.gif)
Colonia Juárez (Mexico City)
Encyclopedia
Colonia (Mexico)
In general, colonias are neighborhoods in Mexican cities, which have no jurisdictional autonomy or representation. It is plausible that the name, which literally means colony, arose in the late 19th, early 20th centuries, when one of the first urban developments outside Mexico City's core was...
in the Cuauhtémoc borough
Cuauhtémoc, D.F.
Cuauhtémoc, named after the former Aztec leader, is one of the 16 boroughs of the Federal district of Mexico City. It consists of the oldest parts of the city, extending over what was the entire city in the 1920s. This area is the historic and culture center of the city, although it is not the...
of Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
. Its boundaries are: the corner of Paseo de la Reforma
Paseo de la Reforma
Paseo de la Reforma is a wide avenue that runs in a straight line, cutting diagonally across Mexico City. It was designed by Ferdinand von Rosenzweig in the 1860s and modeled after the great boulevards of Europe, such as Vienna's Ringstrasse or the Champs-Élysées in Paris...
and Eje Bucareli to the north, Avenida Chapultepec to the south, Eje 1 Poniente to the east and Circuito Interior José Vasconcelos to the west.
It is located between the historic center of Mexico City
Historic center of Mexico City
The historic center of Mexico City is also known as the "Centro" or "Centro Histórico." This neighborhood is focused on the Zócalo or main plaza in Mexico City and extends in all directions for a number of blocks with its farthest extent being west to the Alameda Central The Zocalo is the largest...
and the Chapultepec Park area, just south of the Paseo de la Reforma, which is one of Mexico’s main commercial districts and its financial center. Since it was established in the late 19th century and early 20th as a haven for the wealthy leaving the city center, the colonia has been in near constant change. Most of the mansions built in the early part of its history have either been abandoned, converted into businesses or been taken over by squatters. However, it has had a cosmopolitan and intellectual reputation since its founding, which was reinforced with the influx of artists and intellectuals in the 1960s. The area has suffered deterioration since the 1980s, due to the 1985 Mexico City earthquake
1985 Mexico City earthquake
The 1985 Mexico City earthquake, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake that struck Mexico City on the early morning of 19 September 1985 at around 7:19 AM , caused the deaths of at least 10,000 people and serious damage to the greater Mexico City Area. The complete seismic event...
and other factors, but there have been efforts to return the area’s former prestige, including tourism promotion, historic conservation efforts and the urbanization of areas close to Paseo de la Reforma.
The best known area of the colonia is Zona Rosa
Zona Rosa
Zona Rosa is a neighborhood in Mexico City which is known for its shopping, nightlife, gay community, and its recently established Korean community...
(Pink Zone) which is a tourist attraction for its artistic and intellectual reputation and is home to Mexico City’s gay community. It is also home to “Little Seoul,” center of the city’s Korean immigrant population.
History
In the 1860s, this area was shallow lake waters and swampSwamp
A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...
and was almost completely uninhabited. However, one reason that the city eventually expanded this way was the decision by Empress Carlota
Charlotte of Belgium
Charlotte of Belgium is remembered today as Carlota of Mexico as empress consort of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, ex-Archduke of Austria.-Princess of Belgium:The only daughter of Leopold I, King of the Belgians by his second wife,...
to build a road to connect the Castle of Chapultepec to the downtown of the city. The road was designed by Austrian engineer Allois Bollan Kuhmackl in 1865 with its trajectory recommended by the emperor
Maximilian I of Mexico
Maximilian I was the only monarch of the Second Mexican Empire.After a distinguished career in the Austrian Navy, he was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico on April 10, 1864, with the backing of Napoleon III of France and a group of Mexican monarchists who sought to revive the Mexican monarchy...
. Its use was exclusive to the emperor and his retinue. When Republican forces overthrew the emperor
French intervention in Mexico
The French intervention in Mexico , also known as The Maximilian Affair, War of the French Intervention, and The Franco-Mexican War, was an invasion of Mexico by an expeditionary force sent by the Second French Empire, supported in the beginning by the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Spain...
, this avenue was named Paseo Degollado. A few years later, it received its current name. Between 1872 and 1876, President Lerdo de Tejada
Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada
Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada y Corral was a jurist and Liberal president of Mexico.-Background:...
widened the road to its current dimensions and opened it to the public in 1877.
