Colonia Peralvillo
Encyclopedia
Colonia Peralvillo is a colonia
located in the Cuauhtémoc borough
of Mexico City
, just northwest of the city’s historic center
. It has been a poor area since colonial times, but the modern colonia was not established until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although the area has been the setting for a number of literary works and films, today the area is known for violence and crime, especially shootings and the selling of stolen auto parts.
s, a change which was done early in the colonia’s history to unify it. However there are exceptions where the names are simply numbers or others such as Avenida Ferrocarril de Cintura. There are a total of 27 blocks. There are a number of private and public schools in the colonia such as 30 de Septiembre Primary (public), Carlos Darwin Primary (private), Cendi DIF Republica Española Technical School (public), Chris Pre school (private), Colegio Carolingio Primary (private), Estado de Michoacan Pre school (public), Galacion Gomez Pre school (public), La Patita Pre school (private), Leonardo Bravo Primary (public), Leopoldo Rio de la Loza Secondary (public), Lisandro Calderon Primary (public), Luces de Mexico Primary (private) and Luis de Camoens Secondary (public).
The area has a reputation for crime
and has been the scene of a number of violent robberies
and murder
s. In 2006, 25,000 pesos
was robbed from a secondary school cooperative after a shootout with police in the streets of the colonia as the robbers tried to escape. In 2008, the third highest ranking police official in Mexico City, Hugo Moneda Range, was shot to death on the intersection of Calzada de los Misterios and Berlios. In 2004, the Agencia Federal de Investigacion, conducted raids in Peralvillo and other areas of the city to shut down establishments making illegal slot machine
s and illegally operating casino
s. However, the major business in the area is the black market in autoparts. This business began in the late 1980s, when only twelve businesses selling used autoparts existed, and has expanded to over 9,000, with 90 to 95% of these selling stolen parts. Making Colonia Peralvillo and neighboring Colonia Hipodromo de Peralvillo one of the city’s major areas for chop shops. However, genuine used auto parts, whether obtained illegally or not, are facing pressure from imitation parts made in Taiwan
and other parts of Asia. This is making the stealing of automobiles less profitable.
An abandoned green area near where Paseo de la Reforma
, Calzada Misterios and Eje 2 Norte converge was cleaned up and rehabilitated to become the site of a 3.8-meter tall statue
of the wrestler El Santo, by sculptor Edwin Barrera. The statue was sponsored by the wrestler’s son, who is known as the Hijo del Santo. It was placed here because the wrestler lived near here on Belisario Dominguez Street with his siblings to fight in the nearby Arena Coliseo in the city center.
gate called the Garita de Peralvillo. This colonia, along with neighboring Tepito
, Lagunilla and Tlatelolco
were areas mostly inhabited by indigenous and mestizo
s, both poor, as well as large haciendas and monasteries
during the colonial period. Much of these lands, especially ecclesiastical lands, were expropriated by Benito Juárez
in the latter 19th century and redistributed among the poor living here. The modern colonia began when Carlos David de Gheest petitioned to have his lands, now known as the San José or Los Cuartos de la Cuchilla del Fraile areas, subdivided into housing in 1889. In 1910, the Terrenos de Peralvillo Company did the same with two other lots of land, which completed the current perimeter of the colonia. The area has always been called Peralvillo but the origin of the name is not clear. One writer, Gonzalo Peredo Goméz states that the name comes from a passage in the work Don Quixote, but spelled “Perabillo,” which referred to a place in La Mancha.
The area has been used as a setting in a number of literary works such La Marchanta by José Martínez de la Vega and screenplays by Juan García, who used the pseudonym
"El Peralvillo.” One film
set here is Los Fernández de Peralvillo (1953), which won five Ariel Awards.
In 2000, residents of the colonia burned in effigy
the three presidential candidates
(Vicente Fox
, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas
and Francisco Labastida
) on Wagner Plaza. This was done after the three were ceremoniously convicted of using “the money of the people” for their presidential campaigns. This protest occurred during the annual ritual of the burning of a large cardboard and paper effigy of Judas Iscariot
.
