Mexico City (ˈmɛksɨkoʊ ˈsɪti; , sjuˈðað ðe̞ ˈme̞xiko̞, also known as
México D.F., or simply
D.F.) is the
Federal DistrictFederal districts are a type of administrative division of a federation, under the direct control of a federal government. They exist in various countries and states all over the world.-United States:...
(
Distrito Federal), capital of
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
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 statesThe United Mexican States is a federal republic formed by 32 federal entities .According to the Constitution of 1917, the states of the federation are free and sovereign. Each state has their own congress and constitution, while the Federal District has only limited autonomy with a local Congress...
but belongs to the federation as a whole. Mexico City is the country's largest city as well as its most important political, cultural, educational and financial center.
As an "alpha"
global cityA global city is a city that is deemed to be an important node in the global economic system...
Mexico City is one of the most important financial centers in North America. It is located in the
Valley of MexicoThe Valley of Mexico is a highlands plateau in central Mexico roughly coterminous with the present-day Distrito Federal and the eastern half of the State of Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico was a centre for several pre-Columbian civilizations, including...
, a large valley in the high
plateauIn geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...
s at the center of Mexico, at an altitude of 2240 metres (7,349.1 ft). The city consists of sixteen
boroughsMexico City — politically and administratively constituted as the Federal District — is divided into sixteen boroughs for administrative purposes. They constitute second-level administrative divisions, on par with the municipalities of Mexico. However, unlike municipalities, they do not have...
.
The 2009 estimated population for the city proper was around 8.84 million people, and has a land area of 1485 square kilometres (573.4 sq mi). According to the most recent definition agreed upon by the federal and state governments, the
Mexico City metropolitan areaGreater Mexico City refers to the conurbation around Mexico City, officially called Mexico City Metropolitan Area , constituted by the Federal District—itself composed of 16 boroughs—and 41 adjacent municipalities of the states of Mexico and Hidalgo...
population is 21.2 million people, making it the second
largest metropolitan area in the
western hemisphereThe Western Hemisphere or western hemisphere is mainly used as a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian and east of the Antimeridian , the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere.In this sense, the western hemisphere consists of the western portions...
and the fifth largest agglomeration in the world.
Mexico City has a gross domestic product (GDP) of $390 billion US$ in 2008, making Mexico City the
eighth richest city in the world. The city was responsible for generating 21% of Mexico's Gross Domestic Product and the metropolitan area accounted for 34% of total national GDP.
The city was originally built on an island of
Lake TexcocoLake Texcoco was a natural lake formation within the Valley of Mexico. The Aztecs built the city of Tenochtitlan on an island in the lake. The Spaniards built Mexico City over Tenochtitlan...
by the
AztecThe Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
s in 1325 as
Tenochtitlan, which was almost completely destroyed in the 1521 siege of Tenochtitlan, and subsequently redesigned and rebuilt in accordance with the Spanish urban standards. In 1524, the
municipalityMunicipalities are the second-level administrative division in Mexico . There are 2,438 municipalities in Mexico, making the average municipality population 45,616...
of Mexico City was established, known as
México Tenochtitlán, and as of 1585 it was officially known as
La Ciudad de México (Mexico City). Mexico City served as the political, administrative and financial center of a major part of the
Spanish colonial empireThe Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
. After
independence from SpainThe Mexican War of Independence was an armed conflict between the people of Mexico and the Spanish colonial authorities which started on 16 September 1810. The movement, which became known as the Mexican War of Independence, was led by Mexican-born Spaniards, Mestizos and Amerindians who sought...
was achieved, the Federal District was created in 1824.
After years of demanding greater political
autonomyAutonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it is the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, un-coerced decision...
, residents were given the right to directly elect the
Head of GovernmentThe Head of Government wields executive power in the Mexican Federal District.The Head of Government serves a six-year term, running concurrently with that of the President of the Republic....
and the representatives of the
unicameralIn government, unicameralism is the practice of having one legislative or parliamentary chamber. Thus, a unicameral parliament or unicameral legislature is a legislature which consists of one chamber or house...
Legislative AssemblyThe Legislative Assembly of the Federal District is the legislative branch of government of the Mexican Federal District. Between 1988 and 1993, it was known as the Assembly of Representatives of the Federal District , during which period it had reduced powers with respect to the current...
by
popular voteAn election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...
in 1997. Ever since, the left-wing
Party of the Democratic RevolutionThe Party of the Democratic Revolution is a democratic socialist party in Mexico and one of 2 Mexican affiliates of the Socialist International...
(PRD) has controlled both of them. In recent years, the local government has passed a wave of liberal policies, such as
abortionAbortion is a controversial issue in Mexico, where it is offered on request to any woman up to twelve weeks into a pregnancy in Mexico City, but forbidden in 18 out of 31 Mexican state constitutions...
on request to any woman up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy, a limited form of
euthanasiaLegislation on euthanasia in Mexico distinguishes between passive and active euthanasia. Since 7 January 2008 the law allows the terminally ill —or closest relatives, if unconscious— to refuse medication or further medical treatment that may extend life in Mexico City, in the state of...
,
no-fault divorceNo-fault divorce is a divorce in which the dissolution of a marriage requires neither a showing of wrong-doing of either party nor any evidentiary proceedings at all...
and
same-sex marriageSame-sex marriage is legal in Mexico City —the Federal District of Mexico— having been approved by its Legislative Assembly on 21 December 2009, and signed into law by Head of Government Marcelo Ebrard on 29 December 2009...
.
Aztec period
The city now known as Mexico City was founded by the
MexicaThe Mexica were a pre-Columbian people of central Mexico.Mexica may also refer to:*Mexica , a board game designed by Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling*Mexica , a 2005 novel by Norman Spinrad...
people, later known as the
AztecThe Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
s, in 1325. The old Mexica city is now referred to as
Tenochtitlan. The Mexica were one of the last of the
NahuatlNahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...
-speaking peoples who migrated to this part of the
Valley of MexicoThe Valley of Mexico is a highlands plateau in central Mexico roughly coterminous with the present-day Distrito Federal and the eastern half of the State of Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico was a centre for several pre-Columbian civilizations, including...
after the fall of the
ToltecThe Toltec culture is an archaeological Mesoamerican culture that dominated a state centered in Tula, Hidalgo in the early post-classic period of Mesoamerican chronology...
Empire. Their presence was resisted by the peoples who were already in the valley, but the Mexica were able to establish a city on a small island on the western side of
Lake TexcocoLake Texcoco was a natural lake formation within the Valley of Mexico. The Aztecs built the city of Tenochtitlan on an island in the lake. The Spaniards built Mexico City over Tenochtitlan...
. The Mexica themselves had a story about how their city was founded, after being led to the island by their principal god,
HuitzilopochtliIn Aztec mythology, Huitzilopochtli, also spelled Uitzilopochtli , was a god of war, a sun god, and the patron of the city of Tenochtitlan. He was also the national god of the Mexicas of Tenochtitlan.- Genealogy :...
. According to the story, the god indicated the site where they were to build their home with a sign - an eagle perched on a
nopalNopales are a vegetable made from the young cladode segments of prickly pear, carefully peeled to remove the spines. These fleshy pads are flat and about hand-sized. They can be purple or green...
cactus with a snake in its beak. Between 1325 and 1521, Tenochtitlan grew in size and strength, eventually dominating the other city-states around Lake Texcoco, and in the Valley of Mexico. When the Spaniards arrived, the
Aztec EmpireThe Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
reached much of
MesoamericaMesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
, touching both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. Scholars estimate that between 200,000 and 250,000 people lived in Tenochtitlan in 1500, more than four times the population of London at that time.
Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlán
After landing in
VeracruzVeracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...
,
Hernán CortésHernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century...
heard about the great city and the long-standing rivalries and grievances against it. Although Cortés came to Mexico with a very small army, he was able to persuade many of the other native peoples to help him destroy Tenochtitlan.
Cortés first saw Tenochtitlán on November 8, 1519. Upon viewing it for the first time, Cortés and his men were stunned by its beauty and size. The Spaniards marched along the causeway leading into the city from
IztapalapaIztapalapa is one of the Federal District of Mexico City’s 16 boroughs, located on the east side of the entity. The borough is named after and centered on the formerly independent municipality of Iztapalapa, which is officially called Iztapalapa de Cuitláhuac for disambiguation purposes...
. Although Montezuma came out from the center of Tenochtitlán to greet them and exchange gifts, the camaraderie did not last long.
Cortés put Montezuma under
house arrestIn justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
, hoping to rule through him. Tensions increased until, on the night of June 30, 1520 – during a struggle commonly known as "
La Noche TristeLa Noche Triste on June 30, 1520, was an important event during the Spanish conquest of Mexico, wherein Hernán Cortés and his army of Spanish conquistadors and native allies fought their way out of the Mexican capital at Tenochtitlan following the death of the Aztec king Montezuma, whom the...
" – the Aztec revolted against the Spanish intrusion and managed to capture or drive out the Europeans and their
TlaxcalanThe Tlaxcalteca were an indigenous group of Nahua ethnicity that inhabited the Kingdom of Tlaxcala located in what is now the Mexican state of Tlaxcala.-Pre-hispanic history:...
allies. Cortés regrouped at Tlaxcala. The Aztecs thought the Spaniards were permanently gone. They elected a new king,
CuitláhuacCuitláhuac or Cuitláhuac was the 10th tlatoani of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan for 80 days during the year Two Flint ....
, but he died after a few months due to smallpox; the next king was
CuauhtémocCuauhtémoc was the Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan from 1520 to 1521...
. Cortés decided to lay siege to Tenochtitlán in May 1521. For three months, the city suffered from the lack of food and water as well as the spread of
smallpoxSmallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
brought by the Europeans. Cortés and his allies landed their forces in the south of the island and fought their way through the city, street by street, and house by house. Finally, Cuauhtémoc had to surrender in August 1521.
The rebuilding of the city as Mexico City
The Spaniards practically razed Tenochtitlán. Cortés first settled in
CoyoacánCoyoacán refers to one of the sixteen boroughs of the Federal District of Mexico City as well as the former village which is now the borough’s “historic center.” The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means “place of coyotes,” when the Aztecs named a pre-Hispanic village on the southern shore...
, but decided to rebuild the Aztec site to erase all traces of the old order. Cortés did not establish an independent, conquered territory under his own
personal ruleSovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
, but remained loyal to the Spanish crown. The first
viceroyA viceroy is a royal official who runs a country, colony, or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. A viceroy's province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty...
of the new domain arrived in Mexico City fourteen years later. By that time, the city had again become a
city-stateA city-state is an independent or autonomous entity whose territory consists of a city which is not administered as a part of another local government.-Historical city-states:...
, having power that extended far beyond the city's established borders.
Although the Spanish preserved Tenochtitlán's basic layout, they built Catholic churches over the old Aztec temples and claimed the imperial palaces for themselves. Tenochtitlán was renamed "Mexico", its alternative form name, as the Spanish found this easier to say.
Growth of the colonial city
The city grew as the population did, coming up against the lake's waters. The 16th century saw a proliferation of churches, many of which can still be seen today in the
historic centerThe 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...
.
Economically, Mexico City prospered as a result of trade. Unlike Brazil or
PeruPeru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, Mexico had easy contact with both the Atlantic and Pacific worlds. Although the Spanish crown tried to completely regulate all commerce in the city, it had only partial success.
The concept of
nobilityNobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
flourished in New Spain in a way not seen in other parts of the Americas. Spaniards encountered a society in which the concept of nobility mirrored that of their own. Spaniards respected the indigenous order of nobility and added to it. In the ensuing centuries, a
noble title in MexicoMexican nobility refers to the titled nobles and untitled gentry families of Mexico. Most of the descendants of these families still live in Mexico today, but some can be found in Europe and other countries....
did not mean one exercised great political power as one's power was limited even if the accumulation of wealth was not. The concept of nobility in Mexico was not political but rather a very conservative Spanish social one, based on proving the worthiness of the family. Most of these families proved their worth by making fortunes in New Spain outside of the city itself, then spending the revenues in the capital, building churches, supporting charities and building extravagant palatial homes. The craze to build the most opulent home possible reached its height in the last half of the 18th century. Many of these homes can still be seen today, leading to Mexico City's nickname of "The city of palaces" given by
Alexander Von HumboldtFriedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...
.
The Grito de Dolores ("Cry of Dolores") also known as El Grito de la Independencia ("Cry of Independence"), uttered from the small town of Dolores near Guanajuato on September 16, 1810, is the event that marks the beginning of the Mexican War of Independence and is the most important national holiday observed in Mexico. The "Grito" was the battle cry of the Mexican War of Independence by Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a Roman Catholic priest. Hidalgo and several criollos were involved in a planned revolt against the Spanish colonial government, and the plotters were betrayed. Fearing his arrest,[1] Hidalgo commanded his brother Mauricio as well as Ignacio Allende and Mariano Abasolo to go with a number of other armed men to make the sheriff release the pro-independence inmates there on the night of September 15. They managed to set eighty free.[2] Around 6:00 am September 16, 1810, Hidalgo ordered the church bells to be rung and gathered his congregation. Flanked by Allende and Juan Aldama, he addressed the people in front of his church, encouraging them to revolt.
The Battle of Guanajuato, the first major engagement of the insurgency, occurred four days later. Mexico's independence from Spain was effectively declared in the Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire on September 27, 1821, after a decade of war. Unrest followed for the next several decades, as different factions fought for control of Mexico.
The Mexican Federal District was established by the new government and by the signing of their new constitution, where the concept of a
federal districtFederal districts are a type of administrative division of a federation, under the direct control of a federal government. They exist in various countries and states all over the world.-United States:...
was adapted from
The U.S. constitutionThe Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
. Before this designation, Mexico City had served as the seat of government for both the State of Mexico and the nation as a whole.
TexcocoTexcoco is a city and municipality located in the northeast portion of Mexico State, 25 km northeast of Mexico City. In the pre-Hispanic era, this was a major Aztec city on the shores of Lake Texcoco. After the Conquest, the city was initially the second most important after Mexico City,...
and then
TolucaToluca, formally known as Toluca de Lerdo, is the state capital of Mexico State as well as the seat of the Municipality of Toluca. It is the center of a rapidly growing urban area, now the fifth largest in Mexico. It is located west-southwest of Mexico City and only about 40 minutes by car to the...
became the capital of the state of Mexico.
The Battle of Mexico City
The
Mexican–American WarThe Mexican–American War, also known as the First American Intervention, the Mexican War, or the U.S.–Mexican War, was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 U.S...
came to a close after the United States
deployedMilitary deployment is the movement of armed forces and their logistical support infrastructure around the world.-United States:The United States Military defines the term as follows:...
combat unitsMilitary organization is the structuring of the armed forces of a state so as to offer military capability required by the national defence policy. In some countries paramilitary forces are included in a nation's armed forces...
deep into
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
resulting in the capture of Mexico City and
VeracruzVeracruz, officially known as Heroica Veracruz, is a major port city and municipality on the Gulf of Mexico in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The city is located in the central part of the state. It is located along Federal Highway 140 from the state capital Xalapa, and is the state's most...
by the
U.S. Army'sThe United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th
DivisionsA division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions typically make up a corps...
. The invasion culminated with the storming of Chapultepec Castle in the city itself. The
treaty of Guadalupe HidalgoThe Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is the peace treaty, largely dictated by the United States to the interim government of a militarily occupied Mexico City, that ended the Mexican-American War on February 2, 1848...
was signed in what is now the far north of the city.
Events such as the
Reform WarThe Reform War in Mexico is one of the episodes of the long struggle between Liberal and Conservative forces that dominated the country’s history in the 19th century. The Liberals wanted a federalist government, limiting traditional Catholic Church and military influence in the country...
left the city relatively untouched and it continued to grow, especially during the rule of President
Porfirio DíazJosé 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...
. During this time, the city developed a modern infrastructure, such as roads, schools, transportation, and communication systems. However, the regime concentrated resources and wealth into the city while the rest languished in poverty.
Revolution
Fast modern development eventually led to the
Mexican RevolutionThe 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...
. The most significant episode of this period for the city was the La decena trágica ("The Ten Tragic Days"), a coup against
PresidentThe President of the United Mexican States is the head of state and government of Mexico. Under the Constitution, the president is also the Supreme Commander of the Mexican armed forces...
Francisco I. MaderoFrancisco 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...
and his vice president,
José María Pino SuárezJosé María Pino Suárez was a Mexican statesman, revolutionary, poet, journalist and jurist who served as Vice President of Mexico , Secreatry of Education and Governor of Yucatán...
.
Victoriano HuertaJosé Victoriano Huerta Márquez was a Mexican military officer and president of Mexico. Huerta's supporters were known as Huertistas during the Mexican Revolution...
, chief general of the
Federal ArmyHuerta's Federal Army, also known as the Federales in popular culture, was the force headed by Victoriano Huerta during his 1913–1914 reign as president of Mexico....
saw a chance to take power, forcing Madero and Pino Suarez to sign resignations. The two were murdered later while on their way to prison.
20th century to present
The history of the rest of the 20th century to the present focuses on the phenomenal growth of the city and its environmental and political consequences. In 1900, the population of Mexico City was about 500,000. The city began to grow rapidly westward in the early part of the 20th century and then began to grow upwards in the 1950s, with the
Torre LatinoamericanaThe Torre Latinoamericana is a building in downtown Mexico City, Mexico. Its central location, height and history make it one of the city's most important landmarks...
becoming the city's first skyscraper. The
1968 Olympic GamesThe 1968 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Mexico City, Mexico in October 1968. The 1968 Games were the first Olympic Games hosted by a developing country, and the first Games hosted by a Spanish-speaking country...
brought about the construction of large sporting facilities. In 1969, the
Metro systemThe Mexico City Metro , officially called Sistema de Transporte Colectivo, is a metro system that serves the metropolitan area of Mexico City...
was inaugurated.
Explosive growth in the population of the city started from the 1960s, with the population overflowing the boundaries of the Federal District into the neighboring state of Mexico, especially to the north, northwest and northeast. Between 1960 and 1980 the city's population more than doubled to 8,831,079. In 1980, half of all the industrial jobs in Mexico were located in Mexico City. Under relentless growth, the Mexico City government could barely keep up with services. Villagers from the countryside who continued to pour into the city to escape poverty only compounded the city's problems. With no housing available, they took over lands surrounding the city, creating huge
shantytownsA shanty town is a slum settlement of impoverished people who live in improvised dwellings made from scrap materials: often plywood, corrugated metal and sheets of plastic...
that extended for many miles. This caused serious air and
water pollutionWater pollution is the contamination of water bodies . Water pollution occurs when pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds....
problems, as well as a sinking city due to overextraction of groundwater,
groundwater-related subsidenceGroundwater-related subsidence is the subsidence of land resulting from groundwater extraction, and a major problem in the developing world as major metropolises swell without adequate regulation and enforcement, as well as a being a common problem in the developed world...
. Air and water pollution has been contained and improved in several areas due to government programs, the renovation of vehicles and the modernization of public transportation.
The autocratic government that ruled Mexico City since the Revolution was tolerated, mostly because of the continued economic expansion since World War II. This was the case even though this government could not handle the population and pollution problems adequately. Nevertheless, discontent and protests began in the 1960s leading to the
massacre of an unknown number of protesting studentsThe Tlatelolco massacre, also known as The Night of Tlatelolco , was a government massacre of student and civilian protesters and bystanders that took place during the afternoon and night of October 2, 1968, in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City...
in
TlatelolcoTlatelolco 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...
.
Three years later, a demonstration in the Maestros avenue, organized by former members of the 1968 student movement, was violently repressed by a paramilitary group called "Los Halcones", composed of gang members and teenagers from many sports clubs who received training in the U.S.
On Thursday, September 19, 1985, at 7:19 am
local timeA time zone is a region on Earth that has a uniform standard time for legal, commercial, and social purposes. In order for the same clock time to always correspond to the same portion of the day as the Earth rotates , different places on the Earth need to have different clock times...
, Mexico City was struck by an earthquake of magnitude 8.1 on the
Richter scaleThe expression Richter magnitude scale refers to a number of ways to assign a single number to quantify the energy contained in an earthquake....
. Although this earthquake was not as deadly or destructive as many similar events in Asia and other parts of Latin America, it proved to be a disaster politically for the
one-partyA single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a type of party system government in which a single political party forms the government and no other parties are permitted to run candidates for election...
government. The government was paralyzed by its own bureaucracy and corruption, forcing ordinary citizens to create and direct their own rescue efforts and to reconstruct much of the housing that was lost as well.
However,
the last strawThe idiom the straw that broke the camel's back is from an Arabic proverb about how a camel wearing shoes is loaded beyond its capacity to move or stand. This is a reference to any process by which cataclysmic failure is achieved by a seemingly inconsequential addition...
may have been the controverted elections of 1988. That year, the presidency was set between the P.R.I.'s candidate, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, and a coalition of left-wing parties led by Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, son of the former president Lázaro Cárdenas. The counting system "fell" because coincidentally the light went out and suddenly, when it returned, the winning candidate was Salinas, even though Cárdenas had the upper hand. As a result of the fraudulent election, Cárdenas became a member of the
Party of the Democratic RevolutionThe Party of the Democratic Revolution is a democratic socialist party in Mexico and one of 2 Mexican affiliates of the Socialist International...
. Discontent over the election eventually led
Cuauhtémoc CárdenasCuauhtémoc 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:...
to become the first
elected mayorIn many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Mexico City in 1997. Cárdenas promised a more
democratic governmentDemocracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
, and his party claimed some victories against crime, pollution, and other major problems. He resigned in 1999 to run for the presidency.
Geography
Mexico City is located in the Valley of Mexico, sometimes called the Basin of Mexico. This valley is located in the
Trans-Mexican Volcanic BeltThe Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt also known as the Transvolcanic Belt and locally as the Sierra Nevada , is a volcanic belt that extends 900 km from west to east across central-southern Mexico...
in the high plateaus of south-central Mexico. It has a minimum altitude of 2,200 meters (7,217 feet)
above sea levelThe term above mean sea level refers to the elevation or altitude of any object, relative to the average sea level datum. AMSL is used extensively in radio by engineers to determine the coverage area a station will be able to reach...
and is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes that reach elevations of over 5,000 meters. This valley has no natural drainage outlet for the waters that flow from the mountainsides, making the city vulnerable to flooding. Drainage was engineered through the use of canals and tunnels starting in the 17th century.
