Everything about Mexican Federal District totally explained
Mexico City (in
Spanish:
Ciudad de México,
México, D.F. or simply
México) is the
capital city of
Mexico. It is the most important economic, industrial and cultural center in the country, and the most populous city with 8,720,916 inhabitants in 2005.
Greater Mexico City (
Zona Metropolitana del Valle de México) incorporates 58 adjacent municipalities of
Mexico State and 1 municipality of the
state of Hidalgo, according to the most recent definition agreed upon by the federal and state governments. In 2006 Greater Mexico City had a population of 19.2 million, making it the largest metropolitan area in the
western hemisphere and the second
largest in the world. In 2005, it ranked the eighth in terms GDP (PPP) among urban agglomerations in the world. Along with
São Paulo it's the only Beta
global city with 8 points in Latin America.
Mexico City is also the
Federal District (
Distrito Federal in Spanish, and hence the abbreviation D.F.). The Federal District is coextensive with Mexico City: both are governed by a single institution and are constitutionally considered to be the same entity. This hasn't always been the case. The Federal District, created in 1824, was integrated by several municipalities, one of which was the municipality of Mexico City. As the city began to grow, it engulfed all other
municipalities into one large urban area. In 1928 all municipalities within the Federal District were abolished, an action that left a vacuum in the legal status of Mexico City
vis-à-vis the Federal District, even though for most practical purposes they were traditionally considered to be the same entity. In 1993, to end the sterile discussions about whether one concept had engulfed the other, or if any of the two entities had any existence
in lieu of the other, the 44th Article of the
Constitution of Mexico was reformed to clearly state that Mexico City is the capital, seat of the
Powers of the Union and capital of the
United Mexican States.
Mexico City is located in the
Valley of Mexico, also called the
Valley of Anáhuac, a large valley in the high
plateaus at the center of Mexico, at an altitude of 2,240 meters (7,349 ft). It was originally built by the
Aztecs in 1325 on an island of
Lake Texcoco. The city was almost completely destroyed in the siege of 1521, and was redesigned and rebuilt in the following years following the Spanish urban standards. In 1524 the municipality of Mexico City was established, known as
México Tenustitlán, and as of 1585 it's officially known as
ciudad de México.
History
» For the Pre-Columbian detailed history of the city, see: Tenochtitlán and Tlatelolco.
Prehispanic era and Spanish colonial period
Mexico (in Spanish pronounced "Me-hee-co") City was founded as
Mexico-Tenochtitlan on
March 18,
1325 by the
Nahua Aztec or Mexican tribe, which rapidly became the capital of a sophisticated growing empire. Located on a small island on the middle of
Lake Texcoco, the layout of the city forced the Aztecs to build an artificial island with a series of canals to allow the growth of the metropolis. A number of causeways were also constructed from the shoreline to the central island. These causeways are the foundation of the various
calzadas which are today principal avenues in Mexico City. In fact, although the lake was salty, dams built by the Aztecs kept the city surrounded by clear water from the rivers that fed the lake. Two double
aqueducts provided the city with fresh water; this was intended mainly for cleaning and washing.
After centuries of pre-Columbian civilization, the Spanish
conquistador (conqueror)
Hernán Cortés first arrived in the area in 1519. He didn't succeed in conquering the city until
August 13,
1521, after a
79-day siege that destroyed most of the old Aztec city.
In 1524 the rebuilt city served as the capital of the
viceroyalty of
New Spain and the political and cultural center of Mexico. The importance of the city was such that the
Captaincy General of
Guatemala,
Yucatán,
Cuba,
Florida, and the
Philippines were administered from it. This colonial period culminated with the construction of the
baroque Metropolitan Cathedral and the
Basilica of Guadalupe.
Independence
The outbreak of the
Mexican War of Independence in 1810, and the eventual independence of the country in 1821 were unable to hamper the influence of the city even though it shook internal politics. The capital became host of the first ruler of the Mexican Empire,
Agustin de Iturbide, who abdicated a year later in 1823. The nation became a federal republic in October 1824.
In 1824, the
Mexican Federal District was established by the new government and by the signing of their new constitution, where the concept of a federal district was adapted from the American constitution.
