A CITY AMONGST CITIES... A UNIQUE AND MAGNIFICENT CULTURAL, DIVERSE AND COSMOPOLITAN. THERE IS NO OTHER... MEXICO CITY City of Mexico Crossbred city. Unreachablecity... the largest on the planet. Noisy, uneasy, ancient and modern: historical. Suggestive city, with palaces, churches, museums, woods and even a castle. A city that allows itself to be cherished; a city thatfascinates, subjugates and is not forgotten, it meddles in the soul, sticks in the memory.The City of Mexico and the DF (Federal District)TheCity of Mexico and the DF (Federal District),at 2250 meters above sea level, stir deeplyfor their pre-Hispanic roots, their colonial brand and their cosmopolitan air, features that outline the face of this vigorous and struggling megalopolis, that make evident the historical roots of an urban giant that ceases not to amaze the world.Federal DistrictPast, present and future in the capital of Mexico, which before the arrival of the Spanish conquistador HernanCortes was the lavish Tenochtitlan, a monumental city with temples, palaces, gardens, schools and markets that was founded in 1325 by the Mexicas, a warrior group coming from the island of Aztlan, from where the name Aztec would later derived.Sunset of Mexico. Here history is blended with legend. The whispers from the past say that Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, commanded the Mexicas to found a city wherever they encountered an eagle posed on a nopal (a cactus) devouring a serpent trapped on its claws; so off they went on their search. They came and went through rough roads until they found it at aswampy zone of the Texcoco lake.And since commandments of a divinity are not argued upon, Tenochtitlan (place of cacti) emerged in an inhospitable area thatdue to the stubbornness and tenacious persistence of its inhabitants, turned into a splendorous territory, specially during the mandate of Moctezuma, until the greed of the Spanish conquistadors destroyed it in 1521, two years after Cortes first set foot in it. The struggle between Aztecs and Spaniards was bloody. One of the larger slaughters occurred during the sad night of the 30th of June of 1520, when thousands of nativesand half of the Iberian army died in a brutal clash. The blood and tears of the elders, women and children may surely have inundated the city.Cuauhtemoc, the leader of the indigenous resistance, was defeated the 13th of August of 1521; thereafter, Tenochtitlan was completely levelled. The construction of what is currently the Historic Centre of the DF started a year later over the Aztecan foundations, though in those timesit would be baptised as the New Spain.School San Idelfonso Churches, palaces and mansions; of baroque, gothic and renaissance styles outlined the countenance of this Mexico which after years of struggles, battles and revolutions, shows the world the richness of its history and the crossbred taste of its urban landscapes, so valuable and peculiar that in 1987 it was declared a Cultural Patrimony of Humanity by UNESCO.Cathedral of Mexico Within the Historic Centre of the Federal District are authentic jewels of architecture, such as the National Palace or the Cathedral, to mention just two of the centenarian monuments surrounding the Plaza of the Constitution, also called the Zocalo, neuralgic point of yesterdays Mexico, todaysMexicoand since everMexico, that rises over what once was the great temple of Tenochtitlan.Its attractions are not reduced to the old centre, they expand, they multiple and trapvisitors in the wood and castle of Chapultepec, a place of solace in a noisy city; or moves them at the Basilica of Guadalupe, a superb building housing the thousands of devotees that worship the Virgin of Guadalupe, the patron of the country.Neoclasica ArchitectureThe days are too short on this city of country dimensions. There are more than enough attractions: The Red Zone, a bohemian corner of aristocratic roots, the Plaza Garibaldi, a bastion of the much famous mariachis, Xochimilco and its floating gardens, San Angel and its assorted craftsmanship fairs taking place on Saturdays; or the ancient Teotihuacan, one of the best preserved archaeological complexes of the nation. Mexico is no longer the ancient Tenochtitlan, neither is the New Spain of Cortes. Nowadays, it is a megalopolis with 22 million plus inhabitants, an urban colossus that projects to the future with thesame determination that it inherited from its mythical founders, who tamed the swamp and the unnerving earthquakes to build a city in the exact place where an eagle was found devouring a serpent. Mexico City today is home to large numbers of immigrants and expatriates from Canada, the United States, South America (especially Colombia and Argentina), Central America (particularly Guatemala and El Salvador), the Caribbeans (mainly Cuba and Haiti), Europe (particularly Spain and Germany) France, Belgium and the Middle East(especially Egypt, Syria and Lebanon). Most recently, therehas been an influx of immigrants from Asia-Pacific countries like South Korea andChina.There are no official figures onthe immigrant population in Mexico, but estimates show significant numbers, including the largest population of people from the US outside the United States. Its estimated there are 700,000 US Americans in Mexico City.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 23:55:21 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015