The city primarily rests on what was
Lake TexcocoLake Texcoco was a natural lake formation within the Valley of Mexico. The Aztecs built the city of Tenochtitlan on an island in the lake. The Spaniards built Mexico City over Tenochtitlan...
. Seismic activity is frequent here. Lake Texcoco was drained starting from the 17th century. Although none of the lake waters remain, the city rests on the lake bed's heavily saturated clay. This soft base is collapsing due to the over-extraction of groundwater, called
groundwater-related subsidenceGroundwater-related subsidence is the subsidence of land resulting from groundwater extraction, and a major problem in the developing world as major metropolises swell without adequate regulation and enforcement, as well as a being a common problem in the developed world...
. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the city has sunk as much as nine meters in some areas. This sinking is causing problems with runoff and wastewater management, leading to flooding problems, especially during the
rainy seasonThe the wet season, or rainy season, is the time of year, covering one or more months, when most of the average annual rainfall in a region occurs. The term green season is also sometimes used as a euphemism by tourist authorities. Areas with wet seasons are dispersed across portions of the...
. The entire lake bed is now paved over and most of the city's remaining forested areas lie in the southern boroughs of
Milpa AltaMilpa Alta is one of the 16 delegaciones into which Mexico's Federal District is divided. It lies in the southeast corner of the Distrito Federal, bordering the States of México and Morelos. It is the second largest and most rural of all delegaciones. It is also the least populous and...
,
TlalpanTlalpan is one of the sixteen administrative boroughs of the Federal District of Mexico City. It is the largest borough, with over eighty percent under conservation as forest and other ecologically sensitive area. The rest, almost all of it on the northern edge, has been urban since the mid 20th...
and
XochimilcoXochimilco is one of the sixteen delegaciones or boroughs within Mexican Federal District. The borough is centered on the formerly independent city of Xochimilco, which was established on what was the southern shore of Lake Xochimilco in the pre-Hispanic period...
.
Climate
Mexico City has a
subtropical highland climateAn oceanic climate, also called marine west coast climate, maritime climate, Cascadian climate and British climate for Köppen climate classification Cfb and subtropical highland for Köppen Cfb or Cwb, is a type of climate typically found along the west coasts at the middle latitudes of some of the...
(
Köppen climate classificationThe Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...
Cwb), due to its tropical location and high elevation. The lower region of the valley receives less rainfall than the upper regions of the south; the lower boroughs of
IztapalapaIztapalapa is one of the Federal District of Mexico City’s 16 boroughs, located on the east side of the entity. The borough is named after and centered on the formerly independent municipality of Iztapalapa, which is officially called Iztapalapa de Cuitláhuac for disambiguation purposes...
,
IztacalcoIztacalco is one of the 16 delegaciones into which Mexico's Federal District is divided. It is located in the center-east of the district and is the smallest of the city’s boroughs. The area’s history began in 1309 when the island of Iztacalco, in what was Lake Texcoco, was settled in 1309 by the...
,
Venustiano CarranzaVenustiano Carranza is one of the 16 delegaciones of Mexico's Federal District. The borough was formed in 1970 when the center of Mexico City was subdivided into four boroughs...
and the west portion of
Gustavo A. MaderoGustavo A. Madero is one of the 16 delegaciones into which Mexico's Federal District is divided.-Origins:Founded as "Villa de Guadalupe" in 1563, it became the city of "Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo" in 1828, and finally a delegación in 1931; as such, it was named after Gustavo A. Madero, the brother...
are usually drier and warmer than the upper southern boroughs of
TlalpanTlalpan is one of the sixteen administrative boroughs of the Federal District of Mexico City. It is the largest borough, with over eighty percent under conservation as forest and other ecologically sensitive area. The rest, almost all of it on the northern edge, has been urban since the mid 20th...
and
Milpa AltaMilpa Alta is one of the 16 delegaciones into which Mexico's Federal District is divided. It lies in the southeast corner of the Distrito Federal, bordering the States of México and Morelos. It is the second largest and most rural of all delegaciones. It is also the least populous and...
, a mountainous region of
pinePines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...
and
oak treesAn oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
known as the range of
AjuscoAjusco is a lava dome volcano located just south of Mexico City, Mexico, in the Tlalpan borough of the city. It is the highest point in the Mexican Federal District, which contains Mexico City.-Etymology:...
.
The average annual temperature varies from 12 to 16 °C (53.6 to 60.8 F), depending on the altitude of the borough. The lowest temperatures, usually registered during January and February, may reach -2 C, and are usually accompanied by snow showers on the southern regions of Ajusco. The maximum temperatures of late spring and summer may reach up to 32 °C (89.6 °F). Overall precipitation is heavily concentrated in the summer months, and includes dense hail. The central valley of Mexico rarely gets precipitation in the form of snow during winter; the two last recorded instances of such an event were on March 5, 1940 and January 12, 1967.
The region of the
Valley of MexicoThe Valley of Mexico is a highlands plateau in central Mexico roughly coterminous with the present-day Distrito Federal and the eastern half of the State of Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico was a centre for several pre-Columbian civilizations, including...
receives
anti-cyclonicAn anticyclone is a weather phenomenon defined by the United States' National Weather Service's glossary as "[a] large-scale circulation of winds around a central region of high atmospheric pressure, clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere"...
systems. The weak winds of these systems do not allow for the dispersion, outside the basin, of the
air pollutantsAir pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or cause damage to the natural environment or built environment, into the atmosphere....
which are produced by the 50,000 industries and 4 million vehicles operating in and around the metropolitan area.
The area receives about 820 millimetres (32.3 in) of annual rainfall, which is concentrated from June through September/October with little or no precipitation the remainder of the year. The area has two main seasons. The rainy season runs from June to October when winds bring in tropical moisture from the sea. The
dry seasonThe dry season is a term commonly used when describing the weather in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which oscillates from the northern to the southern tropics over the course of the year...
runs from November to May, when the air is relatively drier. This dry season subdivides into a cold period and a warm period. The cold period spans from November to February when polar
air massIn meteorology, an air mass is a volume of air defined by its temperature and water vapor content. Air masses cover many hundreds or thousands of square miles, and adopt the characteristics of the surface below them. They are classified according to latitude and their continental or maritime...
es push down from the north and keep the air fairly dry. The warm period extends from March to May when tropical winds again dominate but do not yet carry enough moisture for rain.
Environment
Originally, much of the valley lay beneath the waters of
Lake TexcocoLake Texcoco was a natural lake formation within the Valley of Mexico. The Aztecs built the city of Tenochtitlan on an island in the lake. The Spaniards built Mexico City over Tenochtitlan...
, a system of interconnected saline and freshwater lakes. The
AztecThe Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
s built dikes to separate the
fresh waterFresh water is naturally occurring water on the Earth's surface in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers and streams, and underground as groundwater in aquifers and underground streams. Fresh water is generally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and...
used to raise crops in
chinampaChinampa is a method of ancient Mesoamerican agriculture which used small, rectangle-shaped areas of fertile arable land to grow crops on the shallow lake beds in the Valley of Mexico.-Description:...
s and to prevent recurrent floods. These dikes were destroyed during the siege of Tenochtitlan, and during colonial times the Spanish regularly drained the lake to prevent floods. Only a small section of the original lake remains, located outside the Federal District, in the municipality of
AtencoSan Salvador Atenco is the municipal seat of Atenco, in the Mexican state of Mexico.The name "Atenco" comes from a Nahuatl phrase meaning "place on the edge of water". -The town:...
, State of Mexico. In recent years, architects
Teodoro González de LeónTeodoro González de León is a Mexican architect.- Biography :Gonzales de León studied at the Escuela Nacional de Arquitectura of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México from 1942 to 1947. Thanks to a scholarship by the French government, he worked in France for 18 months with Le Corbusier,...
and
Alberto KalachAlberto Kalach is a Mexican architect.- Biography :Kalach is a native of Mexico City, and studied at the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, and later at Cornell University in Ithaca. From 1981 to 2002 he worked with Daniel Álvarez in their company Taller de Arquitectura X...
, along with a group of Mexican urbanists, engineers and biologists, have developed the project plan for
Recovering the City of Lakes. The project, if approved by the government, will contribute to the supply of water from natural sources to the
Valley of MexicoThe Valley of Mexico is a highlands plateau in central Mexico roughly coterminous with the present-day Distrito Federal and the eastern half of the State of Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico was a centre for several pre-Columbian civilizations, including...
, the creation of new natural spaces, a great improvement in air quality, and greater population establishment planning.
The federal and local governments have implemented numerous plans to alleviate the problem of air pollution, including the constant monitoring and reporting of environmental conditions, such as ozone and
nitrogen oxideNitrogen oxide can refer to a binary compound of oxygen and nitrogen, or a mixture of such compounds:* Nitric oxide, also known as nitrogen monoxide, , nitrogen oxide* Nitrogen dioxide , nitrogen oxide...
s. If the levels of these two pollutants reach critical levels, contingency actions are implemented which may include closing factories, changing school hours, and extending the
A day without a carHoy No Circula is the name of an environmental program intended to improve the air quality of Mexico City. A similar coordinated program operates within the State of México, which surrounds Mexico City on three sides...
program to two days of the week. To control air pollution, the government has instituted industrial technology improvements, a strict biannual vehicle emission inspection and the reformulation of gasoline and diesel fuels. Data from the city's 36 air-quality monitoring stations show lead levels down 95 percent since 1990, while
sulfur dioxideSulfur dioxide is the chemical compound with the formula . It is released by volcanoes and in various industrial processes. Since coal and petroleum often contain sulfur compounds, their combustion generates sulfur dioxide unless the sulfur compounds are removed before burning the fuel...
has fallen 86 percent,
carbon monoxideCarbon monoxide , also called carbonous oxide, is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that is slightly lighter than air. It is highly toxic to humans and animals in higher quantities, although it is also produced in normal animal metabolism in low quantities, and is thought to have some normal...
74 percent, and peak ozone levels 57 percent since 1991. In 1990, Patricia Saad Sotomayor reported in the Mexico City daily
Excélsior that "100,000 children die every year as a result of pollution in the Mexico City metropolitan area, 250,000 people suffer from eye diseases..and life expectancy has been reduced by up to ten years, according to the National Environmentalist Groups." in a report to President Salinas. At the time, according to the United Nations pollution scale "which set 100 as the maximum level before grave health problems begin", Mexico City's level was 97.5, compared to 4.5 for New York City, and 2.5 for Milan, Turin, and Los Angeles.
In 1986, the non-urban forest areas of the southern boroughs were declared National Ecological Reserves by president
Miguel de la Madrid HurtadoMiguel de la Madrid Hurtado is a Mexican politician affiliated to the Institutional Revolutionary Party who served as President of Mexico from 1982 to 1988.-Biography:...
. Other areas of the Federal District became protected over the following years.
Federal District
The Acta Constitutiva de la Federación of January 31, 1824 and the Federal Constitution of October 4, 1824 fixed the political and administrative organization of the
United Mexican StatesThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
after the
Mexican War of IndependenceThe Mexican War of Independence was an armed conflict between the people of Mexico and the Spanish colonial authorities which started on 16 September 1810. The movement, which became known as the Mexican War of Independence, was led by Mexican-born Spaniards, Mestizos and Amerindians who sought...
. In addition, Section XXVIII of Article 50 gave the new Congress the right to choose where the federal government would be located. This location would then be appropriated as federal land, with the federal government acting as the local authority. The two main candidates to become the capital were Mexico City and Querétaro. However, due in large part to the persuasion of representative
Servando Teresa de MierFray Servando Teresa de Mier was a Roman Catholic priest and a preacher and politician in New Spain....
, Mexico City was chosen because it was the center of the country's population and history, even though Querétaro was closer to the center geographically. The choice was official on November 18, 1824, and Congress delineated a surface area of two leagues square (8,800 ac) centered on the
ZocaloThe Zócalo is the main plaza or square in the heart of the historic center of Mexico City. The plaza used to be known simply as the "Main Square" or "Arms Square," and today its formal name is Plaza de la Constitución...
. This area was then separated from the State of Mexico, forcing that state's government to move from the
Palace of the Inquisition (now Museum of Mexican Medicine)The Palace of the Inquisition stands on the corner of Republica de Brasil and Republica de Venezuela streets in Mexico City, Mexico. While neither side of the building faces the Santo Domingo Plaza, the entrance does, as it is placed at the corner, which is canted to allow it to face in that...
in the city to
TexcocoTexcoco is a city and municipality located in the northeast portion of Mexico State, 25 km northeast of Mexico City. In the pre-Hispanic era, this was a major Aztec city on the shores of Lake Texcoco. After the Conquest, the city was initially the second most important after Mexico City,...
. This area did not include the population centers of the towns of
CoyoacánCoyoacán refers to one of the sixteen boroughs of the Federal District of Mexico City as well as the former village which is now the borough’s “historic center.” The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means “place of coyotes,” when the Aztecs named a pre-Hispanic village on the southern shore...
,
XochimilcoXochimilco is one of the sixteen delegaciones or boroughs within Mexican Federal District. The borough is centered on the formerly independent city of Xochimilco, which was established on what was the southern shore of Lake Xochimilco in the pre-Hispanic period...
,
MexicaltzingoSan Mateo Mexicaltzingo is a town and the seat of the municipality of Mexicaltzingo located in the State of Mexico, in Mexico. It is located near Toluca...
and
TlalpanTlalpan is one of the sixteen administrative boroughs of the Federal District of Mexico City. It is the largest borough, with over eighty percent under conservation as forest and other ecologically sensitive area. The rest, almost all of it on the northern edge, has been urban since the mid 20th...
, all of which remained as part of the State of Mexico.
In 1854, president
Antonio López de Santa AnnaAntonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón , often known as Santa Anna or López de Santa Anna, known as "the Napoleon of the West," was a Mexican political leader, general, and president who greatly influenced early Mexican and Spanish politics and government...
, enlarged the area of the Federal District almost eightfold from the original 220 sqkm to 1700 sqkm, annexing the rural and mountainous areas to secure the strategic mountain passes to the south and southwest to protect the city in event of a foreign invasion. (The
Mexican-American WarThe Mexican–American War, also known as the First American Intervention, the Mexican War, or the U.S.–Mexican War, was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 U.S...
had just been fought). The last changes to the limits of the Federal District were made between 1898 and 1902, reducing the area to the current 1479 sqkm by adjusting the southern border with the state of
MorelosMorelos officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Morelos is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 33 municipalities and its capital city is Cuernavaca....
. By that time, the total number of municipalities within the Federal District was twenty-two.
While the Federal District was ruled by the federal government through an appointed governor, the municipalities within it were autonomous, and this duality of powers created tension between the municipalities and the federal government for more than a century. In 1903 already, Porfirio Díaz largely reduced the powers of the municipalities within the Federal District. Eventually, in December 1928, the federal government decided to abolish all the municipalities of the Federal District. In place of the municipalities, the Federal District was divided into one "Central Department" and 13
delegaciones (boroughs) administered directly by the government of the Federal District. The Central Department was integrated by the former municipalities of Mexico City, Tacuba, Tacubaya and Mixcoac.
In 1941, the
General Anaya borough was merged to the Central Department, which was then renamed "Mexico City" (thus reviving the name, but not the autonomous municipality). From 1941 to 1970, the Federal District was comprised by 12
delegaciones and Mexico City. In 1970 Mexico City was split into four different
delegaciones:
CuauhtémocCuauhtémoc was the Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan from 1520 to 1521...
, Miguel Hidalgo,
Venustiano CarranzaVenustiano Carranza de la Garza, was one of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution. He ultimately became President of Mexico following the overthrow of the dictatorial Huerta regime in the summer of 1914 and during his administration the current constitution of Mexico was drafted...
and
Benito JuárezBenito 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...
, increasing the number of
delegaciones to sixteen. Since then, in a
de facto manner, the whole Federal District, whose
delegaciones had by then almost formed a single urban area, began to be considered a synonym of Mexico City. However, the lack of a
de jure stipulation left a legal vacuum that led to a number of sterile discussions about whether one concept had engulfed the other or if the latter had ceased to exist altogether. In 1993 this situation was solved by an amendment to the 44th article of the
ConstitutionThe Political Constitution of the United Mexican States is the current constitution of Mexico. It was drafted in Santiago de Querétaro, in the State of Querétaro, by a constitutional convention, during the Mexican Revolution. It was approved by the Constitutional Congress on February 5, 1917...
whereby Mexico City and the Federal District were set to be the same entity. This amendment was later introduced into the second article of the Statute of Government of the Federal District.
Political structure
Mexico City, being the seat of the powers of the Union, did not belong to any particular state but to all. Therefore, it was the president, representing the federation, who used to designate the head of government of the Federal District, a position which is sometimes presented outside Mexico as the "Mayor" of Mexico City. In the 1980s, given the dramatic increase in population of the previous decades, the inherent political inconsistencies of the system, as well as the dissatisfaction with the inadequate response of the federal government after the 1985 earthquake, residents began to request political and administrative autonomy to manage their local affairs. Some
political groupsA political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
even proposed that the Federal District be converted into the 32nd state of the federation.
In response to the demands, in 1987 the Federal District received a greater degree of autonomy, with the elaboration the first Statute of Government (
Estatuto de Gobierno), and the creation of an Assembly of Representatives. In the 1990s, this autonomy was further expanded and, starting from 1997, residents can directly elect the head of government of the Federal District and the representatives of a unicameral Legislative Assembly (which succeeded the previous Assembly) by popular vote. The first elected head of government was
Cuauhtémoc CárdenasCuauhtémoc 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:...
. Cárdenas resigned in 1999 to run in the 2000
presidential electionsAn election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...
and designated
Rosario RoblesRosario Robles Berlanga was a left-wing Mexican politician who was appointed substitute Head of Government of the Federal District when Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas resigned from the post to run for the presidency in 2000...
to succeed him, who became the first woman (elected or otherwise) to govern Mexico City. In 2000
Andrés Manuel López ObradorAndrés Manuel López Obrador , also known as AMLO or El Peje, is a Mexican politician who held the position of Head of Government of the Federal District from 2000 to 2005, before resigning in July 2005 to contend the 2006 presidential election, representing the unsuccessful Coalition for the Good...
was elected, and resigned in 2005 to run in the 2006 presidential elections,
Alejandro Encinas RodríguezAlejandro Encinas Rodríguez is a left-wing Mexican politician affiliated with the Party of the Democratic Revolution. He served as the 4th Head of Government of the Federal District from 2005 to 2006....
being designated by the Legislative Assembly to finish the term. In 2006,
Marcelo EbrardMarcelo Luis Ebrard Casaubón is the current Head of Government of the Federal District since December 5, 2006. He is a Mexican politician affiliated to the Party of the Democratic Revolution who served as Secretary-General of the former Mexican Federal District Department, minister of public...
Casaubon was elected for the 2006–2012 period.
The Federal District does not have a constitution, like the states of the Union, but rather a Statute of Government. As part of its recent changes in autonomy, the budget is administered locally; it is proposed by the head of government and approved by the Legislative Assembly. Nonetheless, it is the
Congress of the UnionThe Congress of the Union is the legislative branch of the Mexican government...
that sets the ceiling to internal and external
public debtGovernment debt is money owed by a central government. In the US, "government debt" may also refer to the debt of a municipal or local government...
issued by the Federal District.
According to the 44th article of the Mexican Constitution, in case the powers of the Union move to another city, the Federal District will be transformed into a new state, which will be called "State of the Valley of Mexico", with the new limits set by the Congress of the Union.
Elections and government
In 2006, elections were held for the post of head of government and the representatives of the Legislative Assembly. The elected and incumbent head of government is now
Marcelo EbrardMarcelo Luis Ebrard Casaubón is the current Head of Government of the Federal District since December 5, 2006. He is a Mexican politician affiliated to the Party of the Democratic Revolution who served as Secretary-General of the former Mexican Federal District Department, minister of public...
Casaubon, candidate of the
Party of the Democratic RevolutionThe Party of the Democratic Revolution is a democratic socialist party in Mexico and one of 2 Mexican affiliates of the Socialist International...
(PRD). Heads of government are elected for a 6-year period without the possibility of reelection. Traditionally, this position has been considered as the second most important executive office in the country.
The
Legislative Assembly of the Federal DistrictThe Legislative Assembly of the Federal District is the legislative branch of government of the Mexican Federal District. Between 1988 and 1993, it was known as the Assembly of Representatives of the Federal District , during which period it had reduced powers with respect to the current...
is formed, as it is the case in all legislatures in Mexico, by both single-seat and proportional seats, making it a system of
parallel votingParallel voting describes a mixed voting system where voters in effect participate in two separate elections for a single chamber using different systems, and where the results in one election have little or no impact on the results of the other...