In the very late 19th century and early 20th century, the historic center of Mexico City
Historic center of Mexico City
The historic center of Mexico City is also known as the "Centro" or "Centro Histórico." This neighborhood is focused on the Zócalo or main plaza in Mexico City and extends in all directions for a number of blocks with its farthest extent being west to the Alameda Central The Zocalo is the largest...
was deteriorating as its colonial and Baroque buildings came to be seen as antiquidated. Many of the city’s elite moved to new neighborhoods being constructed in the western suburbs along Paseo de la Reforma
Paseo de la Reforma
Paseo de la Reforma is a wide avenue that runs in a straight line, cutting diagonally across Mexico City. It was designed by Ferdinand von Rosenzweig in the 1860s and modeled after the great boulevards of Europe, such as Vienna's Ringstrasse or the Champs-Élysées in Paris...
. Around the 1880s, the city had west past Colonia Santa Maria de la Ribera, enveloping the areas where now are found the streets named Donato Guerra, Antonio Caso, Balderas, Chapultepec and Bucareli. Just beyond this around 1887, there were still groves and cornfields; however, soon to be built were the streets named Roma, Milán, Lucerna, Dinamarca, Hamburgo, Londres, Berlín, Río Neva, Río Amazonas and Avenida de los Insurgentes
Avenida de los Insurgentes
Avenida de los Insurgentes , sometimes known simply as Insurgentes, is the longest avenue in Mexico City and said to be the longest in the world with a length of on a north-south axis across the city...
, which form the heart of Colonia Juarez. Many of the new streets were named after European capital due to early resident and ex-consulate of Mexico Ricardo García Granado, as his children had been born in some of these cities as he performed his diplomatic duties.
Originally, the area now known as Colonia Juárez consisted of four colonias established in the mid-19th century: Los Arquitectos, Bucareli, Del Paseo and Nuea del Paseos. Much of this area was lakebed that was in process of drying up; in fact at the beginning of the 20th century, there were still gulleys with water in them, most of which were around what is now the Cuauhtemoc traffic circle. The four colonias would officially be unified in 1906, under the name of Colonia Benito Juárez García, but the area was unofficially known as Colonia Americana for some time before that.
At the end of the 19th century, this area became a favorite getaway for the wealthy elite of Mexico City, who began to build country houses here, to be close to the Chapultepec
Chapultepec
Chapultepec Park, more commonly called the "Bosque de Chapultepec" in Mexico City, is the largest city park in Latin America, measuring in total just over 686 hectares. Centered on a rock formation called Chapultepec Hill, one of the park's main functions is to be an ecological space in the vast...
forest. Many foreigners also located here, due to the presence of a number of embassies. However, because these houses were built in an orderly fashion along straight streets, the area soon lost its country look. The city government initially tried to halt the development by the area but extending and raising property taxes, but it did not work. The area became the most exclusive in Mexico City, as wealthy families sought to create a European mode of living. The first residents of the new colonia were those who made their fortunes in land speculation, haciendas in other parts of Mexico, mines, banks, oil and railroads. Many of the buildings had French influence, which was popular at the time, which even included mansard roof
Mansard roof
A mansard or mansard roof is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterized by two slopes on each of its sides with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper that is punctured by dormer windows. The roof creates an additional floor of habitable space, such as a garret...
s, despite the fact that it never snows here. Because many of the houses on Londres Street in the east part of the colonia had these mansard roofs, the area was popularly known as Colonia Limantour, for this and the presence of one of the most important people to live here, José Ives Limantour, the then Minister of Taxation. Prices for land in the colonia rose rapidly from 50 cents per unit in 1872 to $25 in 1903. This was one of the first residential areas of the city to have electricity. This allowed residents the luxury of staying up late, and began the area’s reputation as a night spot, as residents went out for coffee and other socializing spaces nearby.
During the regime of Porfirio Díaz
Porfirio Díaz
José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori was a Mexican-American War volunteer and French intervention hero, an accomplished general and the President of Mexico continuously from 1876 to 1911, with the exception of a brief term in 1876 when he left Juan N...
