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53-506: The neighborhood is bordered by: While there are no records to establish an exact date, the colonia was probably first constructed at the beginning of the 20th century, beginning with irregular and unregulated housing around Hidalupe and El Tinado Streets. The first mention of it in official records is in the Boletín Municipal in 1920, which reports that 23 blocks and 285 residences were already in existence. The Boletín also mentions that

106-604: A descendant of the Counts of Santiago de Calimaya. Clausell received visitors in these rooms such as Gerardo Murillo (Dr. Atl), Diego Rivera , Carlos Pellicer , Salvador Novo and Julio Ruelas . The rooms contain 1,300 sketches by the artist including portraits of famous people, images of Christ, angels and animals and mythological scenes. These works show influences from the Impressionism and Symbolism movements. The collection of works by Clausell include foreshortened figures that

159-618: A library and the studios of painter Joaquín Clausell , who lived here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The building was completed in 1779 and the descendants of the counts lived in it until 1960. The architect that completed the palace was Francisco Antonio de Guerrero y Torres . The history of the Old Palace of the Counts of Santiago de Calimaya dates back to the year 1527, when Mr. Juan Gutiérrez Altamirano arrived in New Spain from

212-581: Is a poor area, of about 5,000 people, about half of whom make a living from selling auto parts. Most residents are between 15 and 30 years of age. Many of the children begin working at age 10 and abandon school. There is only one school, the Celerino Cano primary school, in which few students attend and there is a high dropout rate. There are no sports facilities, no cultural centers, parks or other public spaces. There are no offices for city social programs. While there are 236 officially registered businesses in

265-422: Is divided into the following periods of time: the pre-Hispanic period, the colonial period (16th to 18th century), the 19th century and the 20th century. The pre-Hispanic room, decorated by the painter Ana Ugalde and others, contains objects such as metates (flat stones for grinding corn), jars, bowls, urns, incense burners as well as Aztec codices , maps and other objects showing the everyday life of people in

318-430: Is not the case, that there exists a norm for the acquisition and sale of used auto parts. The government, too, has ceased to consider the area as a major focus for the traffic in stolen auto parts but the reputation persists. In the 2000s, there were efforts between the business association and the city government to help the used auto part market here but these talks fell through after then mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador

371-464: Is not very common. From the end of the 19th century and through most of the 20th century, this part of Mexico City suffered a severe decline. This house was adapted to rent space to lower-class tenants and by end of the 1950s had become tenements, in spite of the fact that it had been declared a national monument in 1931. In 1960, the Mexico City government acquired the building from the descendants of

424-571: Is the result of remodeling work done in the late 18th century and was one of the last major Baroque projects in Mexico . One of the building's most distinctive elements is the previously mentioned Aztec serpent's head, which was probably uncovered during this work. It is thought that the head may have come from the Templo Mayor and was placed as the cornerstone of the original house that was owned by Juan Gutierrez Altamirano  [ es ] . Inside,

477-411: Is the sale of drugs in the area. There have been 25 areas in the 27 block area identified as selling drugs. Many of the substances sold include very cheap ones, including inhalants, which primarily affect the young people of the colonia. Another problem is the robbery of those from outside who enter the area, especially those who come to shop. This is one of the reasons the colonia has been ranked as one of

530-463: The 18th-century remodeling. The focus of the fountain is a Nereid playing a guitar. It is possible that the marine motif refers to the sea voyages the Counts made to places like the Philippines . The house had its own chapel, but only fragments of the facade remain in the structure today. One room that survives nearly intact is the music room. In the 19th century, music was one of the activities that

583-455: The 1997 incident. She tried to work in the colonia, creating pieces, much as she did in Tijuana but area residents became suspicious of her activities. Early pieces were quickly vandalized. Romero then worked to introduce herself and her work to residents and workers in the area. This resulted in success, and the “adoption” of five long-abandoned cars on the streets of the colonia. One of these cars