. The Federal District is divided into 40 electoral constituencies of similar population which elect one representative by
first-past-the-postThe plurality voting system is a single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly which is based on single-member constituencies...
plurality (FPP), locally called "uninominal deputies". The Federal District as a whole constitutes a single constituency for the parallel election of 26 representatives by
proportionalityProportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
(PR) with open-party lists, locally called "plurinominal deputies". Even though
proportionalityThe principle of proportionality is a political maxim which states that no layer of government should take any action that exceeds that which is necessary to achieve the objective of government . It was initially developed in the German legal system.It is a fundamental principle of European Union...
is only confined to the proportional seats, to prevent a part from being overrepresented, several restrictions apply in the assignation of the seats; namely, that no party can have more than 63% of all seats, both uninominal and plurinominal. In the 2006 elections leftist PRD got the absolute majority in the direct uninominal elections, securing 34 of the 40 FPP seats. As such, PRD was not assigned any plurinominal seat to comply with the law that prevents overrepresentation. The overall composition of the Legislative Assembly is:
| Political party |
FPP First-past-the-post voting refers to an election won by the candidate with the most votes. The winning potato candidate does not necessarily receive an absolute majority of all votes cast.-Overview:...
|
PR Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
|
Total |
 Party of the Democratic RevolutionThe Party of the Democratic Revolution is a democratic socialist party in Mexico and one of 2 Mexican affiliates of the Socialist International...
|
31 |
3 |
34 |
 National Action PartyThe National Action Party , is one of the three main political parties in Mexico. The party's political platform is generally considered Centre-Right in the Mexican political spectrum. Since 2000, the President of Mexico has been a member of this party; both houses have PAN pluralities, but the...
|
9 |
6 |
15 |
 Institutional Revolutionary PartyThe Institutional Revolutionary Party is a Mexican political party that held power in the country—under a succession of names—for more than 70 years. The PRI is a member of the Socialist International, as is the rival Party of the Democratic Revolution , making Mexico one of the few...
|
|
8 |
8 |
 Labour PartyThe Labor Party is a nationally recognized political party in Mexico. It was founded on December 8, 1990. The party is currently led by Alberto Anaya....
|
|
5 |
5 |
 Ecologist Green Party of MexicoThe Ecologist Green Party of Mexico is one of the six political parties to have representation in the Mexican Congress. The party's congressional strength currently stands at 17 deputies and five senators .-Elections 2000:...
|
|
3 |
3 |
 New Alliance PartyThe New Alliance Party is one of the newest political parties in Mexico.Its creation was proposed by the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación , the largest trade union in Latin America, led by Elba Esther Gordillo, the controversial former general secretary of the Institutional...
|
|
1 |
1 |
| Total |
40 |
26 |
66 |
The politics pursued by the administrations of heads of government in Mexico City since the second half of the 20th century have usually been more liberal than those of the rest of the country, whether with the support of the federal government—as was the case with the approval of several comprehensive environmental laws in the 1980s—or through laws recently approved by the Legislative Assembly. In April of the same year, the Legislative Assembly expanded provisions on abortions, becoming the first federal entity to expand
abortion in MexicoAbortion is a controversial issue in Mexico, where it is offered on request to any woman up to twelve weeks into a pregnancy in Mexico City, but forbidden in 18 out of 31 Mexican state constitutions...
beyond cases of rape and economic reasons, to permit it regardless of the reason should the mother request it before the twelfth week of pregnancy. In December 2009, the Federal District became the first city in Latin America, and one of very few in the world, to legalize
same-sex marriageSame-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
.
Boroughs
For administrative purposes, the Federal District is divided into 16 "delegaciones" or boroughs. While not fully equivalent to a municipality, the 16 boroughs have gained significant autonomy, and since 2000 their heads of government are elected directly by
pluralityThe plurality voting system is a single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly which is based on single-member constituencies...
(they were previously appointed by the head of government of the Federal District). Given that Mexico City is organized entirely as a Federal District, most of the
city servicesMunicipal services or city services refer to basic services that residents of a city expect the city government to provide in exchange for the taxes which citizens pay. Basic city services may include sanitation , water, streets, schools, food inspection fire department, police, ambulance, and...
are provided or organized by the Government of the Federal District and not by the boroughs themselves, while in the
constituent stateA constituent state, constituent entity, or constituent part, is a territorial and constitutional entity forming part of a sovereign state...
s these services would be provided by the municipalities. The 16 boroughs of the Federal District are:
1. Álvaro ObregónÁlvaro Obregón is one of the 16 delegaciones into which Mexico's Federal District is divided. It contains a large portion of the south-west part of Mexico City. It had a 2010 census population of 727,034 inhabitants and lies at an elevation of 2,319 m...
2. AzcapotzalcoAzcapotzalco is one of the 16 delegaciones into which Mexico's Federal District is divided. Azcapotzalco is in the northwestern part of Mexico City...
3. Benito JuárezBenito Juárez is one of the 16 delegaciones into which Mexico's Federal District is divided. It is a largely residential area, located to the south of historic center of Mexico City, although there are pressures for areas to convert to commercial use. It was named after Benito Juárez, president in...
4. CoyoacánCoyoacán refers to one of the sixteen boroughs of the Federal District of Mexico City as well as the former village which is now the borough’s “historic center.” The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means “place of coyotes,” when the Aztecs named a pre-Hispanic village on the southern shore...
5. CuajimalpaCuajimalpa de Morelos is one of the 16 boroughs of Mexico City. Its name comes from the indigenous expression "over sticks of wood"...
6. CuauhtémocCuauhtémoc, 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...
7. Gustavo A. MaderoGustavo A. Madero is one of the 16 delegaciones into which Mexico's Federal District is divided.-Origins:Founded as "Villa de Guadalupe" in 1563, it became the city of "Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo" in 1828, and finally a delegación in 1931; as such, it was named after Gustavo A. Madero, the brother...
8. IztacalcoIztacalco is one of the 16 delegaciones into which Mexico's Federal District is divided. It is located in the center-east of the district and is the smallest of the city’s boroughs. The area’s history began in 1309 when the island of Iztacalco, in what was Lake Texcoco, was settled in 1309 by the...
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9. IztapalapaIztapalapa is one of the Federal District of Mexico City’s 16 boroughs, located on the east side of the entity. The borough is named after and centered on the formerly independent municipality of Iztapalapa, which is officially called Iztapalapa de Cuitláhuac for disambiguation purposes...
10. Magdalena ContrerasLa Magdalena Contreras is one of the 16 delegaciones into which Mexico's Federal District is divided. It had a 2010 census population of 239,086 inhabitants, and is the third-least populous of Mexico City's boroughs. It lies at an elevation of 2,365 m...
11. Miguel HidalgoMiguel Hidalgo is one of the 16 delegaciones into which Mexico's Federal District is divided. The borough includes some of the most affluent parts of Mexico City, such as Lomas de Chapultepec and Polanco. Its population at the 2010 census was 372,889 inhabitants, and it lies at an elevation of...
12. Milpa AltaMilpa Alta is one of the 16 delegaciones into which Mexico's Federal District is divided. It lies in the southeast corner of the Distrito Federal, bordering the States of México and Morelos. It is the second largest and most rural of all delegaciones. It is also the least populous and...
13. TláhuacTláhuac is one of the 16 delegaciones into which Mexico's Federal District is divided. It is located on the east edge of the district and is largely rural in character. The main town, San Pedro Tláhuac, is situated alongside a lake, and is the site of a 16th century church. The borough had a 2010...
14. TlalpanTlalpan is one of the sixteen administrative boroughs of the Federal District of Mexico City. It is the largest borough, with over eighty percent under conservation as forest and other ecologically sensitive area. The rest, almost all of it on the northern edge, has been urban since the mid 20th...
15. Venustiano CarranzaVenustiano Carranza is one of the 16 delegaciones of Mexico's Federal District. The borough was formed in 1970 when the center of Mexico City was subdivided into four boroughs...
16. XochimilcoXochimilco is one of the sixteen delegaciones or boroughs within Mexican Federal District. The borough is centered on the formerly independent city of Xochimilco, which was established on what was the southern shore of Lake Xochimilco in the pre-Hispanic period...
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The boroughs are composed by hundreds of
coloniasIn Mexico, the neighborhoods of large metropolitan areas are known as colonias. One theory suggests that the name, which literally means colony, arose in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when one of the first urban developments outside Mexico City's core was built by a French immigrant colony...
or
neighborhoodsA neighbourhood or neighborhood is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town or suburb. Neighbourhoods are often social communities with considerable face-to-face interaction among members. "Researchers have not agreed on an exact definition...
, 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 the city's core was inhabited by a French colony in the city. Some colonias have identifiable attributes:
Historic CenterThe 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...
is the oldest quarter in the city, some of the buildings dating back to the 16th century ;
CondesaOfficially, Colonia Condesa is an administrative division or “colonia” located west of the historic center of Mexico City, just south of Avenida Chapultepec. Popularly, the name “La Condesa” is named after the second, the María Magdalena Dávalos de Bracamontes y Orozco, the Countess of Miravalle,...
is known for its
Art DecoArt deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
architecture, and for being the newest artistic center of the city;
Santa Fethumb|400px|Panoramic view of Santa Fethumb|200px|Carlos Lazo AveSanta Fe or City Santa Fe is one of Mexico City's major business districts, located in the west part of the city in the delegaciones of Cuajimalpa and Álvaro Obregón. Paseo de la Reforma and Constituyentes are the primary means of...
is a growing business and financial district (built over old
landfillA landfill site , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment...
s);
RomaColonia Roma is a colonia or neighborhood located in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City just west of the city’s historic center. The area was a very shallow part of Lake Texcoco, dotted with tiny islands and one small island village of Aztacalco during the pre-Hispanic period...
is a
beaux arts neighborhood and probably one of the oldest in the city;
PolancoPolanco 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...
is an important commercial and economic center known for its large
JewishJews have lived in Mexico since the Spanish conquest. Today the community numbers around 68,000, concentrated primarily in Mexico City. Other communities are found in the state of Jalisco, mainly in Guadalajara and surrounding cities, and in Monterrey, Veracruz, Culiacán, and...
community, and
TepitoTepito 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...
and La Lagunilla are known for its large
flea marketA flea market or swap meet is a type of bazaar where inexpensive or secondhand goods are sold or bartered. It may be indoors, such as in a warehouse or school gymnasium; or it may be outdoors, such as in a field or under a tent...
.
Health
Mexico City is home to some of the best private hospitals in the country; Hospital Ángeles, Hospital ABC and Médica Sur to name a few. The national
public healthcarePublicly funded health care is a form of health care financing designed to meet the cost of all or most health care needs from a publicly managed fund. Usually this is under some form of democratic accountability, the right of access to which are set down in rules applying to the whole population...
institution for
private-sectorIn economics, the private sector is that part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is run by private individuals or groups, usually as a means of enterprise for profit, and is not controlled by the state...
employees
IMSSThe Mexican Social Security Institute is a governmental organization that attends to public health, pensions and social security in Mexico operating under Secretaría de Salud .-History:...
, has its largest facilities in Mexico City, including the National Medical Center and the
La RazaIn the Spanish language the term Raza translates to "race". Its meaning varies amongst various Spanish-speaking peoples. For instance, in Spain, "Raza" may denote specifically Spanish and often of a something or someone of a European Christian heritage. The Francoist film Raza, from 1944, which...
Medical Center, and has an annual budget of over 6 billion pesos. The IMSS and other
public healthPublic health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
institutions, including the ISSSTE (Public Sector Employees' Social Security Institute) and the National Health Ministry (SSA) maintain large specialty facilities in the city. These include the National Institutes of Cardiology, Nutrition, Psychiatry, Oncology, Pediatrics, Rehabilitation, among others.
The
World BankThe World Bank Group is a family of five international organizations that makes leveraged loans, generally to poor countries.The Bank came into formal existence on 27 December 1945 following international ratification of the Bretton Woods agreements, which emerged from the United Nations Monetary...
has sponsored a project to curb air pollution through public transport improvements and the Mexican government has started shutting down polluting factories. They have phased out diesel buses and mandated new emission controls on new cars; since 1993 all new cars must be fitted with a
catalytic converterA catalytic converter is a device used to convert toxic exhaust emissions from an internal combustion engine into non-toxic substances. Inside a catalytic converter, a catalyst stimulates a chemical reaction in which noxious byproducts of combustion are converted to less toxic substances by dint...
, which reduce the emissions released. Trucks must use only liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
Also construction of an
underground rail systemThe Mexico City Metro , officially called Sistema de Transporte Colectivo, is a metro system that serves the metropolitan area of Mexico City...
was begun in 1968 order to help curb air pollution problems and alleviate
traffic congestionTraffic congestion is a condition on road networks that occurs as use increases, and is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing. The most common example is the physical use of roads by vehicles. When traffic demand is great enough that the interaction...
. Today it has over 201 km of track and carries over 5 million people every day. Fees are kept low to encourage use of the system and during
rush hourA rush hour or peak hour is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice a day—once in the morning and once in the evening, the times during when the most people commute...
s the crush is so great, that authorities have reserved a special carriage specifically for women.
Due to these initiatives and others, the air quality in Mexico City has begun to improve, with the air becoming cleaner since 1991, when the air quality was declared to be a public health risk for 355 days of the year.
Economy
Mexico City is one of the most important economic hubs in Latin America. The city proper (Federal District) produces 21.8% of the country's gross domestic product. According to a study conducted by
PricewaterhouseCoopersPricewaterhouseCoopers is a global professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest professional services firm measured by revenues and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms....
, Mexico City had a GDP of $390 billion, ranking as the eighth richest city in the world after the greater areas of Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Paris, London and
Osakais a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
/
Kobe, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
, and the richest in Latin America. Making Mexico City alone the 30th largest economy in the world.
Mexico City is the greatest contributor to the country's industrial GDP (15.8%) and also the greatest contributor to the country's GDP in the service sector (25.3%). Due to the limited non-urbanized space at the south—most of which is protected through environmental laws the contribution of the Federal District in agriculture is the smallest of all federal entities in the country. Mexico City has one of the world's fastest-growing economies and its GDP is set to double by 2020.
As measured by the overall GDP of the entire metropolitan area, Mexico City is the richest city in the country and Latin America. In the 2002 Mexico City had an HDI index of 0.915 identical to that of Republic of Korea. The level of household expenditure in Mexico City is close to that of an average household in Germany or Japan.
The top twenty-five percent of GDP per capita holders in the city had a mean disposable income of US $98,517 in 2007. The extremely high spending power of Mexico City inhabitants, makes the city attractive for
luxury goodLuxury goods are products and services that are not considered essential and associated with affluence.The concept of luxury has been present in various forms since the beginning of civilization. Its role was just as important in ancient western and eastern empires as it is in modern societies...
s companies. The combined personal wealth of privately held income of citizens of the entire federal district is estimated to be $536.95 billion USD, $146 billion larger than the city's GDP of $390 billion, which only takes into account the combined net worth of goods, services and corporately held assets.
The economic reforms of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari had a tremendous effect on the city, as a number of businesses, including banks, were privatized. He also signed the
North American Free Trade AgreementThe North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA is an agreement signed by the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America. The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994. It superseded the Canada – United States Free Trade Agreement...
(NAFTA). This led to the decentralization and a shift in Mexico City's economic base, from manufacturing to services, as many factories moved to the State of Mexico and to the northern border.
Demographics
Historically, and since pre-Hispanic times, the
valley of AnáhuacThe Valley of Mexico is a highlands plateau in central Mexico roughly coterminous with the present-day Distrito Federal and the eastern half of the State of Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico was a centre for several pre-Columbian civilizations, including...
has been one of the most densely populated areas in Mexico. When the Federal District was created in 1824, the urban area of Mexico City extended approximately to the area of today's
CuauhtémocCuauhtémoc was the Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan from 1520 to 1521...
boroughA borough is an administrative division in various countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing township although, in practice, official use of the term varies widely....
. At the beginning of the 20th century, the
elites began migrating to the south and west and soon the small towns of Mixcoac and
San ÁngelSan Ángel is a colonia or neighborhood of Mexico City, located in the southwest in Álvaro Óbregon borough. Historically, it was a rural community, called Tenanitla in the pre Hispanic period. Its current name is derived from the El Carmen monastery school called San Ángel Mártir...
were incorporated by the growing conurbation. According to the 1921 census, 54.78% of the city's population was considered Mestizo (Indigenous mixed with European), 22.79% considered European, and 18.74% considered Indigenous. In 1921, Mexico City had less than one million inhabitants.
Up to the 1980s, the Federal District was the most populous federal entity in Mexico, but since then its population has remained stable at around 8.7 million. The growth of the city has extended beyond the limits of the Federal District to 59 municipalities of the state of Mexico and 1 in the state of Hidalgo. With a population of approximately 19.8 million inhabitants (2008), it is one of the most populous conurbations in the world. Nonetheless, the annual rate of growth of the
Metropolitan Area of Mexico CityGreater Mexico City refers to the conurbation around Mexico City, officially called Mexico City Metropolitan Area , constituted by the Federal District—itself composed of 16 boroughs—and 41 adjacent municipalities of the states of Mexico and Hidalgo...
is much lower than that of other large urban agglomerations in Mexico, a phenomenon most likely attributable to the
environmental policyEnvironmental policy is any [course of] action deliberately taken [or not taken] to manage human activities with a view to prevent, reduce, or mitigate harmful effects on nature and natural resources, and ensuring that man-made changes to the environment do not have harmful effects on...
of decentralization. The
net migration rateNet migration rate is the difference of immigrants and emigrants of an area in a period of time, divided per 1,000 inhabitants...
of the Federal District from 1995 to 2000 was negative.
While they represented around 18.74% of the city's population, indigenous peoples from different regions of Mexico have immigrated to the capital in search of better economic opportunities.
NáhuatlNahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...
,
OtomíOtomi is an Oto-Manguean language and one of the indigenous languages of Mexico, spoken by approximately 240,000 indigenous Otomi people in the central altiplano region of Mexico. The language is spoken in many different dialects, some of which are not mutually intelligible, therefore it is in...
,
MixtecThe Mixtec are indigenous Mesoamerican peoples inhabiting the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and Puebla in a region known as La Mixteca. The Mixtecan languages form an important branch of the Otomanguean language family....
o, Zapoteco, and
MazahuaThe Mazahua are an indigenous people of Mexico, inhabiting the northwestern portion of the State of Mexico and northeastern area of Michoacán, with a presence also in the Federal District owing to recent migration...
are the indigenous languages with the greatest number of speakers in Mexico City.
On the other hand, Mexico City is home to large communities of
expatriateAn expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...
s and immigrants, most notably from South America (mainly from
ArgentinaArgentines are the citizens of Argentina, or their descendants abroad. Argentina is a multiethnic society, which means that it is home to people of many different ethnic backgrounds. According to the , Argentina had a population of 36,260,130 inhabitants, of which 1,527,320, or 4.2%, were born...
and
ColombiaColombian people are from a multiethnic Spanish speaking nation in South America called Colombia. Colombians are predominantly Roman Catholic and are a mixture of Europeans, Africans, and Amerindians.-Demography:...
, but also from
Brazil,
ChileChilean people, or simply Chileans, are the native citizens and long-term immigrants of Chile. Chileans are mainly of Spanish and Amerindian descent, with small but significant traces of 19th and 20th century European immigrant origin...
,
UruguayUruguayan people or Uruguayans are the citizens of Uruguay, or its descendants abroad. Uruguay is a multiethnic society, which means that it is home to people of many different ethnical backgrounds...
and
VenezuelaVenezuelan people are from a multiethnic nation in South America called Venezuela. Venezuelans are predominantly Roman Catholic and speak Spanish, and a majority of them are the result of a mixture of Europeans, Africans, and Amerindians.-Demography:...
), from Central America and the Caribbean (mainly from
CubaCubans or Cuban people are the inhabitants or citizens of Cuba. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
,
GuatemalaThe demographics of Guatemala are diverse, constituting primarily of Mestizos, Amerindians and Europeans. About 60% of the population speak Spanish, with nearly all of the rest speaking Amerindian languages....
,
El Salvador,
HaitiHaiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
and
HondurasHondurans are people inhabiting in, originating or having significant heritage from Honduras. Most Hondurans live in Honduras, although there is also a significant Honduran diaspora, particularly in the United States with smaller communities in other countries around the world...
); from Europe (mainly from
SpainThe Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
,
GermanyThe Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
and Switzerland, but also from Czech Republic,
FranceThe French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
,
ItalyThe Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
,
the NetherlandsThe Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
, Poland and
RomaniaThe Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
), from the Middle East (mainly from
EgyptEgyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...
, Lebanon and
SyriaThe Syrian people are the inhabitants and citizens of Syria. Syrians are tied together by geography, linguistic heritage, religion, and similar Eastern Mediterranean ethnicities...
); and recently from Asia-Pacific (mainly from
ChinaThe term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
and
South KoreaThe Korean people are an ethnic group originating in the Korean peninsula and Manchuria. Koreans are one of the most ethnically and linguistically homogeneous groups in the world.-Names:...
). Historically since the era of
New SpainNew Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
, many
FilipinosThe Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
settled in the city and have become integrated in Mexican society. While no official figures have been reported,
population estimatesA census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of each of these communities are quite significant. Mexico City is home to the largest population of
U.S. AmericansAs of today's date, the United States has a total resident population of , making it the third most populous country in the world. It is a very urbanized population, with 82% residing in cities and suburbs as of 2008 . This leaves vast expanses of the country nearly uninhabited...
living outside the United States. Current estimates are as high as 600,000 U.S. Americans living in Mexico City, while in 1999 the U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs estimated over 440,000 Americans lived in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area.
The majority (90.5%) of the residents in Mexico City are Roman Catholic, higher than the national percentage, even though it has been decreasing over the last decades. However, many other religions and philosophies are also practiced in the city: many different types of
ProtestantProtestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
groups, different types of
Jewish communitiesJews have lived in Mexico since the Spanish conquest. Today the community numbers around 68,000, concentrated primarily in Mexico City. Other communities are found in the state of Jalisco, mainly in Guadalajara and surrounding cities, and in Monterrey, Veracruz, Culiacán, and...
,
BuddhistBuddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
and
IslamIslam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and other
spiritualSpiritual may refer to:*Spirituality, a concern with matters of the spirit*Spiritual , an African American song, usually with a Christian religious text...
and philosophical groups, as well as an increasing number of
irreligionIrreligion varies in the different countries around the world....
.
Landmarks
The
Historic center of Mexico CityThe 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...
(
Centro Histórico) and the "floating gardens" of
XochimilcoXochimilco is one of the sixteen delegaciones or boroughs within Mexican Federal District. The borough is centered on the formerly independent city of Xochimilco, which was established on what was the southern shore of Lake Xochimilco in the pre-Hispanic period...
in the southern borough have been declared
World Heritage SiteA UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
s by the
UNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
. Famous landmarks in the Historic Center include the
Plaza de la ConstituciónThe Zócalo is the main plaza or square in the heart of the historic center of Mexico City. The plaza used to be known simply as the "Main Square" or "Arms Square," and today its formal name is Plaza de la Constitución...
(Zócalo), the main central square with its time clashing Spanish-era
Metropolitan CathedralThe Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary of Mexico City is the largest and oldest cathedral in the Americas and seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico. It is situated atop the former Aztec sacred precinct near the Templo Mayor on the northern side of the Plaza de la...
and
National PalaceThe National Palace, or Palacio Nacional in Spanish), was the seat of the federal executive in Mexico. It is located on Mexico City's main square, the Plaza de la Constitución...
, and Delran, and ancient Aztec temple ruins Templo Mayor ("Major Temple") are all within a few steps of one another. (The Templo Mayor was discovered in 1978 while workers were digging to place underground electric cables.)
The most recognizable icon of Mexico City is the golden
Angel of IndependenceEl Ángel de la Independencia , most commonly known by theshortened name El Ángel and officially known as Columna de la Independencia, is a victory column located on a roundabout over Paseo de la Reforma in downtown Mexico City.El Ángel was built to commemorate the centennial of the beginning of...