, the area was filled with restaurants, cafes, bakeries and plazas were people gathered to socialize during evenings and weekends. One early prominent location was the Hotel Emporio on Paseo de la Reforma, which had tea rooms and cafes, attracting some of the wealthiest families in the city. Another similar locale was the Hotel Imperial, which also had various stores. Both buildings still exist and the Emporio conserves most of its original facade. Another famous hotel was the Hotel Reforma. It was home to a bar called “Ciro’s” during the 1940s and 1950s, where Pedro Infante
Pedro Infante
José Pedro Infante Cruz , better known as Pedro Infante, is the most famous actor and singer of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema and is an idol of the Latinamerican people, together with Jorge Negrete and Javier Solís, who were styled the Tres Gallos Mexicanos . He was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa,...
began his career; María Félix
María Félix
María Félix was a Mexican film actress and one of the icons of the golden era of the Cinema of Mexico and also one of the myths of the Spanish language Cinema for her life style and personality...
visited and Agustín Lara
Agustín Lara
Agustín Lara was a Mexican singer and songwriter.-Biography:Lara was born in Tlacotalpan, Veracruz. Later, the Lara family had to move again to Mexico City, establishing their house in the borough of Coyoacán. After Lara's mother died, Agustín and his siblings lived in a hospice run by their...
gave concerts. It has since been demolished for redevelopment.
When the colonia was built, a large number of sculptures were added to the public areas, especially on Paseo de la Reforma. Lining both sides are statues honoring writers, political leaders, and others. One prominent sculpture is that of Cuauhtémoc
Cuauhtémoc
Cuauhtémoc was the Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan from 1520 to 1521...
, for which neighboring Colonia Cuauhtémoc was named. Another is a monument to Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
, which was a gift from Antonio Escandon.
The most famous section of Colonia Juarez, Zona Rosa
Zona Rosa
Zona Rosa is a neighborhood in Mexico City which is known for its shopping, nightlife, gay community, and its recently established Korean community...
, began as development by Rafael Martínez de la Torre, which he envisioned as a satellite city away from Mexico City catering to the wealthy. At his death in 1882, the project stagnated until Salvador Malo acquired the rights to the area and participated in creating a district council for it. Work on developing this area faltered again until the early 20th century when the México City Improvement Company and the Chapultepec Land Improvement Company took over.
The Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
brought the upscale and international community here to an end, as it represented the Porfirian era. Many of the houses here were abandoned and some, such as the one belonging to Francisco I. Madero
Francisco I. Madero
Francisco Ignacio Madero González was a politician, writer and revolutionary who served as President of Mexico from 1911 to 1913. As a respectable upper-class politician, he supplied a center around which opposition to the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz could coalesce...
were burned during a Decena Trágica in 1913. After the war was over, a number of these mansions were appropriated by the government to house institutions such as the Secretary of Health, now Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social .
By the mid-20th century, the semi rural colonia was soon engulfed by the rapidly expanding city. Many of its first residents then moved to new neighborhoods such as Lomas de Chapultepec, Polanco
Polanco (Mexico)
Polanco is the name that usually refers to a group of seven official neighborhoods in Mexico City, located north of Chapultepec Park. The official names of the neighborhoods are: Los Morales , Del Bosque, Polanco Reforma, Polanco Chapultepec, Chapultepec Morales, Bosque de Chapultepec and...
and Colonia Del Valle
Colonia del Valle
Colonia del Valle is a neighborhood in the Benito Juarez borough of Mexico City. The city includes "...a great number of parks, vast and tree-lined streets, prestigious shopping malls, and some city landmarks..."...
. The older houses, especially in the Zona Rosa area, began to be converted into businesses. However, it still remained upscale with the wedding of Alex Berger to María Félix occurring at an Art Nouveau mansion at Londres #6 in 1956 (today the Wax Museum).
Jose Luis Cuevas
José Luis Cuevas is a modernist painter and sculptor from Mexico. Born in 1934, Cuevas derived most of his training outside of the academies. He is considered to be one of the artists from the 1950s in the Rupture Generation that was departing from the politicized and stylized mural school of...