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636-457: The 19th century newspaper collection, maps of the city from the city council reserve as well as original copies of laws passed by the city council. It also contains a large collection of books about the history of the city. There are also temporary exhibits, educational programs for children and adults, a room devoted to the river system in the Valley of Mexico , a bookstore, and guided tours. One of

689-592: The Altamirano Velasco family. The remodeling of the old manor house in which his predecessors had lived, was in charge of the seventh count, since the building was badly damaged by earthquakes and floods, and more than remodeling, it was a complete restructuring, because the old building was demolished. This new construction is related to the promulgation of the Bourbon reforms in New Spain. These reforms meant that despite

742-577: The City of Mexico The Museum of Mexico City ( Spanish : Museo de la Ciudad de Mexico ) is located at Pino Suarez 30, a few blocks south of the Zocalo , on what was the Iztapalapa Causeway, near where Hernán Cortés and Moctezuma II met for the first time. This building used to be the palace of the Counts of Santiago de Calimaya, who were the descendants of one of the conquistadors with Cortés. The house

795-501: The Counts of Santiago de Calimaya in 1960. The City decided to convert this building into a museum. It hired architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez to remodel it, converting the old rooms into exhibition halls. In 1964, the Museum of Mexico City was inaugurated, focusing on what Mexico City was and what Mexico City hoped to be. However, by 1992, the Museum was in disarray. The museum closed and there were plans to convert it into lodging for guests of

848-463: The Dead , when most Mexican families visit family graves. Many are tombs over 100 years old, abandoned. Some remain works of art but others are totally destroyed. The grounds are not kept. The remains of Francisco I. Madero , José María Pino Suárez , Emilio Portes Gil , Javier Torres Adalid , Mariano Escobedo and José Revueltas are buried here. The cemetery was used mostly by the well-to-do and many of

901-449: The Mexican highlands of this time period. The colonial-era, 19th and 20th century rooms also contain everyday items from these time periods such as furniture, desks, tables, vases, and jars as well as arts such as sculptures and paintings. The studio of Campeche painter Joaquín Clausell occupies several rooms in the upper part of the house. He lived there as the husband of Angela Cervantes,

954-590: The Northern Bus Station to the Southern Bus Station (near Tasqueña metro station ). 19°26′6.1″N 99°8′27.02″W  /  19.435028°N 99.1408389°W  / 19.435028; -99.1408389 This article about the roads and road transport of Mexico is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a location in the Mexican Federal District

1007-433: The area to be populated by generally honest people but infiltrated by delinquents. Many state that it is perfectly safe to walk the streets in the center of the colonia, although they admit the area in the north that borders Colonia Doctores does have some problems with delinquents. Most of the crime in the area (outside of the trafficking of stolen car parts) involves car theft, muggings and homicide. The more serious problem

1060-469: The area was not authorized for housing. It is believed that the name is ironic, as at the time wastewater flowed past here in the Rio La Piedad. Originally, it was home to a large number of plumbers and those who sold tools. From in the 1940s, with the rise of the automobile, work associated with cars, such as mechanics and taxi drivers began to dominate the economy. This led to the selling of auto parts as

1113-474: The artist made simply to clean his brushes. Clausell's works are on display here due to an agreement between the Museum and the Museo Nacional de Arte , where every two months, works by this artists are circulated between the two museums. The Jaime Torres Bodet Library contains approximately 10,000 volumes, mostly dealing with topics related to Mexico City. Its collection came from several sources including

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1166-552: The cemetery was closed in 1924; however, Oaxacan writer Andrés Henestrosa was buried here in 2008, which was his wish according to his daughter. The area is served by the Centro Médico metro station , which is a transfer station for Line 3 and Line 9 of the Mexico City Metro . 19°24′20.32″N 99°8′58.69″W  /  19.4056444°N 99.1496361°W  / 19.4056444; -99.1496361 Museum of