, found on the wide, elegant avenue
Paseo de la ReformaPaseo 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...
, modeled by the order of the Emperor
Maximilian of MexicoMaximilian 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...
after the
Champs-ÉlyséesThe Avenue des Champs-Élysées is a prestigious avenue in Paris, France. With its cinemas, cafés, luxury specialty shops and clipped horse-chestnut trees, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées is one of the most famous streets and one of the most expensive strip of real estate in the world. The name is...
in Paris. This avenue was designed over Americas' oldest passage in the 19th century to connect the
National PalaceThe National Palace, or Palacio Nacional in Spanish), was the seat of the federal executive in Mexico. It is located on Mexico City's main square, the Plaza de la Constitución...
(seat of government) with the Castle of Chapultepec, the imperial residence. Today, this avenue is an important financial district in which the Mexican Stock Exchange as several
corporate headquartersCorporate headquarters is a term used to describe the entity at the top of a corporation to take full responsibility for the overall success of the corporation, ensures Corporate Governance...
are located. Another important avenue is the
Avenida de los InsurgentesAvenida 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 extends 28.8 km (17.9 mi) and is one of the longest single avenues in the world.
The
ChapultepecChapultepec 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...
park houses the
Castle of Chapultepec, now a museum on a hill that overlooks the park and its numerous museums, monuments and the national zoo and the
National Museum of AnthropologyThe Museo Nacional de Antropología is a national museum of Mexico. Located in the area between Paseo de la Reforma and Calle Mahatma Gandhi within Chapultepec Park in Mexico City, the museum contains significant archaeological and anthropological artifacts from the pre-Columbian heritage of...
(which houses the Aztec Calendar Stone). Another magnificent piece of architecture is the
Fine Arts PalaceThe Palacio de Bellas Artes is the most important cultural center in Mexico City as well as the rest of the country of Mexico...
, a stunning white marble theatre/museum whose weight is such that it has gradually been sinking into the soft ground below. Its construction began during the presidency of
Porfirio DíazJosé 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...
and ended in 1934, after being interrupted by the
Mexican RevolutionThe 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...
in the 1920s. The
Plaza of the Three CulturesThe Plaza de las Tres Culturas is the main square within the Tlatelolco neighbourhood of Mexico City. The name "Three Cultures" is in recognition of the three periods of Mexican history reflected by those buildings pre-Columbian, Spanish colonial, and the independent "mestizo" nation...
in the
TlatelolcoTlatelolco 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...
neighbourhood, and the shrine and
BasilicaThe Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
s of
Our Lady of GuadalupeOur Lady of Guadalupe , also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe is a celebrated Catholic icon of the Virgin Mary.According to tradition, on December 9, 1531 Juan Diego, a simple indigenous peasant, had a vision of a young woman while he was on a hill in the Tepeyac desert, near Mexico City. The lady...
are also important sites. There is a
double-decker busA double-decker bus is a bus that has two storeys or 'decks'. Global usage of this type of bus is more common in outer touring than in its intra-urban transportion role. Double-decker buses are also commonly found in certain parts of Europe, Asia, and former British colonies and protectorates...
, known as the "Turibus", that circles most of these sites, and has timed audio describing the sites in multiple languages as they are passed.
In addition, the city has around 160 museums, over 100 art galleries, and some 30
concert halls, all of which maintain a constant cultural activity during the whole year. It has the fourth highest number of theatres in the world after New York, London and Toronto, and it is the city with the highest number of museums in the world. In many locales (Palacio Nacional and the Instituto Nacional de Cardiología, to name a few), there are murals painted by
Diego RiveraDiego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...
. He and his wife
Frida KahloFrida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán, and perhaps best known for her self-portraits....
lived in the southern suburb of
CoyoacánCoyoacán refers to one of the sixteen boroughs of the Federal District of Mexico City as well as the former village which is now the borough’s “historic center.” The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means “place of coyotes,” when the Aztecs named a pre-Hispanic village on the southern shore...
, where several of their homes, studios, and art collections are open to the public. The house where
Leon TrotskyLeon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
was initially granted asylum and finally murdered in 1940 is also in Coyoacán.
In addition, there are several restored
haciendas that are now restaurants, such as the San Ángel Inn, the Hacienda de Tlalpan and the Hacienda de los Morales, all of which are stunning remnants of Mexican history and house some of the best food in the world.
Public Transportation
Mexico City is served by the
Sistema de Transporte Colectivo MetroThe Mexico City Metro , officially called Sistema de Transporte Colectivo, is a metro system that serves the metropolitan area of Mexico City...
, a 207 km
metroA rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
system, which is the largest in Latin America. The first portions were opened in 1969 and it has expanded to 11 lines with
175 stations. A
suburban railCommuter rail, also called suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates between a city center, and the middle to outer suburbs beyond 15km and commuter towns or other locations that draw large numbers of commuters—people who travel on a daily basis...
system, known as the Tren Suburbano, similar to the Parisian RER started operations in 2008 connecting the city downtown to the Northern suburbs. A twelfth (gold color) metro line is currently in construction, and will add an additional 25 km to the network. The
metro is one of the busiest in the world transporting approximately 4.5 million people every day, surpassed only by subway lines in Moscow (7.5 million), Tokyo (5.9 million), and New York City (5.1 million). It is heavily subsidized, and has the lowest fares in the world, each trip costing 3.00
Mex$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...
and taking each passenger to almost any place in the mega city from 05:00 am to midnight. Several stations display
pre-ColumbianThe pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
artifacts and architecture that were discovered during the metro's construction. However, the
MetroThe Mexico City Metro , officially called Sistema de Transporte Colectivo, is a metro system that serves the metropolitan area of Mexico City...
does not extend outside the limits of the Federal District, for which an extensive network of bus routes exists. These routes are mostly managed by private companies which are allowed to operate buses as long as they adhere to certain minimal service quality standards.
The city government also operates a network of large buses, in contrast with the privately operated
microbusesA pesero is a form of public transport, most commonly seen in Mexico City. Its name derives from the fact that the first incarnations of this form of transport charged a flat fee of one peso per ride .First seen in the 1970's as the so-called taxi colectivo , peseros were originally...
(
peseros), with fares barely exceeding that of the metro. Electric transport other than the metro also exists, in the form of several
Mexico City trolleybusThe Mexico City trolleybus system serves Mexico City, the capital city of Mexico.Opened on 9 March 1951, the system had 10 lines .-See also:*Servicio de Transportes Eléctricos – has much more information on the subject*List of trolleybus systems...
routes and the
Xochimilco Light RailThe Xochimilco Light Rail is a light rail line that serves the southern part of Mexico City. It connects to, but is not considered a part of, the Mexico City Metro...
line, both of which are operated by
Servicio de Transportes Eléctricos Servicio de Transportes Eléctricos del Distrito Federal is a public transport agency responsible for the operation of all trolleybus and light rail services in Mexico City. As its name implies, its routes use only electrically powered vehicles...
. The central area's last
streetcarA tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
line (tramway, or
tranvía) closed in 1979, but the reintroduction of streetcars to the historic city center is planned. The city's first
bus rapid transitBus rapid transit is a term applied to a variety of public transportation systems using buses to provide faster, more efficient service than an ordinary bus line. Often this is achieved by making improvements to existing infrastructure, vehicles and scheduling...
line, the
MetrobúsMetrobús is a bus rapid transit system in Mexico City, Mexico. It comprises 3 lines that traverse the city and connect with other forms of transit. It was officially opened to the public with service along Line 1 on 19 June 2005...
, began operation in June 2005, along
Avenida InsurgentesAvenida 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...
. A second line was constructed along Eje 4 Sur, opening in December 2008, and a third line opened in February 2011, serving Eje 1 Poniente between
TenayucaTenayuca is a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican archaeological site in the Valley of Mexico. In the Postclassic period of Mesoamerican chronology Tenayuca was a settlement on the former shoreline of the western arm of Lake Texcoco, located approximately 10km to the northwest of Tenochtitlan...
and
Metro EtiopíaMetro Etiopía / Plaza de la Transparencia is a metro station on the Mexico City Metro. It is located in the Benito Juárez borough of Mexico City....
. As the microbuses were removed from its route, it was hoped that the Metrobús could reduce pollution and decrease transit time for passengers. Also, since late 2002, the white and green taxis have been joined by red and white ones as part of a program to replace older vehicles with new ones.
Roads
In the late 1970s many arterial roads were redesigned as
ejes viales; high-volume one-way roads that cross, in theory, Mexico City proper from side to side. The
eje vial network is based on a quasi-
CartesianA Cartesian coordinate system specifies each point uniquely in a plane by a pair of numerical coordinates, which are the signed distances from the point to two fixed perpendicular directed lines, measured in the same unit of length...
grid, with the
ejes themselves being called
Eje 1 Poniente,
Eje Central, and
Eje 1 Oriente, for example, for the north-south roads, and
Eje 2 Sur and
Eje 3 Norte, for example, for east-west roads. Two freeway ring-roads serve to connect points within the city and the metropolitan area: Circuito Interior (the inner ring) and Periférico, which connect to one straight freeway: the Viaducto (Viaduct) (connecting west with east, from Observatorio to the Airport). Traffic in this system is so dense that an elevated highway that runs on top and parallel to a part of the Periférico, had to be constructed and finished in 2003. This elevated highway is colloquially called
segundo piso ("second level") of the Periférico.
There is an environmental program, called
Hoy No CirculaHoy No Circula is the name of an environmental program intended to improve the air quality of Mexico City. A similar coordinated program operates within the State of México, which surrounds Mexico City on three sides...
("Today Does Not Run", or "One Day without a Car"), whereby only vehicles with certain ending numbers on their
license platesA vehicle registration plate is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identification purposes. The registration identifier is a numeric or alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies the vehicle within the issuing region's database...
are allowed to circulate on certain days, in an attempt to cut down on pollution and traffic congestion.
Cycling
The local government continuously strives for a reduction of massive traffic congestion, and has increased incentives for making a
bicycle-friendlyThe term bicycle-friendly describes policies and practices which may help some people feel more comfortable about traveling by bicycle with other traffic...
city. A bicycle lending program was created in the
Centro HistoricoThe 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...
, in which a citizen or tourist can loan a bicycle for 3 hours, by filling out a simple form and presenting a valid ID, the so-called
Cicloestaciones are located primarily by the
Paseo de la ReformaPaseo 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...
. There is also a service called Ecobici, in which registered residents can get bicycles for 45 minutes with a pre-paid subscription of 300 pesos a year, there are a total of 90 stations scattered along the
RomaColonia Roma is a colonia or neighborhood located in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City just west of the city’s historic center. The area was a very shallow part of Lake Texcoco, dotted with tiny islands and one small island village of Aztacalco during the pre-Hispanic period...
-
CondesaOfficially, Colonia Condesa is an administrative division or “colonia” located west of the historic center of Mexico City, just south of Avenida Chapultepec. Popularly, the name “La Condesa” is named after the second, the María Magdalena Dávalos de Bracamontes y Orozco, the Countess of Miravalle,...
,
CentroThe 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...
,
JuárezColonia Juarez is one of the better–known neighborhoods or colonias in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City. Its boundaries are: the corner of Paseo de la Reforma and Eje Bucareli to the north, Avenida Chapultepec to the south, Eje 1 Poniente to the east and Circuito Interior José Vasconcelos to...
neighborhoods within 300 meters from each other and are fully automatic only serving one bicycle per person using a transponder based card. Both bicycle service users have access to several permanent
CiclovíaCiclovía is term which translates from Spanish into English as "bike path" and now used worldwide to describe either a permanently designated bicycle route or a temporary event, the closing of the street to automobiles for use by others.-Origins in Colombia:Each Sunday and holiday certain main...
s in the city, the most important runs 59 kilometers from
PolancoPolanco is the name shared by people and places in Mexico, Spain and other countries, including:* Polanco , an upscale neighborhood of Mexico City* Polanco, Cantabria, a municipality in Spain...
to Fierro del Toro, which is located south of
Cumbres del Ajusco National ParkCumbres del Ajusco National Park is one of many national parks near Mexico City, DF. The Ajusco is known for its high elevations reaching 3,900 meters above sea level and is visible from any part of Mexico city. The park is characterized by pine-oak forests and high mountain grassland...
, near the
MorelosMorelos officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Morelos is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 33 municipalities and its capital city is Cuernavaca....
state line. The city's initiative is inspired by forward thinking examples, such as
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
's Copenhagenization.
Buses
The city has four major bus stations (North, South, Observatorio, TAPO), which comprise one of the world's largest transportation agglomerations, with bus service to many cities across the country and international connections. The city has one train station, used for commercial and industrial purposes (interstate
passenger trainsA train is a connected series of vehicles for rail transport that move along a track to transport cargo or passengers from one place to another place. The track usually consists of two rails, but might also be a monorail or maglev guideway.Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate...
are now virtually non-existent in Mexico). A suburban rail system, the
Tren Suburbano serves the metropolitan area, beyond the city limits of the
metroThe Mexico City Metro , officially called Sistema de Transporte Colectivo, is a metro system that serves the metropolitan area of Mexico City...
, to municipalities such as
TlalnepantlaTlalnepantla de Baz is a city and a municipality of the State of Mexico in the north of Mexico City . Tlalnepantla comes from the Náhuatl words tlalli and nepantla to mean the middle land...
and Cuautitlán Izcalli, with future extensions to
ChalcoAluminum Corporation of China Limited, also known as Chalco , is a multinational aluminum company headquartered in Beijing, People's Republic of China...
and
La PazLos Reyes Acaquilpan is a city and governing head of the municipality of La Paz in Mexico State, Mexico. It is located on the dividing line between Mexico State and the eastern edge of the Federal District. It can therefore be considered part of the Greater Mexico City area...
.
Airports
Mexico City is served by
Mexico City International AirportBenito Juárez International Airport , in Venustiano Carranza, one of the sixteen boroughs into which Mexico's Federal District is divided, is a commercial airport that serves Mexico City, the capital of Mexico...
(IATA Airport Code: MEX). This airport is Latin America's busiest and largest in traffic, with daily flights to North America, mainland Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, South America, Europe and Asia.
AeroméxicoAirways of Mexico, SA de CV , operating as Aeroméxico, is the flag carrier airline of Mexico based in Colonia Cuauhtémoc, Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City. It operates scheduled domestic and international services to North America, South America, Central America and the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia...
(
SkyteamSkyTeam, branded as SKYTEAM, is an airline alliance with its centralised management team, SkyTeam Central, based at the World Trade Center Schiphol Airport on the grounds of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands...
) and
MexicanaFounded in 1921, Compañía Mexicana de Aviación, S.A. de C.V. was Mexico's oldest airline, before ceasing operations on August 28, 2010. The group's closure was announced by the company's recently installed management team a short time after the group filed for Concurso Mercantil and US Chapter 15...
(
OneworldOneworld , branded as oneworld, is one of the world's three largest global airline alliances with its central management team, oneworld Management Company, based in New York City, New York, USA. Oneworld was founded in 1999 by American Airlines, British Airways, Canadian Airlines, Cathay Pacific...
) are based at this airport, and provide codeshare agreements with non-Mexican airlines that span the entire globe. It is used by over 26 million passengers per year.
This traffic exceeds the current capacity of the airport, which has historically centralized the majority of
air trafficAir Traffic was a British alternative rock band from Bournemouth. Formed in 2003, the band consists of Chris Wall , David Ryan Jordan , Tom Pritchard and Jim Maddock ....
in the country. An alternate option is
Lic. Adolfo López Mateos International AirportLicenciado Adolfo López Mateos International Airport is an international airport located at Toluca, State of Mexico, Mexico. It is part of the Mexico City Metropolitan Airport Group, and it's being improved and promoted to handle some traffic for the city of Toluca, but it mainly serves as a...
(IATA Airport Code: TLC) located in the nearby
TolucaToluca, formally known as Toluca de Lerdo, is the state capital of Mexico State as well as the seat of the Municipality of Toluca. It is the center of a rapidly growing urban area, now the fifth largest in Mexico. It is located west-southwest of Mexico City and only about 40 minutes by car to the...
, State of Mexico with about 4.5 million passengers transported last year. In 2008, about 31 million people went through the city's airports. The government engaged in an extensive restructuring program that includes the new second adjacent terminal, which began operations in 2007, and the enlargement of four other airports (at the nearby cities of
TolucaToluca, formally known as Toluca de Lerdo, is the state capital of Mexico State as well as the seat of the Municipality of Toluca. It is the center of a rapidly growing urban area, now the fifth largest in Mexico. It is located west-southwest of Mexico City and only about 40 minutes by car to the...
, Querétaro,
PueblaThe city and municipality of Puebla is the capital of the state of Puebla, and one of the five most important colonial cities in Mexico. Being a planned city, it is located to the east of Mexico City and west of Mexico's main port, Veracruz, on the main route between the two.The city was founded...
and
CuernavacaCuernavaca is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. It was established at the archeological site of Gualupita I by the Olmec, "the mother culture" of Mesoamerica, approximately 3200 years ago...
) that, along with Mexico City's airport, comprise the
Grupo Aeroportuario del Valle de México, distributing traffic to different regions in Mexico. The city of Pachuca will also provide additional expansion to central Mexico's airport network. Mexico City's airport is the main hub for 11 of the 21
national airline companies.
Art
Mexico City is one of the most important cultural centers in the world, boasting more museums than any other city. It also comes third in the number of theaters in the world, just after London and New York. Having been the capital of a vast pre-Hispanic empire, and also the capital of richest viceroyalty within the
Spanish EmpireThe Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
(ruling over a vast territory in the Americas and
Spanish East IndiesSpanish East Indies was a term used to describe Spanish territories in Asia-Pacific which lasted for three centuries . With the seat of government in Manila, the territory encompassed the Philippine Islands, Guam and the Mariana Islands, the Caroline Islands, and for a period of time, parts of...
), and, finally, the capital of the Mexican federation, Mexico City has a rich history of
artistic expressionMexican art consists of the various visual and plastic arts which developed over the geographical area now known as Mexico. The development of these arts roughly follow the history of Mexico, divided into the Mesoamerican era, the colonial period, with the period after the gaining of Independence...
. Since the Mesoamerican pre-Classical period the inhabitants of the settlements around Lake Texcoco produced many works of art and complex craftsmanship, some of which are today displayed at the world-renown
National Museum of AnthropologyThe Museo Nacional de Antropología is a national museum of Mexico. Located in the area between Paseo de la Reforma and Calle Mahatma Gandhi within Chapultepec Park in Mexico City, the museum contains significant archaeological and anthropological artifacts from the pre-Columbian heritage of...
and the
Templo Mayor Museum. While many pieces of pottery and stone-engraving have survived, the great majority of the Amerindian iconography was destroyed during the Conquest of Mexico.
During colonial times the first art produced was that of the codices generated to preserve or recuperate Amerindian iconography and history. From then, artistic expressions in Mexico were mostly religious in theme. The
Metropolitan CathedralThe Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary of Mexico City is the largest and oldest cathedral in the Americas and seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico. It is situated atop the former Aztec sacred precinct near the Templo Mayor on the northern side of the Plaza de la...
still displays works by Juan de Rojas,
Juan CorreaJuan Correa was a Mexican painter of mixed Moorish or African, Indian and Spanish heritage. His years of greatest activity were from 1671 to 1716. He painted many religious-themed, Baroque paintings for cathedrals in Mexico. Correa was José de Ibarra's teacher...
and an
oil paintingOil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...
whose authorship has been attributed to
MurilloBartolomé Esteban Murillo was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children...
. Secular works of art of this period include the equestrian sculpture of
Charles IV of SpainCharles IV was King of Spain from 14 December 1788 until his abdication on 19 March 1808.-Early life:...
, locally known as
El Caballito ("The little horse"). This piece, in bronze, was the work of
Manuel TolsáManuel Tolsá was a prolific Neoclassical architect and sculptor in Spain and Mexico.-Biography:...
and it has been placed at the Plaza Tolsá, in front of the Palacio de Minería (Mining Palace). Directly in front of this building is the beautiful
Museo Nacional de ArteThe Museo Nacional de Arte is the Mexican national art museum, located in the historical center of Mexico City. The museum is housed in a neoclassical building at No. 8 Tacuba, Col. Centro, Mexico City. It includes a large collection representing the history of Mexican art from the mid-sixteenth...
(Munal) (the National Museum of Art).
During the 19th century, an important producer of art was the Academia de San Carlos (San Carlos Art Academy), founded during colonial times, and which later became the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas (the National School of Visual Arts), which is currently one of the
art schoolArt school is a general term for any educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. The term applies to institutions with elementary, secondary, post-secondary or undergraduate, or graduate or...
s of UNAM. Many of the works produced by the students and faculty of that time are now displayed in the Museo Nacional de San Carlos (National Museum of San Carlos). One of the students,
José María VelascoJosé María Velasco was a Mexican painter of the 19th century who made Mexican geography a symbol of national identity through of his paintings...
, is considered one of the greatest Mexican landscape painters of the 19th century. It was during
Porfirio DíazJosé 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...
's regime that the government sponsored arts, especially those that followed the French school. In spite of that, popular arts in the form of cartoons and illustrations flourished like those of
José Guadalupe PosadaJose Guadalupe Posada: was a Mexican cartoonist illustrator and artist whose work has influenced many Latin American artists and cartoonists because of its satirical acuteness and political engagement....
and Manuel Manilla. The permanent collection of the San Carlos Museum also includes paintings by European masters such as Rembrandt, Velázquez, Murillo, and Rubens.
After the
Mexican RevolutionThe 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...
, an
avant-gardeAvant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
artistic movementAn art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a restricted period of time, or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defined within a number of years...
originated in Mexico City:
muralA mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
ism. Many of the works of muralists
José Clemente OrozcoJosé Clemente Orozco was a Mexican social realist painter, who specialized in bold murals that established the Mexican Mural Renaissance together with murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and others...
,
David Alfaro SiqueirosJosé David Alfaro Siqueiros was a social realist painter, known for his large murals in fresco that helped establish the Mexican Mural Renaissance, together with works by Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, and also a member of the Mexican Communist Party who participated in an...
and
Diego RiveraDiego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...
are displayed in numerous buildings in the city, most notably at the
National PalaceThe National Palace, or Palacio Nacional in Spanish), was the seat of the federal executive in Mexico. It is located on Mexico City's main square, the Plaza de la Constitución...
and the
Palacio de Bellas ArtesThe Palacio de Bellas Artes is the most important cultural center in Mexico City as well as the rest of the country of Mexico...
