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 City's Sunken Park, Parque Hundido

During a visit to Mexico City before moving here in 2011, we were taking the Metrobus down Avenida Insurgentes. The Metrobus is a double bus, styled rather like two joined subway cars, with two wide doors on one side of each car. It has its own, dedicated lane and raised platforms for passengers to exit and enter at designated stops. Avenida Insurgentes is lined with trees and many modern office buildings, stores and restaurants, so we enjoyed a pleasant ride.

Traveling along, we glimpsed what appeared to be a wooded park, but strangely, it dropped below street level, out of sight. This piqued our curiosity, but during that visit to Mexico City, we didn't have time to return and investigate it. After we moved to Coyoacán in southern Mexico City, we had many other parts of the metropolis to get to know. We finally passed by it again while exploring the original pueblo of Mixcoac, but our focus then was on the landmarks of the Spiritual Conquest, the churches established during the evangelization of the indigenous residents by Spanish friars in the 16th century.

Eventually, we did return and get to know the park below ground level. It is, in fact, popularly called Parque Hundido, the Sunken Park, and it has become one of our favorite parks in Mexico City. It provides a wooded, therefore shady, cool retreat from the urban barullo (hubbub) and the Mexican sun. It is much smaller than Chapúltepec Woods, so it can be explored in its totality during a leisurely walk. There are many benches for resting and people watching. It is never crowded. Like Parque de los Venados (Deer Park), also in Delegación Benito Juárez, it is more of a neighborhood park, used by the people living around it.

From Brick Factory to Good Night Woods

Parque Hundido's below street level setting is the result of the transformation of a site, now in Delegación Benito Juárez, that was occupied by the Nochebuena (Good Night) Brick Company during the 19th century. Near the beginning of the Porfiriato (dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, 1876-1911), the company moved away, likely because it had dug out all the clay from the former lake bed. It left an empty depression.

Near the end of the Porfiriato, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, several species of trees were planted there, creating the Bosque de la Nochebuena, the Good Night Woods. This was likely under the direction of Miguel Ángel de Quevedo, an engineer and architect who worked in the Secretariat of Agriculture and became the champion of reforesting the then Federal District and, later, the Mexican countryside. He also created los Viveros de Coyacán, the Coyoacán Tree Nursery, to grow trees for transplanting around the City.

(La Nochebuena, the Good Night, is the Spanish name for Christmas Eve and, hence, also 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. See our spouse's post in Jenny´s Journal of Mexican Culture: From Nochebuena—"Christmas Eve" Flower—to Poinsettia).

In the late 1930s, having paved and widened Avenida de los Insurgentes, a main road to the south, the city government decided to turn the woods into a park. In 1972, the space was redesigned. It is now a wonderful, jungle-like, quiet escape from the urban bustle above and around it. (Wikipedia)

A Walk in the Park

The main entrance to the park is a wide, formal stairway
descending from Avenida Insurgentes.
At the bottom is the park's signature floral clock.

Our favorite entrance is from a small plaza at the corner of Insurgentes
 and Avenida Porfirio Díaz.
A few stairs, made of rocks, descend to a pathway into the woods.

Park's northeast corner, seen from below.

Reaching the bottom, one finds a network of curving paths
which make it easy and inviting to walk around the park
and experience various perspectives.

On the west side, a small hill adds visual interest and an opportunity for stair-climbing.

Outdoor Sculpture Museum

Around the oval path are full-scale reproductions of a number of Mesoamerican
(prehispanic) sculptures.
This is an Olmec head from Veracruz.

Chaac, Maya god of rains and waters.

Things to Do in Parque Hundido

An oval path that circles the park has a rubber track for jogging or power walking.
It´s also kind to those with back problems or mobility challenges.

The park is a favorite for dog walkers.

A "train" provides rides around the oval for those choosing not to wallk.

                

Left: Trying out his "wheels" (Bikes are not allowed.)
Right: Go, girls, go!

Doing homework.

Doing the teenage thing.

The southwest corner has tables for playing chess. 

A teenage boy takes after-school care of a group of younger kids.

A little fútbol (soccer) practice is always in order.

A quiet walk by one's self.