1219-466: The city to Pope John Paul II here. Eje Central The Eje Central or Avenida Lázaro Cárdenas is an avenue in the Cuauhtémoc and Gustavo A. Madero boroughs of Mexico City , Mexico. It is part of a system called eje vial of roadways built by Carlos Hank González to modernize Mexico City for improved traffic flow through the city. As its name indicates, it runs through the central zones of

1272-471: The city, but this never came to pass. In 1997, the Museum was reorganized and reopened dedicated to exhibitions about Mexico City's past, present and future, working in cooperation with the Museo Nacional de Antropología , the Museo de Arte Moderno the Museo de Virreinato and the Museo del Caracol . It has 26 rooms covering the evolution of Mexico City from Aztec times to the present. The permanent collection

1325-598: The city, starting at Río de los Remedios Avenue (in the limits of Mexico City and Tlalnepantla , State of Mexico) and ending at Río Churubusco Avenue, near Eje Central metro station . Several Mexico City Metro stations are also located on Eje Central, most notably the Eje Central station of Line 12 . Line 8 runs under Eje Central on its stretch that crosses downtown Mexico City . Trolleybus Line 1 , also known as Corredor Cero Emisiones Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas (Zero Emissions Corridor), runs through Eje Central from

1378-493: The colonia, there are an estimated 400 businesses dedicated to the sale of used car parts alone. These businesses have a reputation for selling parts from stolen cars. One reason for this is that a boom in stolen parts began in the 1970s, when chrome accessories such as bumpers and mirrors began to be replaced by cheaper and interchangeable plastic parts. The Unión de Comerciantes de Refacciones y Accessorios Nuevos y Usados para Autos y Camiones de la Colonia Buenos Aires says that this

1431-407: The conqueror. In this period, according to some plans, the house belonged to the “fortress-house” architectural typology, that is, a house with defensive elements against adverse situations. The description of the first dwelling house built by order of Lic. Altamirano corresponded to a rectangular building with the appearance of a three-story feudal tower with a door on the ground floor, four windows on

1484-526: The corner of Doctor Andrade and Ingeniero Bolaños Cacho an altar to the Virgin of Guadalupe serves as a memorial to the victims. The notoriety of the event prompted Conrado Tostado, the director of the Museum of the City of Mexico , to get the city to sponsor sculptures for Colonia Buenos Aires. One artist who did work here was Ivonne Domenge. These are sculptures are made of machine parts soldered together and located on

1537-399: The events recently held here was called "Beats & Bits," which traced the origins of electronic music from the beginnings of the 20th century to the present. Another event was an exposition of Mexican wrestling ( lucha libre ) featuring photographs, costumes and other objects related to this spectacle. In 1999, then-mayor of Mexico City, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano , gave the keys of

1590-450: The fact that the counts maintained a status as nobles, many of their properties would be seized by the Crown. The counts suffered financial difficulties at this time, but their status as nobles enabled them to get the audiencia to allow them to tax their lands, so that they would obtain money for the rebuilding of their palace. The palace was rebuilt at the end of the 18th century, carrying out

1643-506: The graves have Art Nouveau designs. Those with the means would have large gravestones, small buildings and/or sculptures on the gravesites. Many of the sculptures refer to death, fragility and the brevity of life. Some were done by an Italian sculptor named Ponzanelli. There is also a 100-year-old replica of the Pietà sculpture by Michelangelo . The government of the Cuauhtémoc borough states that

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1696-409: The house has two floors with two courtyards, which was common with houses of Mexican nobility. The family's coat-of-arms adorn the arches of the main courtyard. One distinctive element of the palace is the fountain in the shape of a shell located in the main courtyard. Its deteriorated condition and the fact that there is little space between it and the windows near it suggest that it dates back to before