.
Frida KahloFrida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán, and perhaps best known for her self-portraits....
, wife of Rivera, with a strong nationalist expression, was also one of the most renowned of Mexican painters. Her house has become a museum that displays many of her works.
The former home of Rivera muse
Dolores OlmedoMaría de los Dolores Olmedo y Patiño Suarez was a Mexican businesswoman, philanthropist and musician, better known for her friendship with Mexican painters Frida Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera; she appeared on some of his paintings...
house the namesake museum. The facility lies in the Xochimilco precinct in the southern part of the city and includes several buildings surrounded by sprawling manicured lawns. It houses a large collection of Rivera and Kahlo paintings and drawings, as well as living
Xoloizcuintles (
Mexican Hairless DogThe Mexican Hairless Dog is a rare, hairless breed of dog, the size of which varies greatly. It is also known as Xoloitzcuintle .-History:...
). It also regularly hosts small but important temporary exhibits of classical and
modern artModern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
(e.g. Venetian Masters and Contemporary New York artists).
During the 20th century, many artists immigrated to Mexico City from different regions of Mexico, like Leopoldo Méndez, an engraver from Veracruz, who supported the creation of the socialist Taller de la Gráfica Popular (Popular Graphics Workshop), designed to help
blue-collarA blue-collar worker is a member of the working class who performs manual labor. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled, manufacturing, mining, construction, mechanical, maintenance, technical installation and many other types of physical work...
workers find a venue to express their art. Other painters came from abroad, like
CatalanCatalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
painter
Remedios VaroRemedios Varo Uranga was a Spanish-Mexican, para-surrealist painter and anarchist. She was born María de los Remedios Varo Uranga in Anglès, Girona, Spain in 1908. During the Spanish Civil War she fled to Paris where she was greatly influenced by the surrealist movement...
and other Spanish and Jewish exiles. It was in the second half of the 20th century that the artistic movement began to drift apart from the Revolutionary theme.
José Luis CuevasJosé 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...
opted for a modernist style in contrast to the muralist movement associated with social politics.
Museums
Mexico City has numerous museums dedicated to art, including Mexican colonial, modern and
contemporary artContemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
, and international art. The Museo Tamayo was opened in the mid-1980s to house the collection of international contemporary art donated by famed Mexican (born in the state of Oaxaca) painter
Rufino TamayoRufino Tamayo was a Mexican painter of Zapotec heritage, born in Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico. Tamayo was active in the mid-20th century in Mexico and New York, painting figurative abstraction with surrealist influences....
. The collection includes pieces by Picasso, Klee, Kandinsky, Warhol and many others, though most of the collection is stored while visiting exhibits are shown. The
Museo de Arte ModernoThe Museo de Arte Moderno or Museum of Modern Art is located in Chapultepec Park, Mexico City, Mexico. The museum is part of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes and prepares exhibitions of national and international contemporary artists...
(
Museum of Modern ArtThe Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
) is a repository of Mexican artists from the 20th century, including Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros, Kahlo, Gerzso, Carrington, Tamayo, among others, and also regularly hosts temporary exhibits of international modern art. In southern Mexico City, the Museo Carrillo Gil (Carrillo Gil Museum) showcases avant-garde artists, as does the University Museum/Contemporary Art (Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo – or MUAC), designed by famed Mexican architect
Teodoro González de LeónTeodoro González de León is a Mexican architect.- Biography :Gonzales de León studied at the Escuela Nacional de Arquitectura of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México from 1942 to 1947. Thanks to a scholarship by the French government, he worked in France for 18 months with Le Corbusier,...
, inaugurated in late 2008. The
Museo SoumayaThe Museo Soumaya is a private museum in Mexico City with free admission. It is owned by the Carlos Slim Foundation and contains the extensive art, religious relics, historical documents, and coin collection of Carlos Slim and his late wife Soumaya, after whom the museum was named.The museum holds...
, named after the wife of Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, has the largest private collection of original
RodinFrançois-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
sculptures outside Paris. It also has a large collection of Dalí sculptures, and recently began showing pieces in its masters collection including
El GrecoEl Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his ethnic Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος .El Greco was born on Crete, which was at...
, Velázquez, Picasso and Canaletto. The museum inaugurated a new futuristic-design facility in 2011 just north of Polanco, while maintaining a smaller facility in Plaza Loreto in southern Mexico City. The
Colección JumexThe La Colección Jumex is said to be the largest private contemporary art collection in Latin America, with works by Jeff Koons, Andreas Gursky and Gabriel Orozco....
is a contemporary art museum located on the sprawling grounds of the
JumexJumex is a brand of juice and nectar in Mexico. The Jumex brand is also popular among Hispanic consumers in the United States. Currently, the Jumex Group offers lines of fresh and preserved fruit juices, nectar, children's drinks, milk, smoothies, energy drinks, and sports drinks in...
juice company in the northern industrial suburb of Ecatepec. It is said to have the largest private contemporarry art collection in
Latin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
and hosts pieces from its permanent collection as well as traveling exhibits by leading contemporary artists. The Museo de San Ildefonso, housed in the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso in Mexico City's historic downtwon district is a 17th century colonnaded palace housing an art museum that regularly hosts world-class exhbitis of Mexican and international art. Recent exhibits have included those on David LaChapelle, Antony Gormley and Ron Mueck.
The National Museum of Art (Museo Nacional de Arte) is also located in a former palace in the historic center. It houses a large collection of pieces by all major Mexican artists of the last 400 years and also hosts visiting exhibits.
Jack KerouacJean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
, the noted American author, spent extended periods of time in the city, and wrote his masterpiece volume of poetry
Mexico City BluesMexico City Blues is a poem published by Jack Kerouac in 1959 composed of 242 "choruses" or stanzas. In his own words, Kerouac wanted to be known as a jazz poet and with this book he sought to write in a way consistent with how a musician would play jazz...
here. Another American author,
William S. BurroughsWilliam Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
, also lived in the Colonia Roma neighborhood of the city for some time. It was here that he accidentally shot his wife.
There are more than 150 museums in Mexico City. Most of the museums can be visited from Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm, although some of them have extended schedules, such as the Museum of Anthropology and History, which is open up to 7 pm. In addition to this, entrance to most museums is for free on Sundays. However, in some cases a modest fee may be charged.
Another major addition to the city's museum scene is the Museum of Remembrance and Tolerance (Museo de la Memoria y Tolerancia), inaugurated in early 2011. The brainchild of two young Mexican women as a holocaust museum, the idea morphed into a unique museum dedicated to showcasing all major historical events of discrimination and genocide. Permanent exhibits include those on the holocaust and other humanitarian atrocities in history among others. It also houses temporary exhibits, including a recent one on Tibet which was inaugurated by the Dalai Lama in September 2011.
Music, theater and entertainment
Mexico City is a mecca of classical music, with a number of orchestras offering season programs. These include the Mexico City Philharmonic, which performs at the Sala Ollin Yoliztli; the
National Symphony OrchestraThe National Symphony Orchestra is the most important classical music and symphonic ensemble in Mexico. With its origins traced back as 1881, it is the second oldest symphony orchestra in the American continent along with the Boston Symphony Orchestra...
, whose home base is the
Palacio de Bellas ArtesThe Palacio de Bellas Artes is the most important cultural center in Mexico City as well as the rest of the country of Mexico...
(Palace of the
Fine ArtsFine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art, as employed in the term "art gallery"....
), a masterpiece of
art nouveauArt Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
and art decó styles; the
Philharmonic OrchestraAn orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (
OFUNAMThe Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM was founded in 1936 and is the oldest symphonic group in Mexico City. It is based at Sala Nezahuacóyotl at the University City of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, in Mexico City...
), and the Minería Symphony Orchestra, both of which perform at the acoustically renown Sala Nezahualcóyotl, which was the first wrap-around concert hall in the Western Hemisphere when inaugurated in 1976. There are also many smaller ensembles that enrich the city's musical scene, including the Carlos Chávez Youth Symphony, the
New World OrchestraThe New World Symphony is the United States' only full-time orchestral academy preparing musicians for careers in symphony orchestras and ensembles...
(Orquesta del Nuevo Mundo), the National Polytechnical Symphony and the Bellas Artes Chamber Orchestra (Orquesta de Cámara de Bellas Artes).
The city is also a leading center of
popular culturePopular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
and music. There are a multitude of venues hosting Spanish and foreign-language performers. These include the 10,000-seat
National AuditoriumNational Auditorium is an entertainment centre located at Paseo de la Reforma #50, Chapultepec in Mexico City right in front of the Polanco hotel zone next to Campo Marte....
that regularly schedules the top Spanish and English-language pop and rock artists, as well as many of the world's leading
performing artsThe performing arts are those forms art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object...
ensembles, the auditorium also broadcasts
Grand OperaGrand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterised by large-scale casts and orchestras, and lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on or around dramatic historic events...
performances from New York's
Metropolitan OperaThe Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
on giant, high definition screens. The National Auditorium has been awarded Best Venue in the World.
Other popular sites for pop-artist performances include the
Teatro MetropolitanThe Teatro Metropólitan is one of Mexico's best-known theatres. Before being the Teatro Metropólitan it was known as the Cine Metropólitan. Teatro Metropólitan is a sponsor of Mexico City’s National Jazz Festival. The theatre has a capacity for 13165 people....
, the 15,000-seat
Palacio de los DeportesPalacio de los Deportes is an indoor arena, located in Mexico City, Mexico, within the sports complex Magdalena Mixhuca Sports City, near the Mexico City International Airport and the Foro Sol, in which sports and artistic events are also celebrated. It is operated by Grupo CIE...
, and the larger 50,000-seat Foro Sol Stadium, where top-name international artists perform on a regular basis. The
Cirque du SoleilCirque du Soleil , is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy...
has held several seasons at the Carpa Santa Fe, in the
Santa Fethumb|400px|Panoramic view of Santa Fethumb|200px|Carlos Lazo AveSanta Fe or City Santa Fe is one of Mexico City's major business districts, located in the west part of the city in the delegaciones of Cuajimalpa and Álvaro Obregón. Paseo de la Reforma and Constituyentes are the primary means of...
district in the western part of the city. There are numerous venues for smaller musical ensembles and solo performers. These include the Hard Rock Live, Bataclán, Foro Scotiabank, Lunario, Circo Volador and Voilá Acoustique.
It is said that Mexico City has more theatres than any other city in the Spanish-speaking world. At any given time, dozens of plays are staged which run the gamut from Spanish versions of
Broadway showsBroadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
to mainstream and alternative Spanish-language originals.
The Centro Nacional de las Artes (National Center for the Arts), in southern Mexico City, has several venues for music, theatre, dance. UNAM's main campus, also in the southern part of the city, is home to the Centro Cultural Universitario (the University Culture Center) (CCU). The CCU also houses the
National LibraryThe National Library of Mexico is located in Ciudad Universitaria, the main campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. It was first established on October 26, 1833....
, the interactive Universum, Museo de las Ciencias, the Sala Nezahualcóyotl concert hall, several theatres and cinemas, and the new University Museum of Contemporary Art (MUAC). A branch of the National University's CCU cultural center was inaugurated in 2007 in the facilities of the former
Ministry of Foreign AffairsA Minister of Foreign Affairs, or foreign minister, is a cabinet minister who helps form the foreign policy of a sovereign state. The foreign minister is often regarded as the most senior ministerial position below that of the head of government . It is often granted to the deputy prime minister in...
, known as Tlatelolco, in north-central Mexico City.
The
José Vasconcelos LibraryMexico City's José Vasconcelos Library, labeled by the press as the "Megabiblioteca" , is considered a controversial and also the largest investment in infrastructure in the Vicente Fox administration. It is dedicated to José Vasconcelos, the former philosopher, presidential candidate and president...
, a national library, is located on the grounds of the former
BuenavistaBuenavista is the largest town in Tultitlán Municipality in Mexico State, Mexico. The town is part of the Mexico City metropolitan area and had a 2010 census population of 206,081 inhabitants, or 39.32% of its municipal population of 524,074. The town lies near the northern tip of the Federal...
railroad station in the northern part of the city.
The
Papalote children's museum, which houses the world's largest dome screen, is located in the wooded park of
ChapultepecChapultepec 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...
, near the
Museo Tecnológico, and
La FeriaLa Feria Chapultepec Mágico is an amusement park in Mexico City, Mexico. Located in Chapultepec Park, it opened in 1964 as Juegos Mecánicos de Chapultepec and was operated by the Mexican government...
amusement parkthumb|Cinderella Castle in [[Magic Kingdom]], [[Disney World]]Amusement and theme parks are terms for a group of entertainment attractions and rides and other events in a location for the enjoyment of large numbers of people...
. The theme park
Six Flags MéxicoSix Flags México is an amusement park owned by Six Flags Inc. and the only Six Flags park operating in Latin America. It is located in the Tlalpan forest and borough, on the southern edge of Mexico City, Mexico. Six Flags México has become one of the most important theme parks in Mexico and the...
(the largest amusement park in Latin America) is located in the
AjuscoAjusco is a lava dome volcano located just south of Mexico City, Mexico, in the Tlalpan borough of the city. It is the highest point in the Mexican Federal District, which contains Mexico City.-Etymology:...
borough, in southern Mexico City. During the winter, the main square of the
ZócaloThe Zócalo is the main plaza or square in the heart of the historic center of Mexico City. The plaza used to be known simply as the "Main Square" or "Arms Square," and today its formal name is Plaza de la Constitución...
is transformed into a gigantic
ice skating rinkAn ice rink is a frozen body of water and/or hardened chemicals where people can skate or play winter sports. Besides recreational ice skating, some of its uses include ice hockey, figure skating and curling as well as exhibitions, contests and ice shows...
, which is said to be the largest in the world behind that of Moscow's
Red SquareRed Square is a city square in Moscow, Russia. The square separates the Kremlin, the former royal citadel and currently the official residence of the President of Russia, from a historic merchant quarter known as Kitai-gorod...
.
The Cineteca Nacional (the Mexican Film Library), near the Coyoacán suburb, shows a wide variety of films, and stages many film festivals, including the annual International Showcase, and many smaller ones ranging from Scandinavian and Uruguayan cinema, to Jewish and GLBT-themed films.
CinépolisCinépolis is a Mexican chain of movie theaters. Its name means City of Cinéma and its slogan is La Capital del Cine .Cinépolis is the biggest cineplex chain in Mexico with 205 theaters in 65 cities,...
and
CinemexCinemex is a cineplex company based in Mexico that has built a nationally branded cineplex chain.Cinemex started with a college business plan. Adolfo Fastlicht, Miguel Angel Dávila Guzmán and Matthew Heyman speculated that Mexico was ready for larger movie theaters...
, the two biggest film
business chainsChain stores are retail outlets that share a brand and central management, and usually have standardized business methods and practices. These characteristics also apply to chain restaurants and some service-oriented chain businesses. In retail, dining and many service categories, chain businesses...
, also have several film festivals throughout the year, with both national and international movies. No other city in the world has the amount of
IMAXIMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
theaters as are in Mexico City, this gives access to cinematographic documentaries as well as blockbusters on the world's largest screens.
Cuisine
Mexico City offers a vast array of culinary experiences. Restaurants specializing in the regional cuisines of Mexico's 31 states are available in the city.
Also available are restaurants representing a very broad spectrum of international cuisines, including
FrenchFrench cuisine is a style of food preparation originating from France that has developed from centuries of social change. In the Middle Ages, Guillaume Tirel , a court chef, authored Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of Medieval France...
,
ItalianItalian cuisine has developed through centuries of social and political changes, with roots as far back as the 4th century BCE. Italian cuisine in itself takes heavy influences, including Etruscan, ancient Greek, ancient Roman, Byzantine, Jewish and Arab cuisines...
,
CroatianCroatian cuisine is heterogeneous and is known as the cuisine of regions, since every region has its own distinct culinary traditions. Its modern roots date back to ancient periods and the differences in the selection of foodstuffs and forms of cooking are most notable between those on the mainland...
,
GermanGerman cuisine is a style of cooking derived from the nation of Germany. It has evolved as a national cuisine through centuries of social and political change with variations from region to region. The southern regions of Germany, including Bavaria and neighbouring Swabia, share many dishes....
, Greek, Hungarian,
RussianRussian cuisine is diverse, as Russia is the largest country in the world. Russian cuisine derives its varied character from the vast and multi-cultural expanse of Russia. Its foundations were laid by the peasant food of the rural population in an often harsh climate, with a combination of...
,
PolishPolish cuisine is a style of cooking and food preparation originating from Poland. It has evolved over the centuries due to historical circumstances. Polish national cuisine shares some similarities with other Central European and Eastern European traditions as well as French and Italian...
,
PortuguesePortuguese cuisine is characterised by rich, filling and full-flavored dishes and is closely related to Mediterranean cuisine. The influence of Portugal's former colonial possessions is also notable, especially in the wide variety of spices used. These spices include piri piri and black pepper, as...
,
SpanishSpanish cuisine consists of a variety of dishes, which stem from differences in geography, culture and climate. It is heavily influenced by seafood available from the waters that surround the country, and reflects the country's deep maritime roots...
(including regional variations such as
AsturianAsturian cuisine refers to the typical dishes and ingredients found in the cuisine of the Asturias region of Spain.Asturias is especially known for its seafood, such as fresh squid, crab, shrimp and sea bass...
,
BasqueBasque cuisine, the cuisine of the Basque people, includes meats and fish grilled over hot coals, marmitako and lamb stews, cod, Tolosa bean dishes, paprikas from Lekeitio, pintxos , Idiazabal sheep's cheese, txakoli sparkling wine, and Basque cider.A basquaise is a type of dish prepared in the...
, Castilian,
CatalanCatalan cuisine is a Mediterranean cuisine from Catalonia. It may also refer to the shared cuisine of Roussillon and Andorra, which has a similar cuisine to the Alt Urgell and Cerdanya comarques, often referred to as "Catalan mountain cuisine"...
,
GalicianGalician cuisine refers to the typical dishes and ingredients found in the cuisine of the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain. These include shellfish, empanadas, polbo á feira , the cheese queixo de tetilla, the ribeiro and albariño wines and orujo liquor.The potato is a staple food in the...
and
Valencianthumb|250px|[[Coca |Coques de Mullador]], or ratatouille cocas.Valencian cuisine is a Mediterranean cuisine as cooked in the Valencian Community, Spain. Its basic ingredients are vegetables, seafood and meat. It is famous worldwide for its rices, such as paella, and its citrus fruits...
), Arabic,
JewishJewish Cuisine is a collection of the different cooking traditions of the Jewish people worldwide. It is a diverse cuisine that has evolved over many centuries, shaped by Jewish dietary laws and Jewish Festival and Sabbath traditions...
,
LebaneseLebanese cuisine includes an abundance of starches, fruits, vegetables, fresh fish and seafood; animal fats are consumed sparingly. Poultry is eaten more often than red meat, and when red meat is eaten it is usually lamb on the coast and goat meat in the mountain regions...
, Moroccan,
TurkishTurkish cuisine is largely the heritage of Ottoman cuisine, which can be described as a fusion and refinement of Central Asian, Middle Eastern and Balkan cuisines. Turkish cuisine has in turn influenced those and other neighbouring cuisines, including that of western Europe...
,
ChineseChinese cuisine is any of several styles originating in the regions of China, some of which have become highly popular in other parts of the world – from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa...
(including regional variations such as
CantoneseCantonese cuisine comes from Guangdong Province in southern China and is one of 8 superdivisions of Chinese cuisine. Its prominence outside China is due to the great numbers of early emigrants from Guangdong. Cantonese chefs are highly sought after throughout the country...
,
HunanHunan cuisine, sometimes called Xiang cuisine , consists of the cuisines of the Xiang River region, Dongting Lake and western Hunan Province, in China. Hunan cuisine consists of three styles:...
, and
SzechuanSzechuan cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, or Szechwan cuisine is a style of Chinese cuisine originating in the Sichuan Province of southwestern China famed for bold flavors, particularly the pungency and spiciness resulting from liberal use of garlic and chili peppers, as well as the unique flavour of...
),
IndianIndian cuisine consists of thousands of regional cuisines which date back thousands of years. The dishes of India are characterised by the extensive use of various Indian spices, herbs, vegetables and fruit. Indian cuisine is also known for the widespread practice of vegetarianism in Indian society...
,
JapaneseJapanese cuisine has developed over the centuries as a result of many political and social changes throughout Japan. The cuisine eventually changed with the advent of the Medieval age which ushered in a shedding of elitism with the age of shogun rule...
, Korean, Philippine, Thai, Tibetan, Vietnamese; and of course fellow
Latin American cuisineLatin American Cuisine refers to typical foods, beverages, and cooking styles common to many of the countries and cultures in Latin America...
such as Argentine, Brazilian,
ColombianColombian cuisine refers to the cooking traditions and practices of Colombia. Along with other cultural expressions of national identity, Colombian cuisine varies among its many distinct regions. Colombians typically eat three meals a day: a large breakfast, a medium lunch between 12-2, and a light...
,
CubanCuban cuisine is a fusion of Spanish, African and Caribbean cuisines. Cuban recipes share spices and techniques with Spanish and African cooking, with some Caribbean influence in spice and flavor. This results in a unique, interesting and flavorful blend of the several different cultural influences...
,
EcuadorianEcuadorian cuisine is diverse, varying with altitude and associated agricultural conditions. Pork, chicken, beef, and cuy are popular in the mountain regions and are served with a variety of carbohydrate-rich foods, especially rice, corn and potatoes. A popular street food in mountain regions is...
,
PeruvianPeruvian cuisine reflects local cooking practices and ingredients—and, through immigration, influences from Spain, China, Italy, West Africa, and Japan. Due to a lack of ingredients from their home countries, immigrants to Peru modified their traditional cuisines by using ingredients...
,
UruguayanUruguayan cuisine is traditionally based on its European roots, in particular, Mediterranean food from Italy, Spain, Portugal and France, but also from countries such as Germany and Britain, along with African and indigenous mixtures. Many foods from those countries such as pasta, sausages, and...
and Venezuelan is offered.
HauteHaute cuisine or grande cuisine was characterised by French cuisine in elaborate preparations and presentations served in small and numerous courses that were produced by large and hierarchical staffs at the grand restaurants and hotels of Europe.The 17th century chef and writer La Varenne...