Wooded Retreat Near City Centro

Parque Hundido is quite centrally located, not far south of Centro Histórico and easy to reach via the Metrobus on Avenida Insurgentes or via taxi. This makes it possibly the most accessible and enjoyable park in Mexico City for anyone seeking a quiet retreat. 

Delegación Benito Juárez
Parque Hundido (green/yellow star) is in
Colonia Extremadura Insurgentes, west of Avenida Insurgentes.
Just north of it is la Colonia Noche Buena (small purple rectangle)
The park is a short walk north of the original pueblo of Mixcoac, 
(orange) about which we have written. 

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

Mexico City Climate: Seasons, Sun, Sky, Clouds and Rain

People, both estadounidenses (United Statesians) and Mexicans, frequently ask us why we moved to Mexico. Since we have been asked often over the past ten years, we have developed a very succinct answer (in both English and Spanish), "For the three Cs: climate, cost and culture. (el clima, el costo y la cultura.)" This blog is very much about the culture, particuarly that of Mexico City and its many, very different colonias, pueblos and barrios, i.e., in over-simplified English, its neighborhoods. The cost factor is totally a pragmatic one, and with the present currency exchange rate for U.S. dollar conversion to Mexican pesos, much in our favor.

Climate we list first because that it what first attracted us, along with the culture, to visit Mexico. It only took barely escaping back-to-back snowstorms in New York one February and landing in Cancún, with its intense blue sky, aquamarine waters and warm sun, to convince us: "No more Winters!" However, Cancún, on the Caribbean coast, and both coasts of Mexico, beautiful and warm as they are in Winter, are extremely hot and humid in the Summer. Having lived with Northeast summers all of our life, we didn't need more of that!

So in looking for a place to live year-round, permanently, in Mexico, we headed for the hills, i.e., the high plateau of Central Mexico know as el Bajío (5,500 to 6,000 ft., 1,700 to 1,900 meters above sea level) and the cross-country mountain chain called the Eje Volcánico, the Volcanic Axis or Trans-Mexico Volcanic Belt. Most of the valleys between the volcanoes, where cities and larger towns are located, are about 7,000 ft (2,150 meters) above sea level.

We found Pátzcuaro, a small, charming, tranquil Spanish Colonial city on Lake Patzcuaro, in the pine covered mountains of the State of Michocán, fell in love with it and moved there in August of 2008. Three years later, as former New Yorkers, we decided we needed a more urban environment and moved to Mexico City. Both are in the Volcanic Axis, at virtually the same altitude, with the same climate.

The Seasons in Mexico's Central Highlands

Here, in the midst of the high mountains, Spring, interestingly, is the hot season. Afternoon highs are in the 80s Fahrenheit (27 Celsius and up), occasionally hitting 90 (32 C), but because of the altitude, the air is dry, so the heat is not oppressive during the day, and the air cools rapidly after the sun goes down.

Summers are actually somewhat cooler because, from May through September, it is the rainy season. The frequent late afternoon or evening thunderstorms, triggered by the day's heat, act as natural air  conditioning, cooling the evening air and usually keeping the next day's afternoon temperature in the mid to upper 70s. As the sun is usually out summer mornings and into the mid-afternoon, who could ask for anything more?

The "Winters" (November through February) in this highland part of Mexico can have chilly nights, in the 40s, even an occasional frost in December or January. When the sun comes up (earlier than in northern latititudes), it quickly warms the air and by afternoon, temperatures are in the upper 60s to low 70s. (Because temperatures can rise and then fall as much as 30 degrees Fahrenheit each day, Mexicans say they have four seasons in one day.) There are occasional cloudy days, once-in-a-while with some sprinkles or light showers (called las cabañuelas), when day-time temperatures only reach the 60s. With no central heating in homes, those days are a challenge to be met with gas or electric space heaters and sweaters.

Late Winter day

Personally, we call the season from November through February "Fling", a merging of Fall and Spring, because the deciduous trees (yes, there are many in addition to the palms and other siempre verde, always green ones) tell us the two "seasons" are happening simultaneously.

"Fall", i.e., the yellowing and fall of the leaves on deciduous trees,
happens from November through February.
Note the tree, mid far left, that already has its new, chartreuse green Spring leaves.

