Awe

It is with this perspective on Baroque art as focused on grandeur, exhuberance, and drama, and its religious expresssions as portraying ecstasy and seeking to induce awe, that we can approach the architecture and art of the Baroque churches and palaces of Mexico City as shaped by the imaginario of their time and culture: Spanish Catholic Colonial Mexico of the 17th and 18th centuries.

"Ecstasy"
A contemporary exhibit of portraits of female Catholic saints and nuns
as Brides of Christ,
following very much the path of St. Theresa.
(Unfortunately, it was closed when we arrived in late June to explore
the Ex-Convento Culhuacán
in Delegación Iztapalapa)

Spanish Baroque: Churrigueresque

Near the end of the 17th century, Spanish Baroque architecture developed a particularly elaborate sculpted ornamentation that remained in vogue into the 1750s, when it began to be replaced by the Neoclassic style as part of Enlightenment efforts promoted by the French Bourbon monarchs who had won the Spanish throne in the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1715).

Spanish Baroque is marked by extremely expressive, florid decorative detailing, normally found above the entrance on a building's main facade.  It is also called Churrigueresque, from the name of architect and sculptor José Benito de Churriguera (1665–1725), who championed it. Born in Madrid, De Churriguera worked primarily in Madrid and Salamanca (Wikipedia).

It is this Churrigueresque Baroque that was brought to Nueva España and its capital, la Ciudad de México. There are multiple examples of it in Centro Histórico.

El Sagrario Metropolitano, The Metropolitan Tabernacle,
Designed by Spanish architect Lorenzo Rodríguez
Built between 1749-60

El Sagrario Metropolitano, the Metropolitan Tabernacle is a building attached to the east side of the Cathedral. It housed the archives and vestments of the archbishop. It now functions as a place to receive baptism and the Eucharist and to register parishioners.

Temple of San Francisco,

Baroque facade of Balvanera Chapel

 built in 1766,

 also by Spanish architect Lorenzo Rodríguez

Entrance on Madero Street

Iglesia de la Santésima Trinidad, Holy Trinity Church
Centro Histórico, East.
Probably also by Spanish architect Lorenzo Rodríguez

Santésima Trinidad, Holy Trinity Church sits a few blocks east of the Cathedral. The current church was completed in the 1750s, replacing an earlier church built at the beginning of the 1600s. It was likely also designed by Lorenzo Rodríguez.

Inside Baroque Temples: Roman Empire with Elaborate Decoration

Crossing the thesholds of a Baroque church is to enter a world that has its roots in the Roman Empire, and the grandeur of its basilicas. The Roman basilica was originally a public building where rulers held court, but the basilica also served other official and public functions. To a large extent, these were the town halls of ancient Roman life. The basilica was centrally located in every Roman town, usually adjacent to the main forum (much as the Spanish, and then Mexican, ayuntamiento, municipal hall is). 

These buildings were rectangular and often had a central nave and two side aisles, usually with a slightly raised platform and an apse at each of the two ends, adorned with a statue perhaps of the emperor, while the entrances were from the long sides.

Churches of the Christian faith, once it became the official religion under Emperor Constantine (306-337 CE), adopted the same basic plan—thereby also appropriating a representation of the grandeur of the Roman Empire. Later, the term came to refer specifically to a large and important Roman Catholic church that has been given special ceremonial rights by the Pope. The most famous of these is, of course, St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican in Rome. Wikipedia 

In an earlier post on our pursuit to discover the origins of the spiral "Solomonic" columns that appear on Mexico City houses built in the 1920s and 30s (California Colonial: From Emperor Constantine to Mexico Via Spanish Baroque), we saw how the Baroque style of architecture, with its ornate interior, as well as exterior, decoration began with the building of the "new" St. Peter´s Basilica in the 17th century.

Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City

In Mexico City, the preeminent basilica and prime example of Baroque religious architecture and art is the Metropolitan Cathedral. So it is that threshold we cross to encounter the Baroque up close. (Wikipedia has an excellent extensive article on the history and components of the Cathedral.)