,
fusionFusion cuisine combines elements of various culinary traditions while not being categorized per any one particular cuisine style, and can pertain to innovations in many contemporary restaurant cuisines since the 1970s.-Categories and types:...
,
kosherKashrut is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha is termed kosher in English, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term kashér , meaning "fit" Kashrut (also kashruth or kashrus) is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha (Jewish law) is termed...
,
vegetarianVegetarian cuisine refers to food that meets vegetarian standards by not including meat and animal tissue products. For lacto-ovo vegetarianism , eggs and dairy products such as milk and cheese are permitted...
and
veganVeganism is the practice of eliminating the use of animal products. Ethical vegans reject the commodity status of animals and the use of animal products for any purpose, while dietary vegans or strict vegetarians eliminate them from their diet only...
cuisines are also available, as are restaurants solely based on the concepts of
Local foodLocal food or the local food movement is a "collaborative effort to build more locally based, self-reliant food economies - one in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution, and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular...
and
Slow FoodSlow Food is an international movement founded by Carlo Petrini in 1986. Promoted as an alternative to fast food, it strives to preserve traditional and regional cuisine and encourages farming of plants, seeds and livestock characteristic of the local ecosystem. It was the first established part of...
.
Mexico City is a mecca for
SeafoodSeafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...
restaurants, and the city is known for having some of the freshest fish and seafood in the inland, which is, for the most part delivered to restaurants on the same day of the catch, distributed strategically through multiple logistics networks linking the extensive
PacificThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
and
AtlanticThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
coastlines to the city.
The city also has several branches of renowned international restaurants and chefs. These include Paris' Au Pied de Cochon and Brasserie Lipp, Philippe (by Philippe Chow); Nobu; and Pámpano, owned by Mexican-raised opera legend
Plácido DomingoPlácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
. There are branches of the exclusive Japanese restaurant
Suntoryis a Japanese brewing and distilling company group. Established in 1899, it is one of the oldest companies in the distribution of alcoholic beverages in Japan. Its business has expanded to other fields, and the company now offers everything from soft drinks to sandwich chains...
, Rome's famed Alfredo, as well as New York steakhouses
Morton'sMorton's Restaurant Group, Inc. is the world's largest owner and operator of company-owned upscale restaurants, with locations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Hong Kong, Macau, Shanghai and Singapore...
and
The PalmThe Palm is an American fine-dining steakhouse that opened in 1926. It is located in New York City at 837 Second Avenue.Since its beginnings, management has opened additional restaurants throughout the United States, Puerto Rico and Mexico...
, and Madrid's L'Albúfera. Three of the most famous Lima-based
HauteHaute cuisine or grande cuisine was characterised by French cuisine in elaborate preparations and presentations served in small and numerous courses that were produced by large and hierarchical staffs at the grand restaurants and hotels of Europe.The 17th century chef and writer La Varenne...
PeruvianPeruvian cuisine reflects local cooking practices and ingredients—and, through immigration, influences from Spain, China, Italy, West Africa, and Japan. Due to a lack of ingredients from their home countries, immigrants to Peru modified their traditional cuisines by using ingredients...
restaurants, La Mar, Segundo Muelle and Astrid y Gastón have locations in Mexico City.
The city, among few in the world, houses a
Le Cordon BleuLe Cordon Bleu is the world's largest hospitality education institution, with 35 schools on five continents serving 20,000 students annually. Its primary education focus is on hospitality management and the culinary arts...
culinary school and restaurant.
Mexico's award-winning
winesMexican wine and wine making began with the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, when they brought vines from Europe to modern day Mexico, the oldest wine-growing region in the Americas...
are offered at many restaurants, and the city offers unique experiences for tasting the regional spirits, with broad selections of
tequilaTequila is a spirit made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila, northwest of Guadalajara, and in the highlands of the western Mexican state of Jalisco....
and
mezcalMezcal, or mescal, is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from the maguey plant native to Mexico. The word mezcal comes from Nahuatl metl and ixcalli which mean 'oven cooked agave.'...
.
At the other end of the scale are working class
pulquePulque, or octli, is a milk-colored, somewhat viscous alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of the maguey plant, and is a traditional native beverage of Mexico. The drink’s history extends far back into the Mesoamerican period, when it was considered sacred, and its use was limited to...
bars known as
pulquerías, a challenge for tourists to locate and experience.
Sports
Football (Soccer) is Mexico's most popular and most
televised franchised sportThe broadcasting of sports events is the coverage of sports as a television program, on radio and other broadcasting media. It usually involves one or more sports commentators describing the events as they happen.-United States:...
. The important venues in Mexico City for this franchise sport include the
Aztec StadiumEstadio Azteca is a stadium in Santa Ursula, Mexico City, Mexico. It is the official home stadium of the Mexico national football team and the Mexican team Club América.The stadium was the venue for football soccer in the 1968 Summer Olympics....
, home to the
Mexico national football teamThe Mexican national football team represents Mexico in association football and is governed by the Mexican Football Federation , the governing body for football in Mexico. Mexico's home stadium is the Estadio Azteca and their head coach is José Manuel de la Torre...
and
AméricaClub América is a Mexican Professional football club based in Mexico City. It competes in the Primera División, the top professional league in the country. The team's nickname is Las Águilas ....
, which has a capacity to seat 105,000 fans, the
Olympic StadiumEstadio Olímpico Universitario is a stadium located in Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico City. It was built in 1952 and at that time was the largest stadium in Mexico. This stadium has a capacity of 63,186 . During the 50s and the 60s this stadium was used mostly for college American football matches...
in
Ciudad UniversitariaCiudad Universitaria , Mexico, is UNAM's main campus, located in Coyoacán borough in the southern part of Mexico City. Designed by architects Mario Pani and Enrique del Moral, it encloses the Olympic Stadium, about 40 faculties and institutes, the Cultural Center, an ecological reserve, the Central...
, home to the
U.N.A.M.Club Universidad Nacional A.C., more commonly known as Pumas de la UNAM, or just Pumas, is a Mexican professional football club based in Mexico City...
, with a
seating capacitySeating capacity refers to the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, both in terms of the physical space available, and in terms of limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats...
of over 63,000. The
Estadio AzulThe Estadio Azul, is a 35,000-seat stadium located in Mexico City. This sports facility is currently used for association football matches and previously for American football. It is the home of Mexican football club Cruz Azul; it has been also home for Atlante F.C...
, which seats 45,000 fans, is located near the city's WTC in the Nochebuena
NeighborhoodIn 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...
, and is home to the Cruz Azul. The three teams are based in Mexico City and play in the (
First DivisionThe Primera División Profesional , known simply as the Primera División, is the top level of the Mexican football league system and is administered by the Mexican Football Federation. It was established in 1943 and as of 2011 has 18 clubs. Up to June 2011, it was divided into three groups competing...
), they are also part of the "Big Four" of Mexico.
The country hosted the
FIFA World CupThe FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
in
1970The 1970 FIFA World Cup, the ninth staging of the World Cup, was held in Mexico, from 31 May to 21 June. The 1970 tournament was the first World Cup hosted in North America, and the first held outside South America and Europe. In a match-up of two-time World Cup champions, the final was won by...
and
1986The 1986 FIFA World Cup, the 13th FIFA World Cup, was held in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia had been originally chosen to host the competition by FIFA but, largely due to economic reasons, was not able to do so and officially...
, therefore the Aztec Stadium is the only stadium in World Cup history to host a final match twice.
Mexico City remains the first and only Latin American city to host the Olympic Games, having organized the
Summer OlympicsThe 1968 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Mexico City, Mexico in October 1968. The 1968 Games were the first Olympic Games hosted by a developing country, and the first Games hosted by a Spanish-speaking country...
in 1968, winning bids against
Buenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
,
LyonLyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
and Detroit. (As of 2016, this will no longer be the case, as
that year's gamesThe 2016 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, are a major international multi-sport event to be celebrated in the tradition of the Olympic Games, as governed by the International Olympic Committee...
will be held in
Rio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
.) The city has hosted the
1955 Pan American GamesThe 2nd Pan American Games opened on March 12, 1955 in the University Stadium in Mexico City, Mexico, in front of a capacity crowd of 100,000 spectators....
and then the
1975 Pan American GamesThe 7th Pan American Games were held in Mexico City, Mexico, from October 12 to October 26, 1975, exactly twenty years after the 2nd Pan American Games were held there...
after
SantiagoSantiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
and
São PauloSão Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
withdrew.
The ICF Flatwater Racing World Championships have been hosted here twice, in 1974 and in 1994.
Lucha libreLucha libre is a term used in Mexico, and other Spanish-speaking countries, for a form of professional wrestling that has developed within those countries...
is a Mexican style of wrestling, and is one of the more popular sports throughout the country. The main venues in the city are
Arena MéxicoArena México is an indoor arena in Mexico City, Mexico located in the Colonia Doctores neighboorhood in the Cuauhtémoc borough. The arena is primarily used for professional wrestling, or Lucha libre, shows promoted by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre . The building is called the "cathedral of lucha...
and Arena Coliseo.
Adjacent to Foro Sol is Mexico City's
Autódromo Hermanos RodríguezThe Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is a race track in Mexico City, Mexico, named for the famous racing drivers Ricardo and Pedro Rodríguez. The circuit got its name shortly after it opened when Ricardo Rodríguez died in practice for the non-Championship 1962 Mexican Grand Prix...
. From 1962 to 1970 and again from 1986 to 1992, the track hosted the
Formula 1Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
Mexican Grand PrixThe Mexican Grand Prix was a Formula One auto race held at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City. It first appeared as a non-championship event in 1962 before being held as a championship event from 1963-1970 and 1986-1992....
. From 1980–1981 and again from 2002 to 2007, it hosted the
Champ Car World SeriesChamp Car was the name for a class and specification of open wheel cars used in American Championship Car Racing for many decades, primarily for use in the Indianapolis 500 auto race...
Gran Premio de MéxicoThe Gran Premio Tecate was a round of the Champ Car World Series held on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit in Mexico City, Mexico. It was first held in 1980, and in its first two years of competition was the penultimate round of the championship. After its re-inception in 2002, it was the...
. Beginning in 2005, the
NASCARThe National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
Nationwide Series ran the Telcel-Motorola México 200. 2005 also marked the first running of the Mexico City 250 by the
Grand-AmGRAND-AM Road Racing or GRAND-AM is an auto racing sanctioning body that was established in 1999 to organize road racing competitions in North America...
Rolex Sports Car SeriesThe Rolex Sports Car Series is the premier series run by the Grand American Road Racing Association. It is a North American-based sports car series that was founded in 2000 under the name Grand American Road Racing Championship to replace the failed United States Road Racing Championship...
. Both races were removed from their series' schedules for 2009. Baseball is another sport played professionally in the city. Mexico City is currently home to the triple A level club the Mexico Red Devils of the MBL. The Devils play their home games at the Foro Sol sports and concert venue. In Mexico City there are approximately 10 little leagues for young baseball players.
In 2005, Mexico City became the first city to host an
NFLThe National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
regular season game outside of the United States, at the
Aztec StadiumEstadio Azteca is a stadium in Santa Ursula, Mexico City, Mexico. It is the official home stadium of the Mexico national football team and the Mexican team Club América.The stadium was the venue for football soccer in the 1968 Summer Olympics....
. To date, the crowd of 103,467 people attending this game is the largest ever for a regular season game in NFL history. The city has also hosted several
NBAThe National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
pre-season exhibition games along with exhibition matches among MLB teams at the Foro Sol. The
FIBA Americas ChampionshipThe FIBA Americas Championship is the name commonly used to refer to the American Basketball Championship that take place every two years between national teams of the continents...
has also been hosted here.
Other sports facilities in Mexico City are the
Palacio de los DeportesPalacio de los Deportes is an indoor arena, located in Mexico City, Mexico, within the sports complex Magdalena Mixhuca Sports City, near the Mexico City International Airport and the Foro Sol, in which sports and artistic events are also celebrated. It is operated by Grupo CIE...
indoor arena,
Francisco Márquez Olympic Swimming PoolThe Alberca Olímpica Francisco Márquez is an indoor swimming pool Olympic facility located in Mexico City, Mexico. It has a capacity of 10,000....
, the
Hipódromo de Las AméricasHipódromo de las Américas is a thoroughbred and quarter-horse race track in Mexico City, Mexico that had its inaugural meeting on March 6, 1943. It is located approximately four and one-half miles from the downtown district, on Lomas de Sotelo, Mexico City...
, the
Velodromo Agustín Melgar, and venues for
equestrianismEquestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...
and
horse racingHorse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
,
Ice HockeyThe Mexican national ice hockey team is the national men's ice hockey team of Mexico and a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. They are currently ranked 32nd in the IIHF World Rankings and currently compete in IIHF World Championship Division II.-History:Mexico joined the...
,
RugbyThe Mexican Rugby Federation ) is the governing body for rugby union in Mexico.- External links : - Official Site90009...
,
American footballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
, baseball, and
basketballThe Mexico national basketball team is the side that represents Mexico in men's international basketball competitions. The governing body of the team is the Asociación Deportiva Mexicana de Baloncesto – abbrev...
for which what is widely regarded as the best
International Basketball TournamentFIBA Americas is a zone within FIBA which contains the 44 FIBA Federations located in the Americas. FIBA Americas is headquartered in San Juan, Puerto Rico.- National teams :CONCECABACaribbean...
has been held in the city.
BullfightingBullfighting is a traditional spectacle of Spain, Portugal, southern France and some Latin American countries , in which one or more bulls are baited in a bullring for sport and entertainment...
takes place every Sunday during bullfighting season at the 50,000-seat
Plaza MéxicoThe Plaza México, situated in Mexico City, is the world's largest bullring. This 48,000-seat facility is usually dedicated to bullfighting, but many boxing fights have been held there as well, including Julio César Chávez's third bout with Frankie Randall...
, the largest bullfight ring in the world.
Mexico City's
golf courseA golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...
s have held both the Women's
LPGAThe LPGA, in full the Ladies Professional Golf Association, is an American organization for female professional golfers. The organization, whose headquarters is in Daytona Beach, Florida, is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekly golf tournaments for elite female golfers from...
tour, as well as two Men's Golf World Cups. These, and other golf courses throughout the city are available as private, as well as public venues.
Education
The second oldest university in the Americas, established in 1551, the
National Autonomous University of MexicoThe Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México is a university in Mexico. UNAM was founded on 22 September 1910 by Justo Sierra as a liberal alternative to the Roman Catholic-sponsored Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) (National Autonomous...
(UNAM), is located in Mexico City. It is the largest university on the continent, with 305,969 students from all backgrounds enrolled. Three
Nobel laureates, several Mexican entrepreneurs and most of Mexico's modern-day presidents are among its former students. UNAM conducts 50% of Mexico's
scientific researchScientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
and has presence all across the country with satellite campuses, observatories and research centers. The National Autonomous University of Mexico ranks 45th in the Top 200 World
University RankingCollege and university rankings are lists of institutions in higher education, ordered by combinations of factors. In addition to entire institutions, specific programs, departments, and schools are ranked...
published by The Times Higher Education Supplement in 2009, making it the highest ranked Spanish-speaking university in the world. The sprawling main campus of the university, known as
Ciudad UniversitariaCiudad Universitaria , Mexico, is UNAM's main campus, located in Coyoacán borough in the southern part of Mexico City. Designed by architects Mario Pani and Enrique del Moral, it encloses the Olympic Stadium, about 40 faculties and institutes, the Cultural Center, an ecological reserve, the Central...
, was named a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 2007.
The second largest higher-education institution is the
National Polytechnic InstituteThe National Polytechnic Institute colloquially known as the Polytechnic is one of the largest public universities in Mexico with 153.027 students at the high school, undergraduate and postgraduate levels...
(IPN) (which includes, among many other relevant centers, the
Centro de Investigación y de Estudios AvanzadosThe Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute is a Mexican non-governmental scientific research affiliated to the National Polytechnic Institute and founded by president Adolfo López Mateos on 17 April 1961, initially planned...
(Cinvestav), where high-level research is performed about very different scientific and technological disciplines. Other major higher-education institutions in the city include the
Metropolitan Autonomous UniversityThe Metropolitan Autonomous University is a public university located in Mexico City, Mexico...
(UAM), the
ITAMThe Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México , commonly known as ITAM, is a private Ph.D.-granting research university located in Mexico City, Mexico...
, the
ITESMThe Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education commonly shortened as Monterrey Institute of Technology or Monterrey Tech is one of the largest private, nonsectarian and coeducational multi-campus universities in...
(3 campuses), the
Universidad PanamericanaThe Universidad Panamericana is a private Catholic university, located in Mexico. It is one of the three main campuses, the other two located in Guadalajara and in Aguascalientes since summer 2007.-History:...
(UP), the
Universidad La SalleUniversidad La Salle is a private institution of higher education with 15 campuses in Mexico. It is part of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.-History:...
, the
Universidad del Valle de MexicoThe Universidad del Valle de México or UVM is a private Mexican university founded in Mexico City in the year 1960. UVM enrolls students at several campuses throughout Mexico, and it holds accreditations from the Mexican Department of Education, COPAES accrediting board, and FIMPES...
(UVM), the Universidad Anáhuac, the
Alliant International UniversityAlliant International University is a private, non-profit higher education institution based in San Diego, California. It offers programs in six California cities and four locations outside the United States...
, the
Universidad IberoamericanaThe Ibero-American University is a Mexican private institution of higher education sponsored by the Society of Jesus...
,
El Colegio de MéxicoEl Colegio de México, A.C. is a prestigious Mexican institute of higher education, specializing in teaching and research in the social sciences and the humanities...
(Colmex),
Escuela Libre de DerechoEscuela Libre de Derecho is a prestigious law school in Mexico. Founded in 1912, it has among its alumni some of the most distinguished Mexican attorneys...
and the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económica, (CIDE).
The most prestigious
private universitiesPrivate universities are universities not operated by governments, although many receive public subsidies, especially in the form of tax breaks and public student loans and grants. Depending on their location, private universities may be subject to government regulation. Private universities are...
in the country including Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México and the Universidad Panamericana have their flagship campus located in Mexico City. In addition, the prestigious
University of CaliforniaThe University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
maintains a campus known as "Casa de California" in the city. The
Universidad Tecnológica de MéxicoThe Universidad Tecnológica de México is a private university with several campuses scattered throughout Mexico...
is also in Mexico City.
Contrary to what occurs in the constituent states of the Mexican federation, the curriculum of Mexico City's public schools is managed by the federal level Secretary of Public Education. The whole funding is allocated by the government of Mexico City (in some specific cases, such as
El Colegio de MéxicoEl Colegio de México, A.C. is a prestigious Mexican institute of higher education, specializing in teaching and research in the social sciences and the humanities...
, funding comes from both the city's government and other public and private national and international entities).
A very special case is that of
El Colegio NacionalThe National College is a Mexican honorary academy with a strictly limited membership created by presidential decree in 1943 in order to bring together the country's foremost artists and scientists, who are periodically invited to deliver lectures and seminars in their respective area of speciality...
, created during the governmental period of
Miguel Alemán ValdésMiguel Alemán Valdés served as the President of Mexico from 1946 to 1952.-Life:Alemán was born in Sayula in the state of Veracruz as the son of General Miguel Alemán González and Tomasa Valdés Ledezma...
to have, in Mexico, an institution very similar to the
College of FranceThe Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...
. The very selected and
privileged groupIn economics, a privileged group is one possible condition for the production of public goods.A privileged group contains at least one individual that benefits more from a public good than its production costs. Therefore, the good will be produced although other members of the group benefit without...
of Mexican scientists and artists belonging to this institution (the membership is lifelong; some of the current members are
Mario LavistaMario Lavista is a Mexican composer and writer. He has had numerous pieces published, especially chamber music, but also incidental music for plays, film scores, orchestral pieces, and vocal music....
, Ruy Pérez Tamayo,
José Emilio PachecoJosé Emilio Pacheco Berny is a Mexican essayist, novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the major Mexican poets of the second half of the 20th century....
,
Marcos MoshinskyMarcos Moshinsky was a Mexican physicist of Ukrainian origin whose work in the field of elementary particles won him the Prince of Asturias Prize for Scientific and Technical Investigation in 1988 and the UNESCO Science Prize in 1997....
(d.2009), Guillermo Soberón Acevedo, and many others) have the obligation of disclosing their works among the general population, through conferences and public events such as concerts and recitals.
Amongst its many public and private schools (K-13), the city offers
multi-culturalMulticulturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
,
multi-lingualMultilingualism is the act of using, or promoting the use of, multiple languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of...
and
international schoolAn International school is loosely defined as a school that promotes international education, in an international environment, either by adopting an international curriculum such as that of the International Baccalaureate or Cambridge International Examinations, or by following a national...
s which are attended by Mexican and
foreign studentsAccording to Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development , international students are those who travel to a country different from their own for the purpose of tertiary study. Despite that, the definition of international students varies in each country in accordance to their own national...
. Best known are the
Colegio AlemánColegio Alemán Alexander von Humbolt, A. C. is a German school with bi-cultural fundamentals based in Mexico. Its history begins in the 19th century, with the already large German community living in Mexico, believing in establishing a school with standards similar to those of Germany. The first...
(German school with 3 main campuses), the
Liceo Mexicano JaponésLiceo Mexicano Japonés , is a Japanese school based in the Pedregal neighborhood of Tlalpan borough in Mexico City, Mexico....
(Japanese), the
Escuela CoreanaKorean Mexicans are ethnic Koreans born in Mexico. The majority of them reside in Baja California, the state facing the U.S. state of California, and there are smaller concentrations in northern Mexico....
(Korean), the
Lycée Français de MexiqueThe Lycée Franco-Mexicain is a private French school located in Mexico City's Polanco district. It is one of the largest French Lycées in the world with over 3000 students in two campuses, Polanco in northern Mexico City and Coyoacán in the South, there is also another dependency located in the...
(French), the American School,The Westhill Institute (American School), the
Edron AcademyThe Edron Academy A.C. is a non-profit school in Mexico. It was founded in 1963 by Edward Foulkes, a Welshman who worked in Mexico in the publishing business and as a teacher for the British Council, and by Ronald Stech, a Canadian who became the school's first administrator...
and the
Greengates SchoolGreengates School is a British-style international school located in San Mateo in the northwest of Mexico City, Mexico, founded in 1951. As of 2005, it has approximately 1,150 students of some 50 nationalities, derived mainly from the diplomatic and international business communities.In the senior...