The war with the
United States led to an invasion into Mexico City by U.S. General
Winfield Scott on
September 14,
1847, and obligated Mexico to cede the
provinces of
Nuevo Mexico and
Alta California, what are today the States of
California,
Arizona,
Colorado,
Nevada,
New Mexico and parts of
Utah and
Wyoming to the U.S. and recognize
Texas as independent. This was formally recognized in the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which was signed in what is now the suburb of the city of the same name. The invasion culminated at
Chapultepec Castle, the military center of the country where, according to the legend, 13 young Mexican cadets (see
Niños Héroes) fought helpless and outnumbered to keep the Americans from taking the symbolic castle. This event is remembered by a series of monolithic columns that bear their names at the base of the Castle. A short-lived monarchy in 1864-1867, under
Emperor Maximilian I, left its mark on the reconstruction of
Chapultepec Castle and other urban planning that was said to have been modeled after the
Champs-Élysées to help his consort
Empress Carlota adjust to the city.
A three decade long dictatorship under
Porfirio Díaz left a French influence upon Mexico City. The stunning, bronze
Angel of Independence was built under his administration to celebrate the first centenary of the beginning of the War of Independence. Other urban highlights built at the time were the
Palacio de Bellas Artes and the expansion of
Paseo de la Reforma à la Champs-Élysées. Following the initial phase of the
Mexican Revolution, whereby president Díaz was forced to resign and a new president was elected, Mexico City suffered from what has been called
La decena trágica ("The Tragic Ten Days") in February 1913.
La decena trágica was a coup d'état orchestrated by
Victoriano Huerta in complicity with the
United States Ambassador to Mexico Henry Lane Wilson.
The post-revolutionary government of Mexico following the
Mexican Revolution of 1910 reinforced the importance of the city which saw an important influx of immigrants during the rest of the 20th century. Most of the growth of Mexico City in population occurred in the late 20th century. In 1950, the city had about 3 million inhabitants. By 2000, the estimated population for the metropolitan area was around 18 million.
Recent history
In 1968, the city hosted the
Olympic Games, an event marred by the massacre of hundreds of students in what came to be known as the
Tlatelolco Massacre, which occurred only a couple of days before the inauguration ceremony. Two other sporting events hosted by the city were the
1970 FIFA World Cup and the
1986 FIFA World Cup, the final matches of which took place in the
Estadio Azteca.
At 07:19 on
September 19,
1985, the city was struck by an
earthquake of magnitude 8.1 on the
Richter scale which resulted in the deaths of between 5,000 (government estimate) and 20,000 people and rendered 50,000-90,000 people homeless. One hundred thousand housing units were destroyed, together with many government buildings. Up to
USD $4 billion of damage was caused in three minutes. There was an additional
magnitude 7.5
aftershock 36 hours later. When Mexico City hosted the
FIFA World Cup again in 1986, the event was seen as an evidence of its rapid recovery.
During the 1990s, Mexico City continued to grow as an economic and cultural center of international importance, which has spurred the construction of new skyscrapers such as Latin America's tallest building, the
Torre Mayor (a literal translation of which is
Greater Tower) and a remodelled
World Trade Center México, originally the
Hotel de México built during the 1960s and early 70's.
Mexico City is ranked 8th among North America’s Top Ten Major Cities of the Future 2007-2008. It is ranked 4th in Economic Potential and 4th as Most Cost Effective. Mexico City was the one of the two Mexican cities that made the top ten, along with Guadalajara, which ranked 5th place.
Geography
The Federal District is located in central-South Mexico. It is bounded by the
state of Mexico on the west, north and east, and by the state of
Morelos on the south. Mexico City and its metropolitan area, which extends over the state of Mexico, are located in the
Valley of Mexico or
Anáhuac, a valley that lies at an average of above sea level. This valley is a basin surrounded by mountains on all four sides, with only one small opening at the north. At the southern part of the basin, the mountain range reaches an altitude of above sea level; and to the east the volcanoes reach an altitude of more than . The region receives anti-cyclonic systems, whose weak winds don't allow for the dispersion, outside the basin, of the air pollutants which are produced by the 50,000 industries and 4 million vehicles operating in the metropolitan area. 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 oxides. 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 car 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). Perhaps the "Anti-Tobacco Law", in force in the city since April 3, 2008, will contribute (through the prohibition of smoking at restaurants and many other close-space public establishments) to reduce the levels of air pollution.