1749-437: The house was 130,000 pesos. During this time, the palace chapel was added, built between 1778 and 1779. At that time, it was common to attend Mass everyday but at the same time upper-class women were generally not permitted to walk on the streets to go to church. Many large mansions and palaces, therefore, had their own chapels with their own sacristies . These families would have private Masses said in their homes. The house

1802-639: The island of Cuba , where he had been governor in 1524; to take the post of Corregidor of Texcoco and overseer of Hernán Cortés . When Hernán Cortés distributed the lands closest to the Templo Mayor Mexica among his comrades-in-arms and closest collaborators; He gives the land located on what was then calle de Ixtapalapa to the corner of the street that goes to the Hospital de Nuestra Señora de la Concepción to Don Juan Gutiérrez Altamirano, who shortly before had married Juana Altamirano Pizarro, first cousin of

1855-462: The main business. In 1997, Buenos Aires became famous due to a tragedy that came to symbolize urban violence at that time, being widely reported and analyzed for weeks on radio and television. The incident left the neighborhood with a violent reputation. Six youths disappeared during a police operation on September 8, 1997, by “preventative police” squad of the Secretaria de Seguridad Publica. The sweep

1908-634: The middle floor and six windows on the top floor. plus. The entire building had a conical roof and a tower on one side. It was not until the third generation that the family was awarded the first noble title: “Counts of Santiago de Calimaya”; of Santiago because they were devoted to St. James the Great, the Spanish patron saint; of Calimaya because that was the name of the town that was given to them in Encomienda and that generated great wealth for them. The title of count

1961-460: The most dangerous in the Cuauhtémoc borough. Assaults tend to concentrate on the following streets: Doctor Norma, Federico Gomez Santos, Andrade as well as near the Centro Médico hospital. The neighborhood contains the Panteón Francés de la Piedad (French Cemetery of Piety) which was founded by Maximilian I in the 19th century. Today, this cemetery is mostly abandoned and quiet, even on Day of

2014-520: The most sumptuous in New Spain. The structure covers 2,762 m2, has a masonry foundation, thick masonry walls, and the facade covered in tezontle . The main entrance and portal are done in cantera, a grayish-white stone, as well as the central balcony. There are also friezes on the facade done in basalt . The Baroque portal rests on four clawed feet and mascarons . It also has cannon-shaped gargoyles , which could be fired, but only with permission of city authorities. The look that survives today

2067-399: The nereid fountain. The dogs that adorn the banister of the main stairwell and the mascarons over the main doorway have an Oriental look to them, which was not common in such residences. Partly because of this, it has been speculated that the wood and the labor used to create parts of the house were of Philippine origin. However, both the work and the wood are native to Mexico, although the wood

2120-431: The palace was covered with tezontle and the portal and the windows with quarry. At this time, the viceregal government decided to renovate the deteriorated palace in 1777, giving the work to Francisco Antonio Guerrero y Torres , putting a lien on the building's rental income. The Aztec serpent's head that serves and the building's impressive cornerstone was probably uncovered during these renovations. Cost of remodeling

2173-462: The remains of the three, Ángel Leal Alonso, Carlos Alberto López Inés and Román Morales, were still in the lockers of the Forensics Service. Due to bureaucratic paperwork, the families had not been able to retrieve them, and some had decided to leave them there. In 1998, the family received reparations from the city. The families demanded one million pesos for each victim but received 400,000. At

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2226-477: The streets and look for potential customers as they enter the neighborhood. Then they work to help find the part from the various stores in their area. They also are supposed to help keep customers from the area from getting robbed, but they have been implicated in such crimes. The area has a reputation of being “bravo” (lit. fierce) or dangerous and a “nido de delincuentes” (nest of delinquents) even though crime statistics here are fairly low. The government considers

2279-527: The traffic islands on Doctor Vértiz Street. Another artist who became interesting in working in the colonia was Betsabeé Romero , whose specialty is in altars and commemorative works, with emphasis on symbolism. In 1995, she began to be interested in cars and their role in the urban landscape. She first created a piece using a 1955 Ford Crown Victoria in Tijuana , then began to be interested in Buenos Aires after