Each deciduous tree loses its leaves on its own schedule.
This one does so in January.

Three weeks later, it is sprouting its new "Spring" leaves.

By mid February, full "Spring" has occurred.

"Fling" (officially Winter) ends
with the glorious eruption of lilac blossoms of jacaranda (hah cah RAHN dah) trees in March.

Sun

It was the sun, with its winter warmth, that drew us to Mexico. The sun is central to Mexico's climate and thus, its culture and national identity. Of course, the sun is critical to all life in all parts of the planet, but here in Mexico, as in all of the tropics, its strength, on the many days that have clear skys, is potently, directly felt. Even in late December, it is toasty warm. From March through October, for eight months of the year, it produces a de facto Summer.

Of course, one cannot photograph the sun. But, from our wonderful, East-facing living room window, we (actually our early-rising spouse) can watch the sunrise. Amazingly, given our nearly 180 degree view, we can watch from day to day, week to week and month to month as the sun moves north from its most southern point at the winter solstice (meaning when the sun "stands still"), through the spring equinox (equal length of day and night) to the summer solstice in the north.

Sunrise at winter solstice, December 21.
It rises at the southern "foot" of the volcano Iztaccihuatl, the White or Sleeping Woman.
Popocatepetl, "Smoking Mountain", is to the far right.

Sunrise at mid Winter, February 2,
having passed north over Iztaccihuatl.
Also rises here at mid Autumn, November 2.

Sunrise at Spring (March 21) and Fall (September 21) equinox,
far north of Iztaccihuatl..

Zenith.
Because much of Mexico lies south of the Tropic of Cancer (23°26′12.8″ North),
the sun actually arrives directly overhead, at zenith, at noon on two days of the year.

In Mexico City (19°26′N) this occurs on May 15 at 1.35pm Central Daylight Time.
Then, for ten weeks the sun moves through northern skys.
It returns to zenith on its way back south, on July 26.
At the zeniths (and days close to them),
shadows fall directly below the object casting them.

After the sun reaches its northern most point on June 21, we then spend the next six months watching it return south. The sun's movement along such a horizon constitutes humanity's first calendar (think Stonehedge). (Oh, and we can watch sunsets from our bedroom window, although the range of our view to the north is restricted, so summer sunsets aren't visible.)

Rain

The rainy season in Mexico usually begins with what we call "practicing" or the "run up" in April when, in late aftenoon, rain clouds form over the volcanoes to the east, but nothing more happens. Then, as the days progress, big, towering cumulus thunderhead clouds and lightening and thunder will be added and, perhaps, some sprinkles and finally, usually in May, a full-fledged thunderstorm, which can become torrential in mid-summer through September.

Towering cumulus cloud forms over the eastern mountains,
hearlding the approach of the rainy season.

Thunderstorm approaches

This year (2018), the clouds started forming at the end of February and by mid-March, we had a few sprinkles. Then, one afternoon, lightening and thunder were added, and we had an actual short shower. But it also brought the first rainbow of the year! They appear frequently, as the storms from the east often coincide with sunset. Our east-facing picture window and balcony provide the perfect viewing place, and the time coincides with wine and cheese before dinner!

Rainbow (with a faint double)
The Mexico City International Airport is about five miles northeast of us,
so we frequently see planes ascending.
(We call this photo "Why, oh why, can't I fly... Over the rainbow?")

Subsequently, we had thunder storms three nights in a row. One night, there were three waves of storms, with strong winds. Then, a sunset reflected against the dissipating storm clouds.

That onslaught was followed by two weeks of straight, hot sun. No rain. Then, one evening, when no rain was in the day's forecast, we had a sudden, intense thunderstorm. So goes the start of the rainy season: erratic and unpredictable (even for the weather experts).

So That's Why We Live in Mexico

Any more questions?

The Travels and Travails of La Virgen de la Bala, The Virgin Who Took the Bullet

A while ago, we attended the patron saint fiesta of San Antonio Abad (St. Anthony the Abbot) in the Barrio San Antonio Atípac, in Pueblo Culhuacán, Delegación Iztapalapa. A main event in the fiesta was a procession that went from the church to an intersection that forms one corner of the barrio. There, residents of the other barrios of Culhuacán, as well as other nearby pueblos, were waiting to join the procession back to the church for the celebration of a Mass honoring San Antonio.