In 1986, the non-urban forest areas of the southern boroughs were declared National Ecological Reserves by president
de la Madrid. Other areas of the Federal District became protected in the following years.
Mexico City has a temperate highland climate (Koppen
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
Iztapalapa,
Iztacalco,
Venustiano Carranza and the west portion of
Gustavo A. Madero are usually drier and warmer than the upper southern boroughs of
Tlalpan and
Milpa Alta, a mountainous region of
pine and
oak trees known as the range of
Ajusco. The average annual temperature varies from 12 to 16°C (53 to 60°F), depending on the altitude of the borough. Lowest temperatures, usually registered during January and February, may reach -2 to -5°C (28 to 23°F), usually accompanied by snow showers on the southern regions of Ajusco, and the maximum temperatures of late spring and summer may reach up to 32°C (90°F). Overall precipitation is heavily concentrated in the summer months.
Originally much of the valley lay beneath the waters of
Lake of Texcoco, a system of interconnected saline and freshwater lakes. The
Aztecs built dikes to separate the fresh water used to raise crops in
chinampas 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
State of Mexico, in the municipality of
Atenco.
| Geophysical maps of the Federal District |
|
|
|
| Topography |
Hydrology |
Climate patterns |
Politics
Federal District
In 1824, when the United Mexican States were born as a federation, the
Congress of the Union decided to create a Federal District containing the capital of the federation, Mexico City. Mexico City and the surrounding territories that became the Federal District originally belonged to the
state of Mexico, and the city was also the capital of the state. Being now the capital of the federation, and not of a single state, the city had to be administered directly by all the states through the power vested upon the powers of the Union. The Federal District was thus created on
November 18,
1824, as a perfect circle with its center at the Central Square (Plaza de la Constitución, popularly known as "el
Zócalo") and a
radius of . The Federal District was constituted by the municipality of Mexico City, and six additional municipalities:
Tacuba,
Tacubaya,
Azcapotzalco,
Mixcoac,
Iztacalco, and
Villa de Guadalupe.
In 1854, president
Antonio López de Santa Anna, enlarged the area of the Federal District almost eightfold from the original to, annexing the rural and mountainous areas in order to secure the strategic mountain passes to the south and southwest to protect the city should a foreign invasion occur again. (The
Mexican-American War 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 1,499 km² (579 sq mi) by adjusting the southern border with the state of
Morelos. 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 constant tensions 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:
Cuauhtémoc,
Miguel Hidalgo,
Venustiano Carranza and
Benito Juárez, thus 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
Constitution 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, didn't 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—like in 1988, when the opposition candidate had received the majority of votes in the Federal District, but the president, however designated a governor form the party in power at the federal level—as well as the dissatisfaction with the inadequate response of the federal government to assist the city after the 1985 earthquake, the residents began to request political and administrative autonomy in order to manage their own local affairs. Some political groups 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 Cárdenas. Cárdenas resigned in 1999 in order to run in the 2000 presidential elections and designated
Rosario Robles to succeed him, who became the first woman (elected or otherwise) to govern Mexico City. In 2000
Andrés Manuel López Obrador was elected, and resigned in 2005 to run in the 2006 presidential elections,
Alejandro Encinas Rodríguez being designated by the Legislative Assembly to finish the term. In 2006,
Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon was elected for the 2006–2012 period.