Baroque "Solomonic" columns above one of the side entrances to
the Metropolitan Cathedral.

Side aisle of Metropolitan Cathedral
Classic Roman basilica design

The Cathedral is designed according to the Roman framework of a rectangle divided into a central aisle and two side aisles. It is within this classic framework that a grand, exuberant and dramatic Baroque elaboration has been carried out.

Entering the Cathedral, we are greeted by the Altar of Forgiveness.

Altar of Forgiveness
Designed by Spanish architect Jerónimo Balbás
early 18th century,
Damaged by a fire in 1967 and restored.

Golden Sun, 
symbol of the Glory or Resplendence
of the Divine (Shining) Presence

atop the Altar of Forgiveness

Along each side aisle of the Cathedral are seven ornate Baroque chapels. Most are cordoned off by floor to ceiling wooden grills and open only for specific occasions. This also makes them difficult to photograph (which is also formally prohibited).

At the far north end, the apse of the sancturary, is the Altar of the Kings, so-named because statues of saintly royalty are placed on its walls. Because of its size and depth, it is known as the "Golden Cave".

Altar of the Kings
work of Jerónimo Balbás, begun in 1718,
carved in cedar;
guilding by Francico Martínez, finished in 1737.

                        

                        

Hermenegild, a Visigoth king and martyr, Holy Roman Emperor Henry II,  

Edward the Confessor and Casimir of Poland

As we said in the introduction, we tend to feel overwhelmed by Baroque ornateness, put off rather than experiencing anything close to ecstasy or awe. But in coming upon the four Saintly Kings, we have a different experience. Up close, they are very human figures. Their faces are kind, even sad. We feel we would like to get to know them better.

The Appeal Rests in the Details

So we seek out more details:

Figure holding up the choir screen

Saint and cherub
atop Altar of Forgiveness

Angel
atop Altar of Forgiveness

A worried St. Peter
on door of El Sagrario

The Lord Jehovah,
(in the style of Zeus or Jupiter,
both meaning "of the sky")
on door of El Sagrario

Puritan, Humanist Ecstasy and Awe

We remain a "Puritan Protestant", and even more so, a humanist of the Enlightenment, so the grandeur, lavishness and drama of Baroque art continue to be not to our taste. For us, the Divine splendor resides in each creature of the Creation. And so we do feel something of ecstasy and awe when we encounter these saintly figures. They are dramatic, yet simple, direct, human. Vulnerable. And the cherubs have the delightfulness and, of course, the vulnerability of early childhood.

Old saints, bearded gods and charming infants—the two ends of the human life cycle—to represent closeness to the Holy, an ecstatic encounter with the Divine. It may seem to be a curious combination, but we'll revere our meeting.

See also:

• Grandeza Mexicana: Grandeur of Mexico City
• The Zócalo, Symbolic Heart of Mexico City and Mexico
• Centro: Making a Living Amidst Faded Grandeur
• The Spiritual Conquest: The Franciscans - Where It All Began
• The Grandeza of Porfirio Díaz
• Monument to the Revolution: Heroes and Enemies Together in Death
• Mexican Muralists - Part I: Bellas Artes
• Mexican Muralist at the National Autonomous University
• Mexican Muralists: David Siqueiros Cultural Polyforum
• California Colonial: From Emperor Constantine to Mexico via Spanish Baroque                      

Mexico City's Original Villages | Delegación Benito Juárez: Mixcoac, Place of the Milky Way

Vestigial Pueblos of Southwest Lake Texcoco

When we visited el Pueblo Xoco, we found a small barrio that—although it is hemmed in and nearly overwhelmed by several large structures of modern, globalized Mexico—remains determined to maintain its indigenous roots, transformed by the Spanish Spiritual Conquest into Catholic rituals. Xoco, it turns out, was only one of several indigenous pueblos, villages, and atepetls, city-states near the southwest shore of Lake Texcoco that existed before the arrival of the Spanish. Their vestiges now sit in what is Delegación Benito Juárez.