(British).
Media
Mexico City is the leading center in Latin America for the television, music and film industries. It is also the most important center in Mexico for the printed media and
book publishingPublishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
industries. Dozens of daily newspapers are published in this city, including
El UniversalEl Universal is a major Mexican newspaper.El Universal was founded by Félix Palavicini and Emilio Rabasa in October 1916, in the city of Santiago de Queretaro to cover the end of the Mexican Revolution and the creation of the new Mexican Constitution...
,
ExcélsiorExcélsior is a daily newspaper, founded by Rafael Alducin and published in Mexico City since 1917.During the 1950s and 1960s, the newspaper's editorial stance was of a relatively liberal bent, under the editorship of Julio Scherer...
,
ReformaReforma 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...
and
La JornadaLa Jornada is one of Mexico City's leading daily newspapers. It was established in 1984 by Carlos Payán Velver. The current editor is Carmen Lira Saade...
. Other major papers include
Milenio,
CrónicaCrónica is a newspaper published in Buenos Aires, Argentina.Founded on July 29, 1963, by publisher Héctor Ricardo García, it became well known for its oversized headlines and yellow press approach; as García explained: "we needed a strident daily, with large and shocking headlines, like the kind...
,
El EconomistaEl Economista is a Mexican business and economics newspaper. Founded in 1989, it publishes from Monday to Friday in five columns. One of the most commented features of this newspaper is the fact of its printing paper a strange tone of pink-orange....
and
El Financiero. Leading magazines include
Expansión,
ProcesoProceso is a Mexican magazine published in Mexico City. It was founded on November 6, 1976 by journalist Julio Scherer García, its current president...
,
Poder, as well as dozens of entertainment publications, such as
VanidadesVanidades is one of the most popular Spanish language women's magazines. Published by Editorial Televisa across the United States and Hispanic America, it was launched in Cuba in 1931 as a humor magazine, but eventually became a women's magazine in the early 1940s. When Fidel Castro took the...
,
Quién,
ChilangoChilango is a Mexican slang demonym for a person born in Mexico City suburbs or its surrounding areas and moved there. Sometimes it has a negative connotation when used principally by someone in one of the 31 sovereign States of Mexico....
,
TV y NovelasTVyNovelas is a Mexican magazine published by .Four international editions are also published: USA, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Chile and Colombia. It is considered the leader among showbusiness publications in Mexico, especially on the subject of telenovelas...
, and local editions of
VogueVogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
,
GQ, and
Architectural DigestArchitectural Digest is an American monthly magazine. Its principal subject is interior design, not — as the name of the magazine might suggest — architecture more generally. The magazine is published by Condé Nast Publications and was founded in 1920, by the Knapp family, who sold it in 1993...
.
It is also a leading center of the advertising industry. Most international ad firms have offices in the city, including Grey,
JWTJWT is one of the largest advertising agencies in the United States and the fourth-largest in the world. It is one of the key companies of Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP Group and is headquartered in New York. The global agency is led by Worldwide Chairman and Global CEO Bob Jeffrey who took over the...
,
Leo BurnettLeo Burnett was an advertising executive who created the Jolly Green Giant, the Marlboro Man, Toucan Sam, Charlie the Tuna, Morris the Cat, the Pillsbury Doughboy, the 7up "Spot", and Tony the Tiger....
,
Euro RSCGEuro RSCG Worldwide is one of the largest integrated marketing communications agencies in the world, made up of 233 offices located in 75 countries throughout Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Euro RSCG provides advertising, marketing services, corporate...
,
BBDOBBDO is a worldwide advertising agency network, with its headquarters in New York City. The agency began in 1891 with George Batten's Batten Company, and later in 1928, through a merger of BDO and Batten Co. the agency became BBDO...
, Ogilvy,
Saatchi & SaatchiSaatchi & Saatchi is a global advertising agency network with 140 offices in 80 countries and over 6,500 staff. It was founded in London in 1970 but now headquartered in New York. The parent company of the agency group was known as Saatchi & Saatchi PLC from 1976 to 1994, was listed on the London...
, and
McCann EricksonMcCann Erickson is a global advertising agency network, with offices in more than 130 countries. McCann is a subsidiary of the Interpublic Group of Companies, one of the four large holding companies in the advertising industry....
. Many local firms also compete in the sector, including Alazraki, Olabuenaga/Chemistri, Terán, Augusto Elías, and Clemente Cámara, among others. There are 60
radio stations operating in the city and a huge number of
local communityA local community is a group of interacting people sharing an environment. In human communities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks, and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of cohesiveness.- Overview...
radio transmission networks.
The two largest media companies in the Spanish-speaking world,
TelevisaTelevisa is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate, the largest mass media company in Latin America and in the Spanish-speaking world. It is a major international entertainment business, with much of its programming airing in the United States on Univision, with which it has an exclusive contract...
and
AztecaAzteca, is the second largest Mexican television entertainment. It was established in 1983 as the state-owned Instituto Mexicano de la Televisión , a holding of the national TV networks channel 13 and 7 and was privatized under its current name in 1993 and now is part of Grupo Salinas...
, are headquartered in Mexico City. Other
local televisionA television channel is a physical or virtual channel over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the broadcast or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with carrier frequencies of 55.25 MHz for NTSC analog video and...
networks include.
XEW-TVXEW-TV is the call sign assigned to channel 2, a television station in Mexico City, Mexico. The station is owned by Televisa and is the flagship station to the Canal de las Estrellas network. XEW is second oldest Televisa and Mexico City's station, founded in 1951.-References:...
2
XHTV-TVXHTV , founded in 1950 by Romulo O'Farril, is a flagship TV station of FOROtv. Although FOROtv does not have any full-time affiliates most Televisa locals around the republic select some FOROtv programming for their broadcasting...
4
XHGC-TVXHGC-TV is a TV station owned by Televisa, broadcasting from Mexico City, and is the flagship of the Canal 5 network.-History:XHGC signed on May 10, 1952, broadcasting a Mother's Day event organized by the Excélsior newspaper; but the regular programming began at August 18, 1952.The station was...
5
XHIMT-TVXHIMT is the callsign for the over the air Azteca 7 network flagship station in Mexico City . XHIMT provides some HD programming to cable and satellite viewers.-History:...
7
XEQ-TVXEQ is a Televisa TV station, based in Mexico, Distrito Federal. XEQ is the flagship television station of the Galavisión network ....
9
XEIPN-TV 11
XHDF-TVXHDF is the callsign for the over the air Azteca 13 network flagship station in Mexico City . Azteca 13 can be seen in most major cities in Mexico through its affiliates most of which are owned and operated by TV Azteca. XHDF provides HD programming to affiliates and cable and satellite viewers....
13
XHUNAM-TVXHUNAM low power channel 20 digital, also known as "Teveunam", is an educational television station owned and operated by the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City....
20
XEIMT-TVXEIMT-TV channel 22, also known as "Canal 22", is a cultural and educational television station owned and operated by Televisión Metropolitana S.A...
22
XHRAE-TVXHTRES-TV is a full-power television station in Mexico City, Mexico, broadcasting in analog on UHF channel 28 and in digital on UHF channel 27 as the flagship station of the network Cadena Tres. It is licensed to Compañía Internacional de Radio y Televisión, S.A...
28
XHTVM-TVXHTVM-TV channel 40, also known as Proyecto 40, is the call sign assigned to a TV channel operated by TV Azteca in Mexico City, Mexico, owned by Televisora del Valle de México...
40
XHCDM-DT 21
Shopping
Mexico City offers an immense and varied consumer retail market, with thousands of options for everything from the very basic foods to ultra high-end luxury goods.
Traditional markets
The city's main source of fresh produce is the
Central de AbastoThe Central de Abasto is Mexico City’s main wholesale market for produce and other foodstuffs run similarly to traditional public markets. It was constructed to be the meeting point for producers, wholesalers, retailers and consumers for the entire country...
. This in itself is a self-contained mini-city in the southeastern neighborhood of
IztapalapaIztapalapa is one of the Federal District of Mexico City’s 16 boroughs, located on the east side of the entity. The borough is named after and centered on the formerly independent municipality of Iztapalapa, which is officially called Iztapalapa de Cuitláhuac for disambiguation purposes...
covering an area equivalent to several dozen city blocks. The wholesale market supplies most of the city's "mercados", supermarkets, and restaurants, as well as individuals who come to purchase the freshest variety for their household. Tons of fresh produce are trucked in from all over Mexico every day.
The principal fish market is known as
La Nueva VigaLa Nueva Viga Market is the largest seafood market in Mexico and the second largest after the Tsukiji fish market in Japan. It is located in Mexico City far inland from the coast, because of historical patterns of commerce in the country. The market handles 1,500 tons of seafood daily, representing...
and is located in the southern part of the city, in the same complex as the Central de Abastos. Fresh fish from all around the country is available, mainly from the central Pacific coast and
VeracruzVeracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...
.
The world-renowned market of
TepitoTepito 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...
occupies 25 blocks of the city, and is known to sell everything and anything, except dignity.
A staple for consumers in the city is the omnipresent "mercado". Every major neighborhood in the city has its own borough-regulated market, often more than one. These are large well-established facilities offering most basic products, such as fresh produce and meat/poultry, dry goods, tortillerías, and many other services, such as locksmiths, herbal medicine, hardware goods, sewing implements, and a multitude of stands offering freshly made, home-style cooking and drinks in the tradition of
aguas frescasAdes, punches, fruit drinks and other non-alcoholic flavored coolers, known as aguas frescas in some parts of Latin America, are a combination of either fruits, cereals, or seeds with sugar and water, blended to make a beverage. Aguas frescas are popular in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean,...
and
atoleAtole is a traditional masa-based Mexican and Central American hot drink. Chocolate atole is known as champurrado or atole...
.
In addition, "mercados sobre ruedas" or mobile markets, set up shop on city streets in many neighborhoods, depending on the day of the week. Sundays are the day in which the largest number of these markets are set-up. The stalls generally use awnings of a single color or shade (pink and red, for example), making them easily identifiable from several blocks away.
Large, modern chain supermarkets including
SorianaOrganización Soriana is a Mexican public company and Mexico's largest retailer. Soriana is a grocery and department store retail chain headquartered in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. The company is 100% capitalized in Mexico and is publicly traded on the Mexican stock exchange the Bolsa Mexicana...
,
Comercial MexicanaComercial Mexicana is a Mexican hypermarket group, which features stores similar to those owned by Carrefour in France or Wal-Mart in the United States...
and
ChedrauiChedraui is a publicly traded Mexican grocery store and department store chain. It is traded on the Mexican Stock Exchange under the symbol CHEDRAUI.-History:...
are scattered throughout the city. Others are located within mini-malls, in which the supermarket anchors a number of other shops, such as banks, dry-cleaners, shoe repairs, and fast-food eateries.
Small "mom-and-pop" corner stores (known as "abarroterías" or more colloquially as "changarros") abound in all neighborhoods, including many finer residential neighborhoods. These are small shops offering basics such as soft drinks, packaged snacks, canned goods, and dairy products. Thousands of C-stores or corner stores, such as
OxxoOXXO is a primarily-franchised chain of convenience stores from Mexico, with over 7,000 stores across Latin America. It is the largest chain of this kind of store in Mexico. It is wholly owned by the beverage company FEMSA...
,
7-Eleven7-Eleven is part of an international chain of convenience stores, operating under Seven-Eleven Japan Co. Ltd, which in turn is owned by Seven & I Holdings Co...
, and Extra are located throughout the city.
Downtown
The downtown area of the city is widely known as an area for specialized retailers, often at lower costs. Certain streets, for example, are known for having many lighting stores, or hardware shops, or yarn shops. The
Mercado La MercedThe La Merced Market is a traditional public market located in the eastern edge of the historic center of Mexico City and is the largest retail traditional food market in the entire city. The area, also called La Merced, has been synonymous with commercial activity since the early colonial period...
is one of city's oldest and is considered a smaller, older version of the Central de Abastos, where thousands of items are sold. The Mercado de Jamaica specializes in fresh flowers.
Calle Dolores, one block off Avenida Juárez, has one block known as
Mexico City's ChinatownMexico City’s Chinatown, known locally as Barrio Chino, is located in the downtown area of Mexico City, near the Palacio de Bellas Artes. It is very small, encompassing only two blocks on Dolores Street and consists of a number of restaurants and businesses that import goods...
. The one block contains numerous stores selling imported Chinese knick-knacks, and restaurants offering lacquered
Peking duckPeking Duck, or Peking Roast Duck is a famous duck dish from Beijing that has been prepared since the imperial era, and is now considered one of China's national foods....
, many of the early settler's who created the Chinatown are actually of
PhilippineThe Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
descent. Further afield, the city's
Zona RosaZona Rosa is a neighborhood in Mexico City which is known for its shopping, nightlife, gay community, and its recently established Korean community...
neighborhood is home to several blocks that represent Mexico City's
KoreatownKoreatown is a term to describe a Korean ethnic enclave within a city or metropolitan area. Similar terms may include Little Seoul or Little Korea.-Beijing:There are more than 150,000 Koreans living in Beijing...
. A number of Korean restaurants, shops and even video rental shops are located here.
Shopping centers
There are hundreds of modern retail shops throughout the city.There are a number of large shopping centers and malls, including Santa Fé mall in the
Santa Féthumb|400px|Panoramic view of Santa Fethumb|200px|Carlos Lazo AveSanta Fe or City Santa Fe is one of Mexico City's major business districts, located in the west part of the city in the delegaciones of Cuajimalpa and Álvaro Obregón. Paseo de la Reforma and Constituyentes are the primary means of...
district with several department stores and over 300 retail stores, restaurants and cinemas. Others include Plaza Universidad, Plaza Satélite, Galerías Coapa, Parque Delta, Parque Lindavista, Pabellón Polanco, Pabellón Bosques, Mundo E, Perinorte and Plaza Lindavista, with anchor stores such as
El Palacio de HierroEl Palacio de Hierro is an upscale chain of department stores in Mexico.-History:In the 1850s, a clothing store opened in Mexico City called "Las Fábricas de Francia" which was owned by Victor Gassier, a Frenchman...
,
LiverpoolLiverpool is mid-to-high biggest chain of department stores in Mexico, operating 79 stores and one luxury shopping center Galerías Insurgentes, throughout Mexico and continuing to grow...
,
Sanborn'sGrupo Sanborns is a large restaurant, retail, pharmacy and department store chain located in Mexico and in El Salvador.-History:The retail company was founded in Mexico City on June 19, 1903 by California immigrants Walter and Frank Sanborn, who also opened Mexico's first soda fountain...
, Sears and Fábricas de Francia.
The Punta Norte Outlet Mall is located north of the city and includes many upscale outlet stores for brands such as
Max MaraMaxMara, or The House of MaxMara, is a luxury Italian fashion house known for its ready-to-wear clothing. Established in 1951 in Reggio Emilia by Achille Maramotti...
,
Salvatore FerragamoSalvatore Ferragamo was a Florentine and Italian shoe designer. He worked with many Hollywood stars in the 1920s, before returning to Italy to found the eponymous company making unique hand-made footwear. His scientific and creative approach to shoes spawned many innovations such as the wedge heel...
,
Hugo BossHugo Ferdinand Boss was the founder of clothing company Hugo Boss.-Early life:Boss was born in Metzingen, Germany. After completing his apprenticeship and one year of employment, he founded his own company in Metzingen in 1923.-Support of Nazism:Boss joined the Nazi Party in 1931, two years before...
,Scappinio and
ZegnaErmenegildo Zegna is a leading Italian fashion house, specialing in men's clothing. Founded in 1910, it is now managed by the fourth generation of the Zegna family and remains in family ownership. As well as producing suits for its own labels, it manufactures suits for labels such as Gucci, Yves...
. Well known Mexican boutique brands, such as
Pineda CovalinPineda Covalín is a 100% Mexican fashion design company which uses traditional patterns, figures and images from native Mexican cultures such as Mayan and Aztec. This company was created by two young designers, Cristina Pineda and Ricardo Covalín. The brand has expanded itself to many countries of...
, La Hamaca y el Rebozo and Soho, are available in most upper end shopping areas.Upscale malls such as
Galerías InsurgentesGalerías Insurgentes is a upscale shopping mall with an a european style and modernist spotlights in the night, located in the upscale Col. Del Valle neighbourhood, in southern Mexico City on the South Insurgentes Avenue, next to the Teatro de los Insurgentes...
,
Centro CoyoacánCentro Coyoacán is a upscale shopping mall with an a modernist style and spotlights in the night, located in the upscale Col. Del Valle neighbourhood in Xoco's section, in southern Mexico City on the #2000 Coyoacán Avenue. It takes its name from being on the south side of Coyoacán Avenue...
, Santa Fé,
PerisurPerisur is a shopping mall located in the Coyoacán borough in southern Mexico City at the intersection of Insurgentes Avenue South and the Anillo Periférico, next to the UNAM main campus in Ciudad Universitaria and to the upscale Jardines del Pedregal neighbourhood...
,
Antara PolancoAntara Polanco, is an upscale open-air shopping center in Polanco, Mexico City, Mexico and is considered to be one of the most exclusive shopping destinations in Mexico.-Background:...
and boutique malls
Arcos BosquesArcos Bosques Torre 1 is a prominent skyscraper in Mexico City. It was designed by Teodoro González. It is 36 stories tall, with 33 levels of office space. It is composed of two parallel columns of 31 floors and 4 more floors at the top joined by a lintel. It is colloquially known as El Pantalón ....
and Altavista 147 are amongst the most modern and swank in Latin America. Top-end department stores include El Palacio de Hierro and
Saks Fifth AvenueSaks Fifth Avenue is a luxury American specialty store owned and operated by Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises , a subsidiary of Saks Incorporated. It competes in the high-end specialty store market in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, i.e. 'the 3 B's' Bergdorf, Barneys, Bloomingdale's and Lord & Taylor...
(whose store at Santa Fé mall is one of only three outside the U.S.). Plaza Satélite mall is Latin America's highest profit shopping venue.
For a more bohemian ambiance, the neighborhoods of
CondesaOfficially, Colonia Condesa is an administrative division or “colonia” located west of the historic center of Mexico City, just south of Avenida Chapultepec. Popularly, the name “La Condesa” is named after the second, the María Magdalena Dávalos de Bracamontes y Orozco, the Countess of Miravalle,...
,
CoyoacanCoyoacán refers to one of the sixteen boroughs of the Federal District of Mexico City as well as the former village which is now the borough’s “historic center.” The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means “place of coyotes,” when the Aztecs named a pre-Hispanic village on the southern shore...
and
San ÁngelSan Ángel is a colonia or neighborhood of Mexico City, located in the southwest in Álvaro Óbregon borough. Historically, it was a rural community, called Tenanitla in the pre Hispanic period. Its current name is derived from the El Carmen monastery school called San Ángel Mártir...
offer excellent outdoor shopping and dining experiences.
Luxury Goods
In addition to the extensive Santa Fé mall with
SaksSaks Fifth Avenue is a luxury American specialty store owned and operated by Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises , a subsidiary of Saks Incorporated. It competes in the high-end specialty store market in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, i.e. 'the 3 B's' Bergdorf, Barneys, Bloomingdale's and Lord & Taylor...
and numerous luxury boutiques,
Antara PolancoAntara Polanco, is an upscale open-air shopping center in Polanco, Mexico City, Mexico and is considered to be one of the most exclusive shopping destinations in Mexico.-Background:...
is a high-end mall in
PolancoPolanco 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...
with restaurants, cinemas, and boutiques, including
BurberryBurberry Group plc is a British luxury fashion house, manufacturing clothing, fragrance, and fashion accessories. Its distinctive tartan pattern has become one of its most widely copied trademarks. Burberry is most famous for its iconic trench coat, which was invented by founder Thomas Burberry...
,
LongchampLongchamp is a French leather and luxury goods company.Longchamp was founded by Jean Cassegrain in 1948, and the company employed individual craftsmen dispersed throughout the Loire valley countryside to create leather coverings for pipes and other products geared toward smokers. By 1955, it had...
,
Just CavalliRoberto Cavalli is an Italian fashion designer from Florence.-Biography:Roberto Cavalli was born in Florence, Tuscany. His grandfather, Giuseppe Rossi, was a member of the Macchiaioli Movement, whose work is exhibited in the Uffizi Gallery. Cavalli decided to enroll at the local Art Institute,...
,
EtroEtro is an Italian fashion house and manufacturer of fabrics, furnishings and fragrances. It was founded in 1968 by Gimmo Etro. It is still a family business, with menswear headed since 1990 by Kean Etro, while his sister, Veronica, directs womenswear...
, Emporio Armani,
Brooks BrothersBrooks Brothers is the oldest men's clothier chain in the United States. Founded in 1818 as a family business, the privately owned company is now owned by Retail Brand Alliance, also features clothing for women, and is headquartered on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, New York City.-History:On April 7,...
,
Thomas PinkThomas Pink is a retail clothing business started in London in 1984, by three Irish brothers James, Peter and John Mullen. The company was named for an 18th century London tailor who was known for making much sought-after red hunting jackets....
, Hackett, and Coach.
Altavista 147 is a small shopping center in the southern neighborhood of
San ÁngelSan Ángel is a colonia or neighborhood of Mexico City, located in the southwest in Álvaro Óbregon borough. Historically, it was a rural community, called Tenanitla in the pre Hispanic period. Its current name is derived from the El Carmen monastery school called San Ángel Mártir...
, with
Louis VuittonLouis Vuitton Malletier – commonly referred to as Louis Vuitton , or shortened to LV – is a French fashion house founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label is well known for its LV monogram, which is featured on most products, ranging from luxury trunks and leather goods to ready-to-wear, shoes,...
,
Salvatore FerragamoSalvatore Ferragamo was a Florentine and Italian shoe designer. He worked with many Hollywood stars in the 1920s, before returning to Italy to found the eponymous company making unique hand-made footwear. His scientific and creative approach to shoes spawned many innovations such as the wedge heel...
,
Carolina HerreraCarolina Herrera Carolina Herrera Carolina Herrera (born María Carolina Josefina Pacanins y Niño (born January 8, 1939) is a Venezuelan and naturalized American fashion designer and entrepreneur who founded her eponymous company in 1980.-Early life:...