The Federal District doesn't have a constitution, like the states of the Union, but rather a Statute of Government, and as part of its recent changes in autonomy, the budget is administered locally: it's proposed by the head of government and approved by the Legislative Assembly. Nonetheless, it's the
Congress of the Union that sets the ceiling to internal and external public debt 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 Ebrard Casaubon, candidate of the
Party of the Democratic Revolution (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 District is formed, as it's the case in all legislatures in Mexico, by both single-seat and proportional seats, making it a system of
parallel voting. The Federal District is divided into 40 electoral constituencies of similar population which elect one representative by
first-past-the-post plurality (FPP), locally called "uninominal deputies". The Federal District as a whole constitutes a single constituency for the parallel election of 26 representatives by
proportionality (PR) with closed-party lists, locally called "plurinominal deputies." Even though
proportionality 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 wasn't assigned any plurinominal seat to comply with the law that prevents overrepresentation. The overall composition of the
Legislative Assembly is:
- (left): 34 FPP representatives
- (right): 17 representatives (4 FFP, 13 PR)
- (center): 4 PR representatives
- : 4 PR representatives
- (ecologist): 3 PR representatives
- : 2 PR representatives
- : 1 FFP representative
- : 1 FFP representative
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 2007, the Federal District became the second
federal entity in the country, after the state of
Coahuila, to approve
same-sex unions, and the first to allow conjugal visits for
homosexual prisoners In April of the same year, the
Legislative Assembly expanded provisions on abortions, becoming the first federal entity to expand
abortion in Mexico 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.
Boroughs
» See also: Boroughs of the Mexican Federal District and Colonias of Mexico City
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
plurality (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 services are provided or organized by the
Government of the Federal District and not by the boroughs themselves, while in the
constituent states these services would be provided by the municipalities. The 16 boroughs of the Federal District are:
The
boroughs are composed by hundreds of
colonias or
neighborhoods, 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 Center is the oldest quarter in the city, some of the buildings dating back to the 16th century; la
Condesa is known for its
Art Deco architecture, and for being the newest artistic center of the city;
Santa Fe is a growing business and financial district (built over areas where tons of trash used to be thrown);
Roma is a beaux arts neighborhood and probably one of the oldest in the city;
Polanco and
Bosques de las Lomas are important commercial and economic centers known for their large and powerful
Jewish communities, and
Tepito and
La Lagunilla are known for its impressively large
flea market.
Economy
Mexico City is one of the most important economic hubs of
Latin America. The city proper (Federal District) produces 21.8% of the country's
Gross domestic product. According to a study conducted by
PriceWaterhouseCoopers,
Greater Mexico City (with a population of 19.2 million) had a GDP of $315 billion in 2005 (at
purchasing power parity), ranking as the eighth-richest urban agglomeration in the world after the greater areas of Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Paris, London and Osaka/Kobe, and the richest in Latin America; in 2020 it's expected to rank seventh with a $608 billion GDP, displacing Osaka/Kobe. Mexico City alone would be the 30th largest economy in the world with a higher GDP than countries like Sweden or Switzerland. Mexico City is also one of the largest financial and commercial hubs in Latin America (it should be remembered that
Carlos Slim, who has been ranked, in the last few months, as either the richest or the second richest person in the world, was born and has always lived in Mexico City). The
Mexican stock exchange (Bolsa Mexicana de Valores) and the country's largest banks and insurers, as well as many international financial services conglomerates for Latin America, are headquartered in the city.
In terms of GDP per sector, the Federal District 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.
The city proper's nominal GDP per capita is $22,696, the highest of any city in Latin America. Mexico City's
Human Development Index (HDI) is the highest in the country at 0.8830, higher than the national average. Amongst other welfare indicators, 50% of the habitants of Mexico City have access to the
Internet, 58% own a
cell phone, with virtually each household having a phone line. While 36% of Mexicans nationwide live in poverty, about 15% of the residents of Mexico City live in poverty.
Over the last two decades the economic base has shifted strongly, as the manufacturing activities move to the state of Mexico (Mexico city suburbs) and even to other states, partly due to an environmental program of tax incentives offered by the government to manufacturers: existing companies could be eligible to tax-certificates if they installed pollution control equipment. New plants, on the other hand, were only eligible to the same benefits if they were to be located outside Mexico City.
Demographics
Historically, and since pre-Hispanic times, the
valley of Anáhuac 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
Cuauhtémoc borough. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the
elites began migrating to the south and west and soon the small towns of
Mixcoac and
San Ángel were incorporated by the growing conurbation. Today the city could be clearly divided into a middle and high-class area (south and west, including
Polanco,
Chapultepec and
Santa Fe), and a lower class area to the east (
Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Pantitlán,
Chalco and Moctezuma).