, Carlos Monsiváis Aceves, Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes Macías is a Mexican writer and one of the best-known living novelists and essayists in the Spanish-speaking world. He has influenced contemporary Latin American literature, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages.-Biography:Fuentes was born in...
and José Agustin
José Agustín
José Agustín Ramírez Gómez is a Mexican novelist.-Career:Agustin's first novel, La Tumba was the brief but provocative story of a Mexican upperclass teen, deemed indecent by the public but gathering praise from older writers...
moved into the Zona Rosa area. This group gave the area its name because it was “too red to be white and too white to be red,” meaning that it tolerated some vice but not too much. In 1967, Cuevas, in an act which was reported by various local stations, created a mural on a roof in Zona Rosa which he destroyed seconds after he finished, as a protest against the social and political content of post- Revolution Mexican muralism
Mexican Muralism
Mexican muralism is a Mexican art movement. The most important period of this movement took place primarily from the 1920s to the 1960s, though it exerted an influence on later generations of Mexican artists...
.
The presence of artists and intellectuals in the area prompted the opening of bookstores and art galleries. The colonia hosted other names such as Guadalupe Amor, Manuel Felguérez
Manuel Felguérez
Manuel Felguérez Aspe is a Mexican abstract artist.-Biography:Felguérez was born at the Hacienda de San Agustin del Vergel, in the town of Valparaíso, Zacatecas. At the time, in the wake of the Mexican Revolution, there were still uprisings by small guerrillas and land ownership was nothing less...
, Lilia Carrillo, Alfonso Suarez del Real and Elena Poniatowski . These people brought a new wave in internationalism to the area and made the area popular with international tourists to Mexico City. This spurred more development in the way of restaurants, handcraft markets, antiques, nightclubs and more, not all of which was upscale. In the late 1980s into the 1990s, restaurants and bars displaced art galleries and other cultural establishments, but this did not diminish the area’s popularity with tourists.
The Colonia retained its intellectual and artistic reputation from the 1960s to the late 1980s. However, the 1985 Mexico City earthquake damaged many buildings in the area and devastated a number such as Plaza Washington. This and a severe economic crisis started a process of deterioration, with many residents moving out.(lacustre) Street peddlers have significantly increased in number and many of the damaged structures are inhabited by squatters or have been converted into tenements, with absentee landlords that did not bother to collect the long-frozen rents. Most of the stately homes still in good condition have been converted into businesses such as nightclubs. Residents complain that infrastructure, especially lighting, has not been sufficiently maintained, leading to crime.
Until recently, Zona Rosa has remained popular with tourists although this has waned somewhat with the area’s deterioration. Tourism has been both a blessing and a curse to the area. It has attracted big names such as Paul McCartney, to stay here, but it has caused damaged and vandalism to sites. One major incident of this type when British soccer fans caused damage in 1985,leading to the destruction of the Calinda Geneve Hotel. Another was a more recent boycott of Jewish businesses by anti-Zionists.
Soon after their installation, the parking meters paid for major reconstruction work on Havre Street. Major sidewalk, pedestrian street and garden area reconstruction was undertaken in the Zona Rosa area in the mid-to-late first decade of the 21st century, after 20 years of no maintenance.
Colonia Juárez today
The colonia is one of the busiest in the city. Each day, 440,000 people enter the area to work, shop, wander around or visit the many restaurants and nightclubs in the 2,100 business and offices located here. Due to severe parking problems, 4,500 meters were installed in the colonia in 1998, which earn 8 million pesos each year. Sidewalks and sometimes streets are blocked by tables from restaurants and street vendors, making passage for the crowds difficult.
However, the area still has significant problems. It is not unusual to see limousines, young people in punk attire, foreign tourists, drug addicts, panhandlers, businesspeople and more all on the same street. Since the 1980s, the population of the colonia has declined to under 9,000 people at the beginning of the 21st century. Neighborhood leaders claim that the deterioration of businesses, especially the proliferation of men’s clubs and infrastructure is the cause. Some of the businesses that have been targeted as causing problems include La Michelada, El Keops, El Manhattan and El Pecado. In addition, street peddlers block sidewalks and streets, this issue is most problematic on Londres, Hamburgo, Abraham Gonzalez, Toledo and Liverpool streets. Many street vendors now have permanent stands. Some residents also complain about auto part stores on Abraham Gonzalez, Barcelona and Versalles streets. Street vendors have been removed from streets on occasion, but eventually they return.