Their remnants have undergone varying degrees of transformation resulting from the development of the area that began during the Porfiriato—the period of the Porfirio Díaz dictatorship at the end of the 19th century—and continued through its modernization in the late 20th century, when Benito Juárez became a largely middle and upper-middle class borough.

River towns

Mixcoac (MEESH-quack) is the most visible of these remaining villages. When the Spanish arrived, it sat along side a small river originating in the mountains rimming the Valley of Anahuac to the west (now called la Sierra de las Cruces) and flowing eastward into Lake Texcoco. The Spanish named it Río Mixcoac.

About a mile "down river", Río Mixcoac joins another small river, Río Magdalena, flowing from the southern end of las Cruces mountains, to form Río Churubusco. Xoco sits at that junction. The pueblo of Axotla (now San Sebastián Axotla) sits just southwest of Xoco, near the west bank of la Magdalena.

One mile further "downriver" from Xoco, southeast, where Río Churubusco flowed into Lake Texcoco, was Huitzilopochco (a name which the Spanish transformed to Churubusco), where the Mexicas anchored their causeway running north to Tenochtitlan.

Mixcoac sat on a river, near the southwest shore of Lake Texcoco,
just north of the village of Coyoacán.

So in our ambles from San Mateo Churubusco and San Diego Churubusco to Xoco and on to Mixcoac, we have actually been moving "upstream." Today the rivers that tied these villages together still exist but are mostly invisible, as they are contained underground and serve as part of Mexico City's drainage system. Atop Río Mixcoac is Avenida Río Mixcoac, a multi-lane highway, which becomes the Río Churbusco expressway, with their flow (or not) of traffic.

Aerial map of the area around Pueblo Xoxo, looking south, likely taken in the early 1950s.
Pueblo Xoco is out of the photo to the left of the fields.
Pueblo Mixcoac is out of the photo to the botttom (northwest)
Puelbo Axotla is out of the photo to the right (southwest)

Just below the center is the intersection of the Río Mixoac (from bottom center/northwest)
with the Río Magdalena (coming from the right/southwest),
to form the Río Churubusco (running to the left/east, in a trench).
 All, except a part of La Magdalena running through the Viveros, an arboretum, are now covered with roadways.

Ave. Universidad appears to be under construction,
as the University City campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico
was built in the early 1950s. 

Intersection of Avenida Río Mixcoac (left to right, west to east)
and Avenida Insurgentes (top to bottom, north to south)
In addition to new rascacielos, skyscrapers,
at the time of this photo, a tunnel was being built for Río Mixcoac traffic
to pass under Insurgentes. It was completed in early 2018.

A little further east, Ave. Río Mixcoac crosses Ave. Universidad,
site of the old juncture with Río Magdelena. Pueblo Xoco sits at the northeast corner 
and Axotla at its southwest corner. 

Place of the Milky Way

But modernity has not totally wiped out these vestiges of Mexico City's indigenous foundations. One has to search for them, but they still exist. In the northwest corner of Benito Juárez Delegación, in Colonia San Pedro de los Pinos, in an almost hidden corner below the intersection of two elevated expressways stands the Temple of Mixcoatl, which is the only remnant of these foundations in the Delegación.

The name "Mixcoac" comes from the Nahuatl mixtli (cloud) and coatl (serpent); hence it means "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).

Temple of Mixcoatl

Materials from excavations indicate that the place was inhabited from the beginning of the Middle Preclassic period (1000 BCE). Objects with a Teotihuacan (500 BCE-500 CE) influence have also been found. The site reached its zenith n the Post Classic Period (900-1521 CE) with the construction of the temple to the god Mixcóatl.

The Franciscan brother, Bernadino de Sahagún, in his General History of the Things of New Spain (written between 1558 and 1575), describes Mixcoatl as a deity revered by musicians, singers and dancers. He was also a god of the hunt. Sahagún says his fiesta was held during the month of quechulli, "Precious Feather", (end of October-early November), the fourteenth of the eighteen months of Nauhua (Aztec) calendar. During the first five days of the month, the men of Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco and other nearby towns made arrows and darts that would be used in a sacred hunt, which was carried out at the end of the month. Before the hunt, they would gather at the Temple of Mixcoatl to celebrate a ritual seeking the god's blessing.