Up to the 1980s, the Federal District was the most populated
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 58 municipalities of the
state of Mexico and to the state of
Hidalgo and, with a population of approx. 28.5 million inhabitants, it's one of the most populated conurbations in the world. Nonetheless, the annual rate of growth of the
Metropolitan Area of Mexico City is much lower than that of other large urban agglomerations in Mexico,
While they represent around 1.3% of the city's population,
indigenous peoples from different regions of Mexico have immigrated to the capital in search of better economic opportunities.
Náhuatl,
Otomí,
Mixteco,
Zapoteco, and
Mazahua 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
expatriates, most notably from South America (mainly from
Argentina, but also from
Chile,
Colombia,
Brazil and
Venezuela), from Europe (mainly from
Spain but also
Germany,
Italy,
France and
Poland), the Middle East (mainly from
Lebanon,
Turkey, and
Syria), and recently from Asia (mainly from
China and
South Korea). While no official figures have been reported, population estimates of each of these communities are quite significant. Mexico City is home to the largest population of Americans living outside the
United States. Some estimates are as high as 600,000 Americans living in Mexico City, while in 1999 the U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs estimates 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
Protestant groups, different types of
Jewish communities,
Buddhist and other philosophical groups, as well as atheism.
Landmarks
The Historic Center (
Centro Histórico) and the "floating gardens" of
Xochimilco in the southern borough have been declared
World Heritage Sites by the
UNESCO. Famous landmarks in the Historic Center include the
Plaza de la Constitución (Zócalo), the main central square with its time clashing Spanish-era
Metropolitan Cathedral and
Palacio Nacional, 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 Independence, found on the wide, elegant avenue
Paseo de la Reforma, modeled by the order of the Emperor
Maximilian of Mexico after the
Champs-Élysées in
Paris. This avenue was designed in the XIX Century to connect the
National Palace (seat of government) with the
Castle of Chapultepec, the imperial residence. Today, this avenue is an important financial district in which the Mexican Stock Market is located. Another important avenue is the
Avenida de los Insurgentes, which extends 28.8 km (18 miles) and is one of the longest single avenues in the world.
The
Chapultepec 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 Anthropology (which houses the
Aztec Calendar Stone). Another magnificent piece of architecture is the
Fine Arts Palace, 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 Díaz and ended, after being interrupted by the
Mexican Revolution in the 1920s. The
Plaza of the Three Cultures in the
Tlatelolco neighbourhood, and the shrine and
Basilicas of
Our Lady of Guadalupe are also important sites. There is a double decker bus, known as the "Turibus", that circles most of these sites, and has timed audio describing the sites in multiple languages as they're 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's 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 Rivera. He and his wife
Frida Kahlo lived in the southern suburb of
Coyoacán, where several of their homes, studios, and art collections are open to the public. The house where
Leon Trotsky 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.
Sports
Soccer is Mexico's most televised sport. Several first division teams, including
Club América and its
Primera División A youth team
Socio Águila,
Cruz Azul and
Pumas, are based in Mexico City. The
Aztec Stadium (Estadio Azteca) has capacity to seat approximately 126,000 fans. Mexico City also has an
Olympic Stadium in
Ciudad Universitaria, which is home of the
Pumas football team.
Cruz Azul plays in the
Estadio Azul, which is located within Mexico City as well.
The country hosted the
Football World Cup in
1970 and
1986 and Azteca is the only stadium in the world to host the final match of the
Football World Cup twice. Mexico City also hosted the
1968 Summer Olympics, winning bids against
Buenos Aires,
Lyon and
Detroit, and being the only
Latin American city to host such an event. Mexico City hosted the
1955 Pan American Games and then the
1975 Pan American Games after
Santiago and
São Paulo withdrew.
Baseball is also another popular sport with a growing fan base. Mexico City is home to the
Diablos Rojos del México (Red Devils) of the
Mexican Baseball League, with the team playing their home games at the
Foro Sol Stadium. The Red Devils used to share the stadium with the baseball club "Tigres" (Tigers) until the club moved to
Puebla, where they were known as the "Tigres de la Angelópolis" ("Tigers from the City of Angels"). Right now they play in
Cancún,
Quintana Roo and are known as
Quintana Roo Tigres. Also in Mexico City are located around 10 little leagues for young baseball players.