Under the Calzada (Avenue) de Taxqueña viaduct, which passes over Eje 3 Oriente (Axis Road 3 East),
a gathering of Saints and some of the faithful of Their barrios
await the arrival of San Antonio. 

In the middle, San Andrés from the neighboring Pueblo Tomatlán;
we were at His fiesta in November 2017.
San Simón, of Barrio San Simón, is at the left.

We recognized some of the saints from prior Ambles to various of original pueblos. Some were new to us. One, in particular, caught our attention, a small version of the Virgin Mary, crowned as the Queen of Heaven and dressed in white. She was contained in a metal-framed glass box. Such small, encased versions of saints, we have learned, are called demanditas, literally 'little demands', i.e. little (therefore easily portable) 'petitions' or vehicles for prayers to the saint. 

La Virgen de la Bala, the Virgin of the Bullet
The crown and circle of stars around Her head
and the crescent Moon of clouds at Her feet
identify Her advocación (role) as Queen of Heaven.

A young woman was holding her. We approached, introduced ourselves and asked what advocación of the Virgin this was. The word advocación (from the verb advocar, to advocate, to speak up on behalf of someone) is used in Spanish to describe each particular "forms" taken by the Virgin Mary to carry out her role as an advocate for the faithful, an intermediary speaking up for them to Her Son, the Christ, and God the Father, the father of Her Son. Some major examples in Mexico are:

• Virgin of Guadalupe, adopting and protecting all the peoples of Mexico;
• Virgen de Candelaria, presenting the Infant Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem;
• Virgen de Dolores, (of Sorrows), bearing Her Sorrows during Holy Week; and  
• Virgen de los Remedios (Remedies), a statue believed to have been brought by one of the Spanish conquistadors, hence Her first presence in the New World..

The woman replied, "She is la Virgen de la Bala" — "the Virgin of the Bullet."

Virgin of the Bullet? We were taken aback by the very peculiar name. In all our Ambles to saints' fiestas, we had never heard of this advocation of the Virgin and wondered how she came to have such a strange name and what advocatión it represented.

The young woman added that this Virgin was not the original statue. The original, she said, resided in the Santuario del Señor de la Cuevita, the Sanctuary of the Lord of the Little Cave, in nearby Pueblo Iztapalapa. We were familiar with the Sanctuary from our attendance at the Passion Play of Iztapalapa the previous Holy Week, as the play developed in the 19th century to honor this figure of Cristo enterrado, Christ buried.

At this point, the procession headed back to the church of San Antonio Abad, and we were left with many unanswered questions. We thought that, at some point, we would have to research more to try and find out the story and significance of this new, to us peculiar, advocación of the Virgin.

The Saint of a Spanish Lady Takes a Centuries-long Path to Turn into a Santo Popular, a Saint of the Common People

In subsequent weeks, we were occupied by other fiestas, including Carnavales (Carnivals), leading up to Lent and Holy Week. Nevertheless, having discovered in the past year that many pueblos in Mexico City have Facebook pages, including for their various saints, we came across not one, but two pages dedicated to la Virgen de la Bala. One stated it was sponsored by the Confradía (Brotherhood) of Santuario del Señor de la Cuevita in Pueblo Iztapalapa, confirming that the Virgin resides there. The other was La Virgen de la Bala Pueblo de Culhuacán, apparently the one we had met below the overpass in San Antonio Atípac. On both pages, the Virgin is photographed visiting private homes in the respective communities.  

Recently, we wrote a blog page on what we call santos populares, a group of saints of the Catholic Church that we have encountered at various fiestas who, instead of being patron saints assigned to a parish, are ones that have been adopted by the people of a pueblo after some miraculous event had occurred, often when they were visiting the pueblo from elsewhere.

El Señor de la Cuevita is one such santo popular, the de facto predominant saint of all of the barrios of the ancient pueblo of Iztapalapa. It struck us that la Virgen de la Bala was evidently also such a santo popular, a saint adopted by the common people. That motivated us all the more to try to find out her story and why she is associated with a bullet.