Landmarks of the Spiritual Conquest

As throughout all of the Valley and all of Mexico, the Spanish destroyed the indigenous temples in the Mixcoac region. The Franciscans and other religious orders replaced them with Catholic churches to convert los naturales to Spanish Christian culture. The research of Fray Sahagún into the Nahuatl language and indigenous beliefs and practices was a major component of this undertaking, seeking to understand the culture they aimed to transform and to be able to present "Western" beliefs in the native language.

In Colonia Insurgentes Mixcoac, just northwest of the intersection of Avenida Mixcoac and Avenida Insurgentes—hidden behind the modern office towers on the main avenues—is one of those landmarks of the Spirtual Conquest, another Franciscan church and convent. 

Church of Santo Domingo de Guzmán,
original church built by the Franciscans in 1585.
In 1608 it was transferred to the Dominicans.
Like all churches of the religious orders, in the mid-1700s, it was taken over by
the Archibishop of Mexico and became a parish church.

Convent adjoins the church

Inner patio of Convent
(water play is universal and timeless)

Atrio, Atrium,
one of the prettiest in all Mexico City,
viewed from portal of convent.

Atrio
Tranquil refuge

Development of Mixcoac

During the Colonial period, the area around the church and convent was mostly rural, one of haciendas, large estates, owned by wealthy Spaniards and worked by indigeouns serfs. In the 18th century, a silk factory was built across the plaza from the church.

Former silk factory,
now part of the Panamerican University

During the 19th century, through the Porfiriato and into the early 20th century, wealthy residents of Mexico City—which was still pretty much confined to the limits of the original indigenous Teotihuacan—built country homes in Mixcoac, as they also did farther south in Coyoacán, San Ángel and the center of Tlapan. These homes and related structures in neo-colonial style, continue to define the esthetic of the neighborhood. In the mid-19th century the Municipality of Mixcoac was absorbed into the Federal District and, in 1928, after the Revolution, it was made part of the new Delegación Benito Juárez. (Wikipedia)

Plaza kiosk
from the French-inspired Porfiriato period,
stands in front of a municipal (town) hall built at the direction of Porfirio Díaz

Town Hall is now the Juan Rulfo Cultural Center
named aftet the Mexican author of short stories and novels
(1917-1986)

Mural in entrance of the Juan Rulfo Center
depicts the evolution of Mexico
from indigenous to modern times.
By muralist Francisco Eppens (1913-1990),
whose work we have seen at the National University.

At left: Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed Serpent.
His body arches over the entrance door.
At right: Mexican eagle with serpent.

A Panamerican University building,
formerly the 19th century home of the Banderas family,
stands at the foot of Calle Augusto Rodín, August Rodin Street.

Leaving the plaza and walking north, past the Panamerican University, three short blocks up Calle Augusto Rodín, we come to Avenida Extremadura (named after a region in northwest Spain). Crossing the wide eje, axis road, Augusto Rodín becomes the boundary between Colonia Extremadura to the right/east and Colonia San Juan, to the left/west.

Three blocks farther on, we come to another pleasant colonial plaza, named after President Valentín Gómez Farías, who held the office on and off five times during the period of Santa Anna's dominance (1830s to 1850s) and who attempted liberal reforms, which Santa Anna overthrew. The Mora Institute for studies in history and social sciences now occupies Gómez Farías' former home on the west side of the plaza. 

The Mora Institute
occupies the former home of President Valentín Gómez Farías

Pleasant place to platicar, chat

On the east side of the plaza is Iglesia San Juan Evangelista, the Church of St. John the Evangelist. Built by Franciscans in 1675, it became a parish church in the mid-1700s and was dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe. At that time, a Baroque portal bearing an image of Our Lady was added over the center door.