Adjacent to
Foro Sol is Mexico City's
Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. From 1962 to 1970 and again from 1986 to 1992, the track hosted the
Formula 1 Mexican Grand Prix. From 1980-1981 and again from 2002 to 2007, it hosted the
Champ Car World Series Gran Premio de México. Since 2005, the
NASCAR Nationwide Series has run the
Telcel-Motorola México 200. 2005 also marked the first running of the Mexico City 250 by the
Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series.
In 2005, Mexico City became the first city to host a
NFL regular season game outside of the
United States, and has also hosted several
NBA pre-season exhibition games along with exhibition matches among MLB teams at the
Foro Sol.
Other sports facilities in Mexico City are the
Palacio de los Deportes indoor arena,
Francisco Márquez Olympic Swimming Pool, the
Hipódromo de Las Américas horse-race track, ice hockey, American football, and basketball.
Bullfighting takes place every Sunday during bullfighting season at the 50,000-seat
Plaza de Toros, the largest bullring in the world.
Transportation
Mexico City is served by the
Sistema de Transporte Colectivo Metro, an extensive
metro system (207 km), the largest in Latin America, the first portions of which were opened in 1969. The system has 11 lines in 175 stations, and a 12th line is planned to be constructed in the year 2008 along with a suburban rail system (currently under construction) similar to the French RER system. One of the busiest in the world, the
metro transports approximately 4.5 million people every day, surpassed only by Moscow's (7.5 million), Tokyo's (5.9 million), and New York City's (4.9 million). It is heavily subsidized, and has the lowest fares in the world, each trip costing
MXN 2 (around
EUR 0.13 or
USD 0.19 and taking each passenger to almost any place in this enormous city from 06:00 am to 00:00 h.). A number of stations display Pre-Columbian artifacts and architecture that were discovered during the metro's construction. However, the
Metro doesn't extend outside the limits of the Federal District and, therefore, an extensive network of bus routes has been implemented. These 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
microbuses, with fares barely exceeding that of the metro. Electric transport other than the metro also exists, in the form of
trolleybuses and the
Xochimilco Light Rail line. The city's first
bus rapid transit line, the
Metrobús, began operation in June 2005 on
Avenida Insurgentes (a second line is under construction on Eje Vial 4 Sur). As the microbuses were removed from its route, it was hoped that the Metrobús could reduce pollution and decrease transit time for passengers. 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.
Mexico City is served by
Mexico City International Airport (
IATA Airport Code: MEX). This airport is the largest in
Latin America in traffic, transporting close to 25 million passengers per year. This traffic exceeds the capacity of the airport, which had historically centralized the majority of air traffic. The government has recently engaged in an extensive restructuring that includes the building of a second adjacent terminal and the enlargement of four other airports (at the nearby cities of
Toluca,
Querétaro,
Puebla and
Cuernavaca) that, along with Mexico City's airport, comprise the
Grupo Aeroportuario de la Ciudad de México, distributing traffic to different regions in Mexico. Mexico City's airport is the main hub for 10 of the 12 national airline firms.
The city has four major bus stations (North, South, Observatorio, TAPO), with bus service to many cities across the country, and one train station, used for commercial and industrial purposes (interstate passenger trains are now virtually non-existent in Mexico). It was recently announced that a
Tren Suburbano (suburban rail) will be built to serve the metropolitan area. There are also several toll
expressways which connect Mexico City with several other major cities.
In the late 70's 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-
Cartesian 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 and vice versa). Traffic in this system is so dense that an elevated highway that runs on top and parallel to a part of the main ring road, the
Periférico, had to be constructed and finished in 2007. This elevated highway is colloquially called
segundo piso ("second level") of the
Periférico); it's the largest and most secure in Latin America and directly connects places such as colonia
Molino del Rey with colonia
San Ángel.
There is also an environmental program, called
Hoy No Circula ("Not To Run Today," or "One Day without a Car"), whereby only vehicles with certain ending numbers on their license plates are allowed to circulate on certain days, in an attempt to cut down on pollution and traffic congestion. The program groups vehicles by their ending license plate digits, and every weekday vehicles having any of the day's two "Hoy No Circula" digits are banned from circulating. For instance, on Fridays, vehicles with plates ending in 9 or 0 may not drive. This program is controversial, since it has resulted in many better-off households buying extra cars, reducing the program's benefits; also, newer vehicles are exempt from complying with the program, a move said to have been pushed by auto makers to boost
sales of new vehicles.