Since the 1990s, tourism has fallen in the area, mostly due to petty crime and “hooligan
Hooliganism
Hooliganism refers to unruly, destructive, aggressive and bullying behaviour. Such behaviour is commonly associated with sports fans. The term can also apply to general rowdy behaviour and vandalism, often under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs....
s” . Crime problems have lowered hotel residency rates. The Nuestra Señora del Sagrado Corazón is located on the corner of Genova and Paseo de la Reforma. It suffered two thefts of religious images, one of Saint Charbel
Charbel
Charbel, Sharbel, or Sharbel Makhluf, , born as Youssef Antoun Makhlouf in Bekaa Kafra in northern Lebanon, was a Syriac-Maronite monk and priest, canonized saint by the Roman Catholic Church and now venerated world-wide.-His Life:...
and the other called the “Virgen del Cobre” (Copper Virgin) in 2008. Male prostitution began in the area in 1995 and is mostly located on Hamburgo and Varsovia streets. Female prostitution is located mostly in three houses located on Dublin, Hamburgo and Chapultepec streets. Small scale drug trafficking is common, with merchandise hidden in telephone booth
Telephone booth
A telephone booth, telephone kiosk, telephone call box or telephone box is a small structure furnished with a payphone and designed for a telephone user's convenience. In the USA, Canada and Australia, "telephone booth" is used, while in the UK and the rest of the Commonwealth it is a "telephone...
s, garden areas and street vendor stalls. It is often advertised by people passing out flyers with the names of non-existent businesses in the State of Mexico. To combat crimes such as muggings, a special squad of “tourist police” now patrol the area, especially on less-travelled streets such as Praga, Toledo and Burdeos.
The divide between rich and poor can be seen in areas such as Atenas Street. Here, next to the Palacio de Covian, the site of the Secretary of the Government, there is a building damaged by the 1985 earthquake in which nine families live illegally. These families do not pay rent and the owner wants to evict them. These families earn money by selling crafts on the sidewalks in the colonia or by washing clothes. There are families that live on the streets here who survive on 20 pesos
Mexican peso
The peso is the currency of Mexico. Modern peso and dollar currencies have a common origin in the 15th–19th century Spanish dollar, most continuing to use its sign, "$". The Mexican peso is the 12th most traded currency in the world, the third most traded in the Americas, and by far the most...
a day.
In many locations, the inability to recover from the events of the 1980s can still be seen. One building nearly in ruins from the 1985 earthquake stands on Praga Street on the corner of Chapultepec; another is on Londres Street near the Museo de Cera. On Amberes Street, between Londres and Liverpool, there are a number of tenement
Tenement
A tenement is, in most English-speaking areas, a substandard multi-family dwelling, usually old, occupied by the poor.-History:Originally the term tenement referred to tenancy and therefore to any rented accommodation...
s, which are not maintained and owners do not bother to collect the tenants’ frozen rents.
New construction, especially along Paseo de la Reforma continues the trend from residential to commercial, with fifty one of its 99 blocks having been urbanized. This construction is raising the reputation of the area once again, with hopes of returning its prestige.
Architecture and landmarks
The colonia is home to a number of architectural styles which date from between the 19th and 20th centuries to the present. Most of the finer mansions are located on the east side of the colonia with a few on Paseo de la Reforma. A number of styles can be seen on Havre Street and the area around Giodano Bruno Plaza. The oldest structures date to the founding of the colonia. Decorative features of these homes include large stairways, multiple levels, tall windows and elements of French design, mostly based on the BaroqueFrench Baroque architecture
French Baroque is a form of Baroque architecture that evolved in France during the reigns of Louis XIII , Louis XIV and Louis XV...
of Louis XIII, Louis XIV and Louis XV, including mascarons
Mascaron (architecture)
In architecture, a mascaron ornament is a face, usually human, sometimes frightening or chimeric whose function was originally to frighten away evil spirits so that they would not enter the building. The concept was subsequently adapted to become a purely decorative element. The most recent...
, crests and floral designs. Many have facades of tezontle
Tezontle
Tezontle is a porous, extrusive, igneous, volcanic rock used extensively in construction in Mexico. It is usually reddish in color.-Uses:Tezontle can be mixed with concrete to form lightweight concrete blocks, or mixed with cement to create stucco finishes. Tezontle is often used as the top...