2332-416: The upper-class engaged in on a daily basis. European composers such as Franz Schubert , Chopin , Beethoven and Liszt were preferred but music by Mexican composers such as Tomás León , Aniceto Ortega and Melesio Morales could be played as well. Music rooms were considered important during that time period to show the culture of the family. The main stairwell is located in the main courtyard opposite

2385-488: The victims received 13 shots, 10 to the head. More than 400 government agents were investigated including police and some nearby military personnel. Thirty six were accused and 13 convicted. The accused and convicted were mostly members of two elite police squads called the “Zorros” (Foxes) and the “Jaguares” (Jaguars). The bodies of three of the men were left with authorities because their families demanding DNA tests from abroad to verify identity. Six years after their death,

2438-676: The work between 1776 and 1779 by the Criollo builder Francisco Antonio de Guerrero y Torres , author of other works of great importance such as the Palace of the Marquises of Jaral del Berrio and the Capilla del Pocito . In the colonial era, calle de Pino Suárez (at that time, Iztapalapa road) was the fashionable street for the houses of the nobility, which were thus aligned with the Royal Palace . The facade of

2491-477: Was extensively remodeled during the colony to much the appearance that it has today and remained in the family until 1960, when the Mexico City government acquired it from them in order to found the Museum that is found there today. The museum contains a number of elements of the old palace as well as 26 rooms dedicated to the history and development of Mexico City from Aztec times to the present. It also contains

2544-427: Was granted to Don Fernando Altamirano y Velasco, a direct descendant of Juan Gutiérrez Altamirano, in turn married María de Velasco e Ibarra, granddaughter of Viceroy Luis de Velasco . Fernando Altamirano received the royal grant from Philip III of Spain in which he was granted the title of Count of Santiago de Calimaya in 1616, and which was used for fourteen generations. A time of economic and social boom came for

2597-605: Was in response to a recent shooting in which a policeman and a resident died. The young men were apprehended by the police as they occupied an abandoned car in front of a city run child care center. Of the six that disappeared, three were found dead in Tlahuac with evidence that they had been executed. The bodies assumed to be of the other three were found in a rural area of Ajusco. The three found in Tlahuac had signs of torture and their faces disfigures beyond recognition. The bodies were mutilated with only one remaining not decapitated. One of

2650-455: Was inhabited by the family until 1964, which is an exceptional case, it was the only manor house occupied by a New Spanish noble family until the middle of the 20th century, when it was expropriated, the Cervantes family was forced to sell it to the government of Mexico City, which arranged for the foundation of the museum in the house. During the colonial period, this palace was considered one of

2703-518: Was told that the market here was primarily in stolen parts. The police are also accused of colluding with car thieves and chop shops in this area. However, in April 2010, 35 tons of auto parts were confiscated in a sweep of the colonia. It was part of an ongoing investigation into seven car theft rings in the city and the state of Querétaro . Since the area is filled with small shops, there are as many as 235 people who work as “coyotes.” These people stand in

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2756-481: Was “bandaged” and otherwise prepped to allow residents to cover it in graffiti, insults, messages and more. The colonia is located south of the historic center of Mexico City. The borders are marked by the following streets: Viaducto Miguel Alemán to the south, Eje Tres Sur to the north, Eje Central to the east and Avenida Cuauhtémoc to the west. Today, there are 256 established businesses There are 23 blocks with 1,685 housing units and 256 established businesses. It

2809-402: Was “seeded” here by local police with the aim of accusing local shop owners of auto theft, thus rendering it “taboo” and “untouchable.” This one was converted into a massive flowerpot with a large nopal cactus plant. Another was covered in antique tile. The most accepted was based on a 1979 Grand Marquis parked in front of the child care center where the executed youths had been taken. This car

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