Started in the mid 2000s, the La Casa de Todos association operates a pizzeria and bakery
that employs street children
. These young people can often been seen in the colonia selling candy
and other items in order to survive. The goal of the association is to give these young people steady employment and job skills. The operation is small, mostly selling to those in the colonia, but it hopes to get contracts to provide bread and other foods to hospital
s and prison
s.
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...
located 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...
, just northwest of the city’s historic center
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...
. It has been a poor area since colonial times, but the modern colonia was not established until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although the area has been the setting for a number of literary works and films, today the area is known for violence and crime, especially shootings and the selling of stolen auto parts.
Description
The boundaries of the colonia are formed by the following streets: Juventino Rosas to the south, Avenida Río Consulado to the north, Calzada de Guadalupe to the east and Avenida Insurgentes Norte to the west. It has been a poor area since early colonial times. Many of the streets here are named for Mexican and international musicianMusician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
s, a change which was done early in the colonia’s history to unify it. However there are exceptions where the names are simply numbers or others such as Avenida Ferrocarril de Cintura. There are a total of 27 blocks. There are a number of private and public schools in the colonia such as 30 de Septiembre Primary (public), Carlos Darwin Primary (private), Cendi DIF Republica Española Technical School (public), Chris Pre school (private), Colegio Carolingio Primary (private), Estado de Michoacan Pre school (public), Galacion Gomez Pre school (public), La Patita Pre school (private), Leonardo Bravo Primary (public), Leopoldo Rio de la Loza Secondary (public), Lisandro Calderon Primary (public), Luces de Mexico Primary (private) and Luis de Camoens Secondary (public).
The area has a reputation for crime
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
and has been the scene of a number of violent robberies
Robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....
and murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
s. In 2006, 25,000 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...
was robbed from a secondary school cooperative after a shootout with police in the streets of the colonia as the robbers tried to escape. In 2008, the third highest ranking police official in Mexico City, Hugo Moneda Range, was shot to death on the intersection of Calzada de los Misterios and Berlios. In 2004, the Agencia Federal de Investigacion, conducted raids in Peralvillo and other areas of the city to shut down establishments making illegal slot machine
Slot machine
A slot machine , informally fruit machine , the slots , poker machine or "pokies" or simply slot is a casino gambling machine with three or more reels which spin when a button is pushed...
s and illegally operating casino
Casino
In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
s. However, the major business in the area is the black market in autoparts. This business began in the late 1980s, when only twelve businesses selling used autoparts existed, and has expanded to over 9,000, with 90 to 95% of these selling stolen parts. Making Colonia Peralvillo and neighboring Colonia Hipodromo de Peralvillo one of the city’s major areas for chop shops. However, genuine used auto parts, whether obtained illegally or not, are facing pressure from imitation parts made in Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
and other parts of Asia. This is making the stealing of automobiles less profitable.
An abandoned green area near where 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...
, Calzada Misterios and Eje 2 Norte converge was cleaned up and rehabilitated to become the site of a 3.8-meter tall statue
Statue
A statue is a sculpture in the round representing a person or persons, an animal, an idea or an event, normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger...
of the wrestler El Santo, by sculptor Edwin Barrera. The statue was sponsored by the wrestler’s son, who is known as the Hijo del Santo. It was placed here because the wrestler lived near here on Belisario Dominguez Street with his siblings to fight in the nearby Arena Coliseo in the city center.
History
In the 16th century, the area was not part of Mexico City, but rather a geographic area known as the Llanos de Peralvillo (Plains of Peralvillo). It was an area with many inns and other services for travelers entering Mexico City from the north. It also had a customsCustoms
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...
gate called the Garita de Peralvillo. This colonia, along with neighboring Tepito
Tepito
Tepito is a barrio located in Colonia Morelos in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City bordered by Avenida del Trabajo, Paseo de la Reforma, Eje 1 and Eje 2. Most of the neighborhood is taken up by the colorful tianguis or open-air market. Tepito’s economy has been linked to tianguis or traditional...