, gray sandstone and even marble. The interiors generally had pastel colors and gilded accents similar to those of pre-Revolution France
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. Many of these houses were built by European-trained architects . mostly inspired by French and Italian designs, with occasional English influence. The streets here are wider than many others in the city.
A number of former mansions and other structures from the area’s early history continue to exist, some, such as those on Berlin and Versalles Streets are well preserved. Others such as Versalles 52, is filled with squatters and still others contain businesses such as the funeral home at Versalles 50. Originally this funeral home was a country villa whose architecture was inspired by that of Renaissance Italy and France. The building features intricate glasswork, a tile roof, cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
s, balconies and reliefs on the doors. Next to this is another villa which houses a bar called La Tirana and a discothèque called La Estacion. In both these buildings, the original interiors are gone, but the facades remain. Another well preserved area is the “Colonia del Buen Tono” area defined by Bucareli, Turin, Abraham Gonzalez and Barcelona streets, where businessman Ernesto Pugibet
Ernesto Pugibet
Ernesto Pugibet, or, Ernet Pugibet in French, was a French Mexican entrepreneur. He is regarded as one of the key figures in Mexico's industrial revolution, at the turn of the 20th century, and a pioneer of early advertising....
, “the Carlos Slim of his era”, built housing for his employees in accordance to his religious beliefs. This housing complex is divided only by three private and quiet streets called Calle Mascota, Calle Ideal and Calle Gardenia, in contrast to the streets that surround the area.
The twin museums of Ripley’s
Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Ripley's Believe It or Not! is a franchise, founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims...
and Museo de Cero are located on Londres Street. The Museo de Cero or Wax Museum is housed in a mansion designed by Antonio Rivas Mercado
Antonio Rivas Mercado
Antonio Rivas Mercado was a Mexican architect, engineer and restorer. His most notable project was the design of the Independence Column in downtown Mexico City. He was father of Antonieta Rivas Mercado....
, who also designed the Angel of Independence monument on Paseo de la Reforma. The Ripley’s Museum (Museo Ripley's "Aunque usted no lo crea!")in Mexico City houses 300 rarities from among the collection of such its founder, Robert Ripley, collected during twenty years of his life. These include wine made infused with rat fetuses (Tianshuzaichiew), a sculpture of the tallest man in the world (Robert Wadlow) photographs of people and other artifacts. The Mexico City branch of the museum was established in 1992 in a structure shaped like a medieval castle and is one of 17 such museums in the world, but the only in Latin America. The museum is located at Londres #4 and #6. It is joined with the Museo de la Cera.
On Londres Street is an abandoned mansion which served as the embassy of the Spanish Republican government during the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
. When Mexico became the only nation to continue recognizing the Republican government, it became the headquarters for the government-in-exile. Next to it is the Sagrado Corazon de Jesus Church, built by the Hungarian immigrant community on Giordano Bruno Plaza, in which the aristocracy of the late 19th and early 20th centuries attended mass.
The house of Francisco I. Madero was at Liverpool 25 on the corner with Berlin. The house was burned by Victoriano Huerta after he took power during the Decena Trágica in 1913. It is a narrow building with a pitched roof. There is a plaque on the buildings to commemorate the event.
Other notable sites in the area include the Benjamin Franklin Library, and the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) building.
Economy
The telecommunications company CablemásCablemas
Cablemás, S.A. de C.V. is a Mexican telecommunications company with its headquarters in Colonia Juárez, Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City.It is the second-largest cable operator in Mexico after Megacable...
and the airline Magnicharters
Magnicharters
Grupo Aereo Monterrey S.A. de C.V., doing business as Magnicharters, is a airline with its headquarters in Colonia Juárez, Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City, operating domestic holiday flights out of Mexico City International Airport.-History:...
have their headquarters in Colonia Juárez.
Zona Rosa
Jose Luis Cuevas
José Luis Cuevas is a modernist painter and sculptor from Mexico. Born in 1934, Cuevas derived most of his training outside of the academies. He is considered to be one of the artists from the 1950s in the Rupture Generation that was departing from the politicized and stylized mural school of...
in the 1960s, who declared that it was “too fearful to be a red zone” (a zona roja or red zone in Spanish is an area were vices such as prostitution, alcohol and drugs are tolerated) .