The contemporary miracle of the Internet led us to the tale. We found a website written by an art historian who had done his undergraduate thesis on la Virgen de la Bala. (Such a thesis of original research is required in Mexican universities to become "licenciado", the equivalent of a bachelor's degree.)  Naín Alejandro Ruiz Jaramillo now holds a Masters in Art History. Here is our translation of his telling of the origin, travels and travails of la Virgen de la Bala.

"Tradition and legend say that at the beginning of the seventeenth century, there was a Spanish couple who lived in the pueblo of Iztapalapa, right on the shores of Lake Texcoco. Their marriage was distinguished by living in harmony and being a great example of sincere love, until the Devil, the enemy of all Christian unions, attempted and managed to sow discord between them, managing to ignite in the heart of the husband the infernal fire of jealousy.

One day, the husband, crazed by hate, decided to kill his innocent wife, took a gun and shot at her. The only thing the helpless woman could do to safeguard herself was to take as her defense and shield a small image of the Virgin under the advocación of Her Immaculate Conception. She had possessed the image since time immemorial and professed great devotion to it. At the moment of the shooting, the bullet was miraculously stopped by the base of image.

According to the Jesuits Fray Francisco de Florencia and Antonio de Oviedo, who later wrote of the miracle, the bullet was embedded in the base 'so firmly that, although it can be rotated, it has never been possible to remove it'. This event was taken as irrefutable proof of the fidelity of the woman, and the husband was thus set straight. It was in this way that the sculpture was named Our Lady of the Bullet.

After this first miracle, the pious tradition narrates that the image was offered in a lottery among the churches of Mexico City. The lot was drawn three times, and each time the hospital for lepers in San Lázaro won the prize. It is recalled that at the precise moment that the Virgin was brought into the hospital, a woman for whom last rites had been said, and for whom a vigil was being held, suddenly revived. For this reason, other wonderful miracles are attributed to Her.

(Translator's note: San Lázaro, St. Lazarus, is the saint of lepers. The hospital was the second one founded by Hernán Cortes in 1524. The neighborhood, which still takes its name from the hospital, is on the east side of what was then the small colonial City of Mexico. It is now the site of the Chamber of Deputies of the federal Congress, commonly referred to as 'San Lazaro'.) 

Several chronicles report one of Her greatest and most improbable marvels: in the year 1666 a woman who had severe problems delivering twin babies, by intervention of the Virgin of the Bullet, managed to deliver them through her mouth. It is obvious that knowledge about pregnancy and human conception was precarious at that time, only in that way can we explain such a peculiar story.

It is also known that the Virgin a cured a typhus fever suffered by the daughter of Francisco de Córdoba, the corregidor of the City of Mexico (mayor, appointed by the King). In honor of the Virgin of the Bullet, a famous confradía (brotherhood) was founded, dedicated to assisting the leprous poor.

Fray Francisco de Florencia was the one who thought that Mexico City was protected by the Virgin Mary on all sides (the archetypical cardinal directions in all primal cultures) by means of four sanctuaries and images of Her: 

'The city of Mexico is favored by the Most Holy Mary with four sanctuaries that surround it: on the

• North by [the Virgin of] Guadalupe; on the

• West by the Virgin of the Remedies; on the

• South by the Virgin of Piedad (Compassion); and on the

• East by the Virgin of the Bullet.'

For this reason, in the viceroy era there were those who invoked Her as a protective Virgin and spiritual bulwark on the east side of the capital of New Spain. During the epidemic that struck Mexico City between 1736-1737, She was included as one of the miraculous images that helped to mitigate the plague. Fray Francisco de Florencia, the priest Cayetano de Cabrera y Quintero, Fray Ajofrin, José Antonio Villaseñor and Mariano Fernández de Echeverría y Veytia, were just some of those, among other writers in Nueva España, who wrote about the Virgin of the Bullet.

When the San Lázaro Hospital and its chapel were closed in 1862 (at the time of the French invasion), the historic image of Our Lady of the Bullet was transferred to the chapel of the Hospital of Jesús Nazareno (Jesus the Nazarene) where it remained until 1901, when it was stolen. Her whereabouts were unknown for many years.