Culture
Education
Mexico City is the location of
National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). UNAM is the second-oldest (established in 1551) and the largest (with 269,000 students) university in the Americas. Three Nobel laureates and most of Mexico's modern-day presidents are among its former students. UNAM conducts 50% of Mexico's scientific research and has presence all across the country with satellite campuses and research centers. The National Autonomous University of Mexico ranks 74th in the Top 200 World University Ranking published by
The Times Higher Education Supplement in 2006, making it the highest ranked Spanish-speaking university in the world. The sprawling main campus of the university, known as
Ciudad Universitaria, was named a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 2007, during the period of
Juan Ramón de la Fuente as the President of UNAM.
The second largest higher-education institution is the
National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) (which includes, among many other relevant centers, the
Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados (
Cinvestav, where high-level research is performed about very different scientific and technological disciplines such as physics, mathematics, neurosciences, and many others). Other major higher-education institutions in the city include the
Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM), the
ITAM, the
ITESM (3 campi), the
Universidad Panamericana (UP), the
Universidad La Salle, the Universidad del Valle de Mexico (UVM), the
Universidad Anáhuac, the
Alliant International University, the
Universidad Iberoamericana,
El Colegio de México (Colmex), and the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económica (
CIDE).
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 México, 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 Nacional, created during the governmental period of
Miguel Alemán Valdés to have, in Mexico, an institution very similar to the
College of France. The very selected and privileged group of Mexican scientists and artists belonging this institution (the membership is lifelong; some of the current members are
Mario Lavista,
Ruy Pérez Tamayo,
José Emilio Pacheco,
Marcos Moshinsky,
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.
Media
Mexico City is the country's most important center for the television,
advertising, music, newspaper and book publishing industries. Two national newspapers are published here,
El Universal and
Excélsior, as well as important regional newspapers such as
Reforma and
La Jornada. Other major papers include
Milenio,
Crónica,
El Economista and
El Financiero.
The two largest media companies in the Spanish-speaking world,
Televisa and
TV Azteca, are headquartered in Mexico City. Other local television networks include
Canal 11,
Canal 22,
Cadena Tres,
Teveunam and 11 free-access channels.
There are 60
radio stations operating in the city and a huge number of local community radio stations.
Art
Mexico City is one of the most important cultural centers in the world boasting more museums than any other city. It is also the fourth city in number of theaters after New York City, London and Toronto.
Having been capital of a vast pre-Hispanic empire, the richest viceroyalty within the
Spanish Empire, and capital of the Mexican federation, Mexico City has a rich history of artistic expressions. Since the Mesoamerican pre-Classical period the inhabitants of the settlements around Lake Texcoco produced many works of arts, some of which are today displayed at the world-renown
National Museum of Anthropology 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 Cathedral still displays works by
Juan de Rojas,
Juan Correa and an oil painting whose authorship has been attributed to
Murillo. Secular works of art of this period include the
equestrian sculpture of
Charles IV of Spain, locally known as
El Caballito ("The little horse"). This piece, in bronze, was the work of
Manuel Tolsá 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 Arte (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 schools 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 Velasco, is considered one of the greatest Mexican landscape painters of the 19th century. It was during
Porfirio Diaz'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 Posada 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 Revolution, an
avant-garde artistic movement originated in Mexico City:
muralism. Many of the works of muralists
José Clemente Orozco,
David Alfaro Siqueiros and
Diego Rivera are displayed in numerous buildings in the city, most notably at the
National Palace and the
Palacio de Bellas Artes.
Frida Kahlo, 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 Olmedo 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 house a large collection of Rivera and Kahlo paintings and drawings, as well as living
Xoloizcuintles (the Prehispanic dogs). It also regularly hosts small but important temporary exhibits of classical and modern art (for example 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-collar workers find a venue to express their art. Other painters came from abroad, like
Catalan painter
Remedios Varo 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 Cuevas opted for a modernist style in contrast to the muralist movement associated with social politics.