While the area was dominated by upscale boutique and galleries until the 1980s, since then many of these businesses have given way to men’s clubs, gay bars and nightclubs, massage parlors, making the area a truly “red zone” . However, businesses of all types, from upscale boutiques and antique shops to fast food restaurants all exist here. The area has 714 businesses, 137 of which are restaurants with 100,000 people per day passing through.
One prominent street is Genova Street, a pedestrian mall lined with eateries, 13 of which own areas on the street on which to put tables. Here, dozens of people handing out flyers stop pedestrians and drivers advertising gay bars and men’s clubs, some of which operate illegally. It is also the site of the Corridor de Arte José Luis Cuevas, which occurs on weekends when an average of forty artists display their works for sale. On this street area around forty sculptures created by young artists of the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas of UNAM
National School of Arts (UNAM)
The Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas is a college of art in Xochimilco, Mexico City. The school is part the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and is responsible for teaching art - painting, sculpture and graphic design, with undergraduate and graduate studies in San Carlos...
. This effort was partially sponsored by the Rotary Club of Zona Rosa.
Another prominent area is Amberes Street, home to Mexico City’s gay community. Homosexuality on this street and the rest of Zona Rosa is fairly open with hand holding and kissing among same-sex couples. During Gay Pride
Gay pride
LGBT pride or gay pride is the concept that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity...
, the nightclubs, discothèques and bars of Zona Rosa fill with members of the LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
community starting at midday. Many businesses, whether they cater to gay people or not, decorate with rainbow colored balloons, streamers and other items. Despite the crowds police presence is not significantly heightened. The parade marches along Paseo de la Reforma from Puerta de los Leones to the Glorieta de la Palma, with the entire stretch completely closed to traffic for the event. The city have even participated offering free AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
tests to attendees. However, not all residents and business owners are happy with the area’s gay reputation. Some business owners complain that open displays of affection drives away tourists and other visitors. While male and female prostitution exists in Zona Rosa, there have been complaints of the prostitution of minors, despite efforts since the 1990s to eradicate it. However, some in the gay community state that the prostitution of minors is not the issue that neighbors say it is, rather, the problem some have is that there is a gay community here.
In 2005, the city created the Reforma-Centro Historico tourist route to connect the two areas; Zona Rosa and the historic center, and increase tourism in both.
Korean community
There are an estimated 9,000 KoreaKorea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
n nationals living in Mexico City. Most immigrated to Mexico in the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century, as a result of commercial agreements signed by the Mexican government and those of Korea and Taiwan
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
, allowing companies such as Daewoo
Daewoo
Daewoo or the Daewoo Group was a major South Korean chaebol . It was founded on 22 March 1967 as Daewoo Industrial and was dismantled by the Korean government in 1999...
to bring workers over from Asia. However, according to some sources, such as Alfredo Romero, professor of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at UNAM
Unam
UNAM or UNaM may refer to:* National University of Misiones, a National University in Posadas, Argentina*National Autonomous University of Mexico , the large public autonomous university based in Mexico City...
, a large percentage of Koreans living in Mexico have questionable immigration status.
Most of Mexico City’s Korean population lives in and around Zona Rosa. According to the newspaper Reforma
Reforma
Reforma is a Mexican newspaper based in Mexico City. It has 276,700 readers in Mexico City. The paper shares content with other papers in parent newsgroup Grupo Reforma. The cumulative readership of the newsgroup is above 400,000...
, there are at least 1,000 Koreans living in Zona Rosa and about 3,000 total in Colonia Juárez. Many Korean residents do not speak Spanish and are relatively isolated from their Mexican neighbors. The area around Hamburgo, Praga, Berna and Biarritz streets have converted into “Pequeño Seul,” or Little Seoul, with Biarritz Street’s residents almost 90% Korean. The number of Korean residents in the colonia continues to increase even as the number of younger people in general decreases.
Most Koreans are business owners with establishments such as restaurants, video rental places, bars and saunas, many of which cater exclusively to the Korean population, with signs and menus in Korean. There have been conflicts between Korean-owned businesses and Mexican neighbors over noise and sanitation issues, with some Mexicans complaining that the Koreans do not want to adapt to Mexican society. Another issue has been legal problems, both with the status of merchandise and the status of employees. A store owned by Koreans was shut down by police for selling imported merchandise of questionable origin in 2002, with 33 workers detained.