Church of San Juan, St. John, the Evangelist
and Our Lady of Guadalupe
Built 1675

Sunken Park

Continuing north on Augusto Rodín, one block above Plaza Gómez Farías, we come to Avenida Porfirio Díaz, which runs diagonally northeast along the northern boundary of Colonia Insurgentes Extremadura. Walking towards Avenida Insurgentes, we come to a ramp running down into a park that is, curiously, perhaps twenty feet or more below street level. 

Parque Hundido,
Sunken Park.

Its informal name is Parque Hundido, Sunken Park. It is the result of the transformation of a site that was occupied by the Nochebuena brick company from the mid-19th century until the beginning of the Porfiriato (1876-1911), when the company moved away, likely because it had dug out all the clay from the former lake bed. It left an empty depression. 

During the Porfiriato, up until 1910, several species of trees were planted, creating the Bosque de la Nochebuena, Nochebuena Forest. (Nochebuena, the Good Night, is the Spanish name for Christmas Eve and, hence, of the poinsettia shrub, native to Mexico, which flowers at Christmas time. The poinsettia derives its common English name from Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first U.S. Minister to Mexico, who introduced the plant to the United States in 1825.)

In the late 1930s, having paved and widened Avenida de los Insurgentes, the city government decided to turn the forest into a park. In 1972, the space was redesigned. It is now a wonderful, jungle-like, quiet escape from the City around and above it. (See our more in.-depth post on Parque Hundido.)

San Lorenzo Xochimanca

Crossing Avenida Insurgentes, we enter Colonia Tlacoquemécatl. Once again, immediately behind the wall of high-rise offices and apartment buildings that line modern Insurgentes, we come upon a vestige of the Spiritual Conquest.

Chapel of San Lorenzo Martir Xochimanca

The Chapel of San Lorenzo Martir Xochimanca sits in one corner of what was once a large plaza and is now a city park. It was built between the latter part of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th by Franciscans. Xochimanca, the Place Where They Offer Flowers, i.e., Flower Market, was another indigenous pueblo, distinct from Mixcoac, but interconnected with it and Xoco.

The annual fiesta patronal is still held the week of August 6-10. A recent newspaper article by a colonia resident and journalist recounts how only a few of the families organizing the fiesta still live in the neighborhood, which has been taken over by apartment buildings and condominiums. Such is the struggle between modernity and tradition. 

Across the park from the colonial-era San Lorenzo chapel sits a dramatically modern structure that manifests the changes in Colonia Tlacoquemécatl—changes that are typical of those in Delegación Benito Juárez and other parts of Mexico City. Yet this modern edifice is also a living continuation of the Spiritual Conquest that began five hundred years ago in the Valley of Anahuac.

Temple of Santa Mónica,
built by the Augustinians,
the second religious order to arrive in Nueva España in the 16th century.
Clearly, the order is still going strong in modern Mexico City and upscale Benito Juárez.

'Mixcoac' consists of a group of colonias on the west side of Delegación Benito Juárez.

The Mexico City Government has designated three colonias as a "Barrio Mágico"
(marked by the yellow star with green border):
Insurgentes Mixcoac (orange);
San Juan (light blue); and
Extremadura Insurgentes (corn yellow).

Tlacoquemécatl
(red square marked by orange star with red border),
is site of Chapel of San Lorenzo Xochimanca

San Pedro de los Pinos,
(green colonia, upper left, marked by darker yellow star with purple border,)
is site of Temple of Mixcoatl.

Delegación Benito Juárez
is bright yellow in north-center of Mexico City,
just south of Delegación Cuauhtémoc (taupe),
the location of Centro Histórico. 
It is north of Delegación Coyoacán (purple).

See also:

• Mexico City's Original Villages: Landmarks of the Spiritual Conquest
• The Franciscans - Where It All Began
• Tepeyac and the Virgin of Guadalupe
• Centro's Four Indigenous Quarters
• Coyoacán's Many Pueblos
• Iztapalapa, Part I: Hill of the Star and the Origins of Culhuacán and Iztapalapa
• Iztapalapa, Part II: Contemporary Culhuacán, Gods of Darkness and Light
• Delegación Benito Juárez: Xoco, the Little Barrio That Survives