, Lagunilla and Tlatelolco
Tlatelolco (Mexico City)
Tlatelolco is an area in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City, centered on the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, a square surrounded on three sides by an excavated Aztec archaeological site, a 17th century church called Templo de Santiago, a former convent, and office complexes that used to belong to...
were areas mostly inhabited by indigenous and mestizo
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
s, both poor, as well as large haciendas and monasteries
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
during the colonial period. Much of these lands, especially ecclesiastical lands, were expropriated by Benito Juárez
Benito Juárez
Benito Juárez born Benito Pablo Juárez García, was a Mexican lawyer and politician of Zapotec origin from Oaxaca who served five terms as president of Mexico: 1858–1861 as interim, 1861–1865, 1865–1867, 1867–1871 and 1871–1872...
in the latter 19th century and redistributed among the poor living here. The modern colonia began when Carlos David de Gheest petitioned to have his lands, now known as the San José or Los Cuartos de la Cuchilla del Fraile areas, subdivided into housing in 1889. In 1910, the Terrenos de Peralvillo Company did the same with two other lots of land, which completed the current perimeter of the colonia. The area has always been called Peralvillo but the origin of the name is not clear. One writer, Gonzalo Peredo Goméz states that the name comes from a passage in the work Don Quixote, but spelled “Perabillo,” which referred to a place in La Mancha.
The area has been used as a setting in a number of literary works such La Marchanta by José Martínez de la Vega and screenplays by Juan García, who used the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"El Peralvillo.” One film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
set here is Los Fernández de Peralvillo (1953), which won five Ariel Awards.
In 2000, residents of the colonia burned in effigy
Effigy
An effigy is a representation of a person, especially in the form of sculpture or some other three-dimensional form.The term is usually associated with full-length figures of a deceased person depicted in stone or wood on church monuments. These most often lie supine with hands together in prayer,...
the three presidential candidates
Mexican general election, 2000
General elections were held in Mexico on 6 July 2000. The presidential elections were won by Vicente Fox of the Alliance for Change, who received 43.4% of the vote, the first time the opposition had won an election since the Mexican Revolution...
(Vicente Fox
Vicente Fox
Vicente Fox Quesada is a Mexican former politician who served as President of Mexico from 1 December 2000 to 30 November 2006 and currently serves as co-President of the Centrist Democrat International, an international organization of Christian democratic political parties.Fox was elected...
, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano is a prominent Mexican politician. He was a former Head of Government of the Federal District and a founder of the Party of the Democratic Revolution .-Biography:...
and Francisco Labastida
Francisco Labastida
Francisco Labastida Ochoa is a Mexican economist and politician affiliated to the Institutional Revolutionary Party , who became the first presidential candidate of his party to lose a presidential election, which he did in the 2000 presidential election to Vicente Fox.He was born to Gloria Ochoa...
) on Wagner Plaza. This was done after the three were ceremoniously convicted of using “the money of the people” for their presidential campaigns. This protest occurred during the annual ritual of the burning of a large cardboard and paper effigy of Judas Iscariot
Burning of Judas
The burning of Judas is an Easter-time ritual in many Orthodox and Catholic Christian communities, where an effigy of Judas Iscariot is burned. Other related mistreatment of Judas effigies include hanging, flogging, and exploding with fireworks. Anthropologists generalize these type of activities...
.
Started in the mid 2000s, the La Casa de Todos association operates a pizzeria and bakery
Bakery
A bakery is an establishment which produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cakes, pastries and pies. Some retail bakeries are also cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who wish to consume the baked goods on the premises.-See also:*Baker*Cake...
that employs street children
Street children
A street child is a child who lives on the streets of a city, deprived of family care and protection. Most children on the streets are between the ages of about 5 and 17 years old.Street children live in junk boxes, parks or on the street itself...
. These young people can often been seen in the colonia selling candy
Candy
Candy, specifically sugar candy, is a confection made from a concentrated solution of sugar in water, to which flavorings and colorants are added...
and other items in order to survive. The goal of the association is to give these young people steady employment and job skills. The operation is small, mostly selling to those in the colonia, but it hopes to get contracts to provide bread and other foods to hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
s and prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
s.