Mexico City has numerous museums dedicated to modern and contemporary 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 Tamayo. The Museo de Arte Moderno (
Museum of Modern Art) is a repository of Mexican artists from the 20th century, 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. The Museo Soumaya (
Soumaya Museum), named after the wife of Mexican tycoon
Carlos Slim, has the largest private collection of original
Rodin sculptures outside Paris. La Colección Jumex (
The Jumex Collection) is a museum housed on the grounds of the Jumex juice company in the northern industrial suburb of
Ecatepec (within the
State of Mexico). It shows pieces from its permanent collection and hosts traveling exhibits by leading contemporary artists.
Jack Kerouac, the noted American author, spent extended periods of time in the city, and wrote his masterpiece volume of poetry
Mexico City Blues here.
Music, movies and entertainment
Mexico City Philharmonic, which performs at the Sala Ollin Yoliztli; the
National Symphony Orchestra, whose home base is the
Palacio de Bellas Artes (
The Fine Arts Palace), a masterpiece of art nouveau and art decó styles; the Philharmonic Orchestra of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (
OFUNAM), 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 Orchestra (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 culture and music. There are a multitude of venues hosting the top Spanish and English-language performers. These include the 10,000-seat
National Auditorium that regularly schedules pop and rock artists, as well as many of the world's leading performing arts ensembles. Other popular sites for pop-artist performances include the
Teatro Metropolitan, the 15,000-seat
Palacio de los Deportes, and the larger
Foro Sol Stadium, where top-name international artists perform on a regular basis. The
Cirque du Soleil has held several seasons at the
Carpa Santa Fe, in the
Santa Fe district in the western part of the city.
It is said that Mexico City has more theaters than any other city in the Spanish-speaking world. At any given time, plays being staged run the gamut from Spanish versions of Broadway shows, such as
Beauty and the Beast and
Chicago to mainstream Spanish-language originals and alternative theatre.
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), which includes the Sala Nezahualcóyotl (
Nezahualcóyotl Concert Hall) (music), the Sala Juan Ruiz de Alarcón (theatre), Sala Miguel Covarrubias (dance), Sala Carlos Chávez (chamber music), as well as the Salas Julio Bracho and José Revueltas, that regularly show a very interesting mix of non-commercial films from all over the world. The CCU also houses the
National Library, the interactive
Universum, Museo de las Ciencias and slated to open in 2008, 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 Affairs, known as Tlatelolco, in north-central Mexico City.
The Biblioteca
José Vasconcelos (
José Vasconcelos Library), also a national library, is located on the grounds of the former
Buenavista railroad station in the northern part of the city.
The
Papalote children's museum is located in
Chapultepec Park (within Chapultepec woods), near the
Museo Tecnológico, and the
La Feria amusement park. The
Six Flags (formerly
Reino Aventura) amusement park is located in the Ajusco neighborhood, in the south of the city.
The Cineteca Nacional (the
Mexican Film Collection), near the Coyoacán suburb, shows a wide variety of films, and stages many film festivals, including the annual
International Film Festival, and many smaller ones ranging from Scandinavian and Uruguayan cinema, to Jewish and GLBT-themed films.
Cinemex, one of the biggest film business chain, also has more than one film festivals during the year, with both national and international movies.
Cuisine
Mexico City offers a huge array of culinary experiences. Restaurants specializing in the regional cuisines of Mexico's 32 states are available in the city. Also available are restaurants representing a broad spectrum of international cuisines, including French, Italian, Polish, Hungarian, Portuguese, Spanish (including Spanish regional variations such as Castillian, Asturian, Galician and Basque), Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Lebanese, Moroccan, as well as Peruvian, Argentinean, and Brazilian.
Other names
Mexico City was traditionally known as
La Ciudad de los Palacios ("the City of Palaces"), a nickname attributed to Baron
Alexander von Humboldt when visiting the city in the 19th century.
During
López Obrador's administration a new nickname was introduced:
la Ciudad de la Esperanza ("The City of Hope"). It has been replaced by
Capital en Movimiento ("Capital in Movement") by the recently elected administration headed by
Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon.
The city is colloquially known as
Chilangolandia after the locals' nickname
chilangos.
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").
Further Information
Get more info on 'Mexican Federal District'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://mexico_city.totallyexplained.com">Mexico City Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