(Translator's note: The Hospital of Jesús Nazareno was founded by Hernán Cortés in 1524, ostensibly at the site where he first met Moctezuma the Younger in November 1519. It is still in operation. It is, thus, the oldest continuously running hospital in the Americas.)

Entrance to the modern Hospital of Jesus of Nazareth,
on Avenida 20th de noviembre, 20th of November.

Original inner patio of the colonial period Hospital Jésus Nazareno.

Plaque citing the foundation of the hospital
by Hernán Cortés at the site of his meeting with Moctezuma.
Founded in 1524, it is the first hospital in the Americas,
and in continuous service for more than 400 years.

In the year 1913, the priest Rosendo Perez Yniestra found her in Monte de Piedad. He paid the amount of the debt, and thus, he rescued the Virgin of the Bullet. He decided to attach to the base of the image a commemorative plaque with the name of this figure and the date on which he rescued her. 

Monte de Piedad 
on the Zócalo.

(Translator's Note: Monte de Piedad, Mount of Compassion, is the name of the huge, now national, pawn shop system that was founded on the Zócalo in 1775. It is based on the first Monte de Piedad, founded in 1702 in Madrid. It is used by many Mexicans to get what are, in effect, small loans using whatever they have of value as collateral.) 

As it happened, at that time he was pastor of the church of San Lucas Evangelista (St. Luke the Evangelist) in the pueblo of Iztapalapa, so he decided to return Her whence she had originated. Since that date, the people of Iztapalapa have venerated her and she is jealously guarded by the natives of the pueblo.

Church of San Lucas,
Barrio San Lucas, Iztapalapa.
The Passion Play starts here
on Palm Sunday.

Meanwhile, it was still believed that she was missing; nevertheless, she is now worshiped in the Sanctuary of the Lord of the Little Cave, to the great joy of all her devotees."

Historia de la Virgen de la Bala by Naín Alejandro Ruiz Jaramillo, Masters in Art History

A Santo Popular

Thus, with great thanks to Maestro Ruiz Jaramillo, we have been able to follow the trail and travails of la Virgen de la Bala from the home of a Spanish lady living in Iztapalapa in the early 17th century to Her serving for three hundred years as the saint of two hospitals founded by Hernán Cortés and as the bulwark protecting the East side of Mexico City from all kinds of harm.

These important functions were interrupted by Her disappearance, followed by her remarkable, if not miraculous, rescue by Father Perez Yniestra from Monte de Piedad and Her return home to Her original pueblo of Iztapalapa. In returning to Her pueblo, she became a santo popular, a saint adopted by the common people.

Sr. Ruiz Jaramillo tells us that Her original advocación was as a representation of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception (i.e. Mary's ideal, heavenly image before she was born and to which, at Her earthly death, she was to return via Her Assumption into Heaven as the Queen of Heaven). 

He then goes on to detail the changes in her advocación over the centuries, resulting in Her helpfulness to everyday people in a wide variety of everyday, and not so everyday, circumstances.  

"Given the characteristics of the first miracle of the Virgin of the Bullet, She is considered a defender of marriages and helps to reduce marital problems or get a partner. In the same way, she is the patron of pregnant women and those in labor. For this reason she is also asked to bring good luck to their newborn children, or help in conceiving them if there is any problem of infertility.

Also, Her devotees believe that She protects those who have dangerous professions, for example police and soldiers, who are at risk of being hit by murderous bullets. It is believed that she diverts them."

Dare we say, that is quite a list of cargos, responsibilities! No wonder there are so many versions of St. Mary! Each has an equal, if not greater, number of duties. We are grateful that we have gotten to know la Virgen de la Bala and Her story. How Her replica came to be in neighboring Culhuacán, we still don't know. ¡Ojalá! God willing, we may come to meet Her again during our Ambles.

The tiny Virgen de la Bala stands beside San Antonio Abad,
the honoree and host of visiting saints at His patron saint Mass
in the parish church of Barrio San Antonio Atípac, Pueblo Culhuacán.
(The black píg is a reminder that St. Anthony, one of the first hermit monks,
worked as a swineherd to make a living.