,
Max MaraMaxMara, or The House of MaxMara, is a luxury Italian fashion house known for its ready-to-wear clothing. Established in 1951 in Reggio Emilia by Achille Maramotti...
,
Hugo BossHugo Ferdinand Boss was the founder of clothing company Hugo Boss.-Early life:Boss was born in Metzingen, Germany. After completing his apprenticeship and one year of employment, he founded his own company in Metzingen in 1923.-Support of Nazism:Boss joined the Nazi Party in 1931, two years before...
, and luxury Mexican silversmith Tane. The mall is located on Avenida Altavista which houses many other high-end retailers, focusing on furniture shops and interior decorators, restaurants, and silversmiths such as
ChristofleChristofle is a manufacturer of fine silver flatware and home accessories based in France since 1830. They are renowned for their sterling, silverplate and stainless flatware. Among Christofle's product lines are silver picture frames, crystal vases and glassware, porcelain dinnerware and silver...
.
The
Col. Del ValleColonia 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..."...
is one of the largest residential colonies prestiges of Mexico City. Famous for its large Green Areas, Parks, Monuments, Department Stores, Boutiques, K-Fe (Cafeterias), Holiday Chocolate, Exclusive Restaurants scattered throughout the colony. With two luxury shopping mall,
Galerías InsurgentesGalerías Insurgentes is a upscale shopping mall with an a european style and modernist spotlights in the night, located in the upscale Col. Del Valle neighbourhood, in southern Mexico City on the South Insurgentes Avenue, next to the Teatro de los Insurgentes...
and
Centro CoyoacánCentro Coyoacán is a upscale shopping mall with an a modernist style and spotlights in the night, located in the upscale Col. Del Valle neighbourhood in Xoco's section, in southern Mexico City on the #2000 Coyoacán Avenue. It takes its name from being on the south side of Coyoacán Avenue...
.
The two shopping centers contain large department store
El Palacio de HierroEl Palacio de Hierro is an upscale chain of department stores in Mexico.-History:In the 1850s, a clothing store opened in Mexico City called "Las Fábricas de Francia" which was owned by Victor Gassier, a Frenchman...
and Liverpool, these two contain the most exclusive boutiques like Armani, BCBGMAXAZRIA,
BurberryBurberry Group plc is a British luxury fashion house, manufacturing clothing, fragrance, and fashion accessories. Its distinctive tartan pattern has become one of its most widely copied trademarks. Burberry is most famous for its iconic trench coat, which was invented by founder Thomas Burberry...
,
ChanelChanel S.A. is a French fashion house founded by the couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, well established in haute couture, specializing in luxury goods . She gained the name "Coco" while maintaining a career as a singer at a café in France...
,
DKNYDKNY is a label of fashion designer Donna Karan. It is also the name of a clothing store in New York City featuring Donna Karan's associated line.-History:...
,
HermèsHermès International S.A., or simply Hermès is a French high fashion house established in 1837, today specializing in leather, lifestyle accessories, perfumery, luxury goods, and ready-to-wear...
,
LancômeLancôme Paris is a makeup brand. Owned by L'Oréal since 1964, Lancôme is part of the Luxury Products division, which offers skin care, fragrances, and makeup at higher-end prices....
,
Liz ClaiborneAnne Elisabeth Jane "Liz" Claiborne was a Belgian-born American fashion designer and entrepreneur. Claiborne is best known for founding Liz Claiborne Inc. which in 1986 became the first company founded by a woman to make the Fortune 500...
,
LongchampLongchamp is a French leather and luxury goods company.Longchamp was founded by Jean Cassegrain in 1948, and the company employed individual craftsmen dispersed throughout the Loire valley countryside to create leather coverings for pipes and other products geared toward smokers. By 1955, it had...
, MaxMara,
Oscar De La RentaOscar de la Renta is one of the world's leading fashion designers. He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1973.-Career:...
, Purificación García, and
Salvatore FerragamoSalvatore Ferragamo was a Florentine and Italian shoe designer. He worked with many Hollywood stars in the 1920s, before returning to Italy to found the eponymous company making unique hand-made footwear. His scientific and creative approach to shoes spawned many innovations such as the wedge heel...
, to mention some boutiques, jewelry such as
BulgariBulgari is an Italian jeweler and luxury goods retailer which has been owned by the French firm LVMH since October 2011. The trademark is usually written "BVLGARI" in the classical Latin alphabet , and is derived from the surname of the company's Greek founder, Sotirio Voulgaris...
,
CartierCartier S.A., commonly known as Cartier , is a French luxury jeweler and watch manufacturer. The corporation carries the name of the Cartier family of jewellers whose control ended in 1964 and who were known for numerous pieces including the "Bestiary" , the diamond necklace created for Bhupinder...
,
LonginesLongines is a Swiss luxury watchmaker based in Saint-Imier, Switzerland. The company was originally founded by Auguste Agassiz in 1832 and it currently holds the oldest registered logo for a watch company . Longines is currently owned by the Swatch Group.Longines is known for its 'Aviators' watches...
,
Marc JacobsMarc Jacobs is an American fashion designer. He is the head designer for Marc Jacobs, as well as Marc by Marc Jacobs, a diffusion line, with more than 200 retail stores in 60 countries. He has been the creative director of the French design house Louis Vuitton since 1997...
,
Michael KorsMichael Kors is an American fashion designer. He is best known for designing classic American sportswear for women.-Personal life:...
,
RolexRolex SA is a Swiss watchmaking manufacturer of high-quality, luxury wristwatches. Rolex watches are popularly regarded as status symbols and BusinessWeek magazine ranks Rolex No.71 on its 2007 annual list of the 100 most valuable global brands...
, and
SwarovskiSwarovski is the brand name for a range of precisely-cut crystal and related luxury products produced by Swarovski AG of Wattens, Austria...
, for some dimensions.
The neighborhood also houses car dealerships for
Alfa RomeoAlfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of cars. Founded as A.L.F.A. on June 24, 1910, in Milan, the company has been involved in car racing since 1911, and has a reputation for building expensive sports cars...
,
BMWBayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...
,
FerrariFerrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947...
,
LamborghiniAutomobili Lamborghini S.p.A., commonly referred to as Lamborghini , is an Italian car manufacturer. The company was founded by manufacturing magnate Ferruccio Lamborghini in 1963, with the objective of producing a refined grand touring car to compete with established offerings from marques like...
,
MaseratiMaserati is an Italian luxury car manufacturer established on December 1, 1914, in Bologna. The company's headquarters is now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. It has been owned by the Italian car giant Fiat S.p.A. since 1993...
, Mercedes Benz,
PorschePorsche Automobil Holding SE, usually shortened to Porsche SE a Societas Europaea or European Public Company, is a German based holding company with investments in the automotive industry....
, and many others.
Restaurants such as
Bellini, the only revolving restaurant in the country and known as "the biggest revolving restaurant in the world", and
Suntoryis a Japanese brewing and distilling company group. Established in 1899, it is one of the oldest companies in the distribution of alcoholic beverages in Japan. Its business has expanded to other fields, and the company now offers everything from soft drinks to sandwich chains...
are known to be the most exclusive restaurants in all of
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
.
Arcos Bosques is a relatively new shopping complex in the namesake business complex in the upscale Bosques de las Lomas neighborhood, near Santa Fe. The complex hosts scores of restaurants, including a branch of Nobu, and smart shops including: Edmond Frette, Marc Jacobs, Thomas Pink, and Salvatore Ferragamo.
Most of the city's luxury boutiques are located on
Avenida Presidente MasarykAvenida Presidente Masaryk refers to one of the trendiest streets in Polanco, Mexico City, Mexico. It runs from Calzada Gral. Mariano Escobedo to F. C. de Cuernavaca Avenue.- The Trendiest Street in Mexico :...
in
PolancoPolanco 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...
. Here, stand-alone shops include
Louis VuittonLouis Vuitton Malletier – commonly referred to as Louis Vuitton , or shortened to LV – is a French fashion house founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label is well known for its LV monogram, which is featured on most products, ranging from luxury trunks and leather goods to ready-to-wear, shoes,...
,
BulgariBulgari is an Italian jeweler and luxury goods retailer which has been owned by the French firm LVMH since October 2011. The trademark is usually written "BVLGARI" in the classical Latin alphabet , and is derived from the surname of the company's Greek founder, Sotirio Voulgaris...
,
CartierJacques Cartier was a French explorer of Breton origin who claimed what is now Canada for France. He was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "The Country of Canadas", after the Iroquois names for the two big...
,
ChanelChanel S.A. is a French fashion house founded by the couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, well established in haute couture, specializing in luxury goods . She gained the name "Coco" while maintaining a career as a singer at a café in France...
,
HermèsHermès International S.A., or simply Hermès is a French high fashion house established in 1837, today specializing in leather, lifestyle accessories, perfumery, luxury goods, and ready-to-wear...
,
FretteFrette is an Italian textile company known for its luxury linens. It was established in 1860 in Grenoble, France but relocated to Concorezzo, Italy in 1865. It is currently headquartered in Monza, Italy....
,
Ermenegildo ZegnaErmenegildo Zegna is a leading Italian fashion house, specialing in men's clothing. Founded in 1910, it is now managed by the fourth generation of the Zegna family and remains in family ownership. As well as producing suits for its own labels, it manufactures suits for labels such as Gucci, Yves...
,
EtroEtro is an Italian fashion house and manufacturer of fabrics, furnishings and fragrances. It was founded in 1968 by Gimmo Etro. It is still a family business, with menswear headed since 1990 by Kean Etro, while his sister, Veronica, directs womenswear...
, Brioni,
CanaliCanali is a clothing company based in Italy specialising in men's clothing.-History:In 1934, the brothers Giovanni and Giacomo Canali founded a tailoring workshop dedicated to the manufacture of high quality clothing. In the 1950s, with the contributions of the family's second generation, sales...
,
CornelianiCorneliani is an Italian clothing manufacturer best known for its suits and sportcoats. The house style is less aggressive than Brioni but more structured than "soft" Neapolitan tailors such as Kiton.-Lines:...
,
ChopardChopard is a Swiss based luxury watch, jewelry, and accessories company founded in 1860 by Louis-Ulysse Chopard at the age of 24. Chopard initially concentrated on developing precise pocket watches and chronometers based upon innovative ideas...
,
GucciThe House of Gucci, better known simply as Gucci , is an Italian fashion and leather goods label, part of the Gucci Group, which is owned by French company PPR...
,
Marc JacobsMarc Jacobs is an American fashion designer. He is the head designer for Marc Jacobs, as well as Marc by Marc Jacobs, a diffusion line, with more than 200 retail stores in 60 countries. He has been the creative director of the French design house Louis Vuitton since 1997...
,
Tiffany & Co.Tiffany & Co. is an American jewelry and silverware company. As part of its branding, the company is strongly associated with its Tiffany Blue , which is a registered trademark.- History :...
, and
Roberto CavalliRoberto Cavalli is an Italian fashion designer from Florence.-Biography:Roberto Cavalli was born in Florence, Tuscany. His grandfather, Giuseppe Rossi, was a member of the Macchiaioli Movement, whose work is exhibited in the Uffizi Gallery. Cavalli decided to enroll at the local Art Institute,...
. Other stores include European furniture retailers Roche-Bobois,
Bang & OlufsenBang & Olufsen is a Danish company that designs and manufactures audio products, television sets and telephones. It was founded in 1925 by Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen, whose first significant product was a radio that worked with alternating current, when most radios were run from batteries...
,
NatuzziNatuzzi Natuzzi Group was founded in 1959 by Pasquale Natuzzi, current Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Group Stylist. It designs, produces and markets sofas, armchairs and living room accessories. Natuzzi is the largest Italian furniture company with 2009 turnover of euro 515,4 million, and...
, and
KartellKartell is an Italian company that makes and sells plastic contemporary furniture.The company, headquartered in Milan, began manufacturing automobile accessories in 1949. It expanded into home furnishings in 1963....
. On smaller side streets, one can find stores such as a luxury French book publisher
AssoulineAssouline Publishing is a luxury book publisher based in New York City. It is owned and operated by husband and wife Prosper Assouline and Martine Assouline. Most titles focus on images, rather than text. They publish luxury editions and illustrated books dedicated to photography, fashion, art...
,
Adolfo DominguezAdolfo Domínguez Fernández is a Spanish fashion designer.-Early life and education:He was born May 14, 1950 in Ourense, Galicia in northern Spain. He studied design and cinematography in Paris, with further studies in London.-Fashion business:...
, and
Mitchell Gold + Bob WilliamsMitchell Gold Co. is a residential and commercial furniture manufacturer based in Taylorsville, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 when Mitchell Gold combined his marketing experience with that of partner Bob Williams, an art director. In April 2005, the company name was changed to Mitchell...
.
Amusement parks/Recreation
There are a number of permanent amusement parks, the oldest and most traditional one is
La Feria Chapultepec MágicoLa Feria Chapultepec Mágico is an amusement park in Mexico City, Mexico. Located in Chapultepec Park, it opened in 1964 as Juegos Mecánicos de Chapultepec and was operated by the Mexican government...
. It is located in the central area of the city and its vintage Montaña Rusa rollercoaster is visible from several points throughout the city. The theme park
Six Flags MéxicoSix Flags México is an amusement park owned by Six Flags Inc. and the only Six Flags park operating in Latin America. It is located in the Tlalpan forest and borough, on the southern edge of Mexico City, Mexico. Six Flags México has become one of the most important theme parks in Mexico and the...
(the second largest amusement park in Latin America) is located in the
AjuscoAjusco is a lava dome volcano located just south of Mexico City, Mexico, in the Tlalpan borough of the city. It is the highest point in the Mexican Federal District, which contains Mexico City.-Etymology:...
borough, in southern Mexico City. And in the north end of the city used to lie Parque Divertido.
There are numerous seasonal fairs, the main one is held during the winter on the main square of the
ZócaloThe Zócalo is the main plaza or square in the heart of the historic center of Mexico City. The plaza used to be known simply as the "Main Square" or "Arms Square," and today its formal name is Plaza de la Constitución...
, which is transformed into an arctic getaway with ice igloos, slides and a gigantic
ice skating rinkAn ice rink is a frozen body of water and/or hardened chemicals where people can skate or play winter sports. Besides recreational ice skating, some of its uses include ice hockey, figure skating and curling as well as exhibitions, contests and ice shows...
, said to be the largest set up of its kind in the world. This event is free to the public and hosts special events such as stage performances and concerts.
Additionally there are many temporary fairs with rides throughout the city neighborhoods. Also to the northwest of the city there's one of the biggest ecological reserves
in the entire metropolitan area, el Bosque de Aragón which is also an amusement park with a great lake, an aquarium, a watering place, a zoo, a theater and a lot more of recreation activities.
Chapultepec Park is the city's principal public park. It is located in the central part of the city, between the Polanco, Cuauhtémoc, and San Miguel Chapultepec neighborhoods.
There are many smaller parks distributed throughout the city. Most are small "squares" occupying two or three-square blocks in the middle of residential or commercial districts.
Several other larger parks (including the Bosque de Aragón in the northwestern district of the city) such as the Bosque de Tlalpan and Viveros de Coyoacán in the southern part of the city, which offer many recreational activities, including jogging paths, children's play areas, soccer fields, etc.
Nicknames
Mexico City was traditionally known as
La Ciudad de los Palacios ("the City of the Palaces"), a nickname attributed to Baron
Alexander von HumboldtFriedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...
when visiting the city in the 19th century who sending a letter back to Europe said Mexico City could rival any major city in Europe.
During
López ObradorAndrés Manuel López Obrador , also known as AMLO or El Peje, is a Mexican politician who held the position of Head of Government of the Federal District from 2000 to 2005, before resigning in July 2005 to contend the 2006 presidential election, representing the unsuccessful Coalition for the Good...
's administration a political slogan was introduced:
la Ciudad de la Esperanza ("The City of Hope"). This slogan was quickly adopted as a nickname to the city under López Obrador's term, although it has lost popularity since the new slogan
Capital en Movimiento ("Capital in Movement") was adopted by the recently elected administration headed by
Marcelo EbrardMarcelo Luis Ebrard Casaubón is the current Head of Government of the Federal District since December 5, 2006. He is a Mexican politician affiliated to the Party of the Democratic Revolution who served as Secretary-General of the former Mexican Federal District Department, minister of public...
Casaubon; the latter is not treated as often as a nickname in media.
The city is colloquially known as
Chilangolandia after the locals' nickname
chilangoChilango is a Mexican slang demonym for a person born in Mexico City suburbs or its surrounding areas and moved there. Sometimes it has a negative connotation when used principally by someone in one of the 31 sovereign States of Mexico....
s, which is used either as a pejorative term by people living outside Mexico City or as a proud adjective by Mexico City's dwellers.
Residents of Mexico City are more formally called
capitalinos (in reference to the city being the capital of the country) or, more recently
defeños (a word which derives from the postal abbreviation of the Federal District in Spanish: D.F., which is read "De-Efe".)
Law enforcement
The Secretariat of Public Security of the Federal District (Secretaría de Seguridad Pública del Distrito Federal – SSP) manages a combined force of over 90,000 officers in the Federal District (DF). The SSP is charged with maintaining
public orderIn criminology, public-order crime is defined by Siegel as "...crime which involves acts that interfere with the operations of society and the ability of people to function efficiently", i.e. it is behaviour that has been labelled criminal because it is contrary to shared norms, social values, and...
and safety in the center of Mexico City. The historic district of the city is also roamed by tourist police, which aims to serve and orient tourists. These enforcement agents dress in a more traditional outfit and ride on horses.
The investigative Judicial Police of the Federal District (Policía Judicial del Distrito Federal – PJDF) is organized under the Office of the Attorney General of the DF (the Procuraduría General de Justicia del Distrito Federal). The PGJDF maintains 16 precincts (delegaciones) with an estimated 3,500 judicial police, 1,100 investigating agents for prosecuting attorneys (agentes del ministerio público), and 941 experts or specialists (peritos).
Between 2000 and 2004 an average of 478 crimes were reported each day in Mexico City; however, the actual crime rate is thought to be much higher "since most people are reluctant to report crime." Under policies enacted by Mayor Marcelo Ebrard between 2009 and 2011, Mexico City underwent a major security upgrade with violent and petty crime rates both falling significantly despite the rise in violent crime in other parts of the country. Some of the policies enacted included the installation of 11,000 security cameras around the city and a very large expansion of the city police force. Mexico City currently has one of the highest police officer to resident ratios in the world, with one uniformed police officer per every 100 citizens. Although the city has experienced a dramatic downfall in crime, it is still not as safe as large cities found in highly developed western European cities such as Frankfurt or Barcelona but is safer than cities such as Moscow or Washington DC.
Twin towns – Sister cities
Mexico City is twinned with:
AthensAthens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, Greece ArequipaArequipa is the capital city of the Arequipa Region in southern Peru. With a population of 836,859 it is the second most populous city of the country...
, Peru BeijingBeijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, China BeirutBeirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, Lebanon BerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Germany BogotáBogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, Colombia Buenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Argentina CádizCadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
, Spain CairoCairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, Egypt CaracasCaracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
, Venezuela ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, United States Ciudad JuárezCiudad Juárez , officially known today as Heroica Ciudad Juárez, but abbreviated Juárez and formerly known as El Paso del Norte, is a city and seat of the municipality of Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Juárez's estimated population is 1.5 million people. The city lies on the Rio Grande...
, Chihuahua, Mexico. CuscoCusco , often spelled Cuzco , is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region as well as the Cuzco Province. In 2007, the city had a population of 358,935 which was triple the figure of 20 years ago...
, Peru Dolores HidalgoDolores Hidalgo Dolores Hidalgo Dolores Hidalgo (in full, Dolores Hidalgo Cuna de la Independencia Nacional is the name of a city and the surrounding municipality in the north-central part of the Mexican state of Guanajuato....
, GuanajuatoGuanajuato officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Guanajuato is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 46 municipalities and its capital city is Guanajuato....
, Mexico. |
Guatemala City Guatemala City , is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Guatemala and Central America...
, Guatemala IstanbulIstanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, Turkey KaliningradKaliningrad is a seaport and the administrative center of Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea...
, Russia La PazNuestra Señora de La Paz is the administrative capital of Bolivia, as well as the departmental capital of the La Paz Department, and the second largest city in the country after Santa Cruz de la Sierra...
, Bolivia LimaLima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
, Peru LisbonLisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, Portugal Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, United States MadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Spain MalmöMalmö , in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County...
, Sweden ManilaManila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
, Philippines Nagoya, Japan NicosiaNicosia from , known locally as Lefkosia , is the capital and largest city in Cyprus, as well as its main business center. Nicosia is the only divided capital in the world, with the southern and the northern portions divided by a Green Line...
, Cyprus Panama CityPanama is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama. It has a population of 880,691, with a total metro population of 1,272,672, and it is located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, in the province of the same name. The city is the political and administrative center of the...
, Panama ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France |
Ranchi-Climate:Ranchi has a humid subtropical climate. However, due to its position and the forests around the city, it is known for its pleasant climate. Its climate is the primary reason why Ranchi was once the summer capital of the undivided State of Bihar...
, India Rio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, Brazil RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Italy Santiago, ChileSantiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
São PauloSão Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, Brazil San SalvadorThe city of San Salvador the capital and largest city of El Salvador, which has been designated a Gamma World City. Its complete name is La Ciudad de Gran San Salvador...
, El Salvador SeoulSeoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
, South Korea: StuttgartStuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, Germany Sydney, Australia Tel AvivTel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
, Israel TorontoToronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Canada |
See also
- Large Cities Climate Leadership Group
The Large Cities Climate Leadership Group, now officially known as the C40 is a group of cities working to reduce urban carbon emissions and to adapt to climate change. It believes it has an important role to play as cities contain around 50% of the world population, consume 75% of the world's...
- Largest cities in the Americas
This is a list of the 50 largest cities in the Americas by population. Official definitions of cities are defined according to the concept of city proper, which is the territory within the city limits. The list ranks the world's urban municipal units according to population...
- Metropolitan areas of Mexico
Metropolitan areas in Mexico have been traditionally defined as the group of municipalities that heavily interact with each other, usually around a core city...
- Outline of Mexico
- World's largest cities
This article ranks the world's largest cities, in population or land area, using a variety of ranking methods.-Ambiguities in measuring the "size" of a city:...
External links