Coyoacan
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Reviewed by:
Allessandra
Rating:
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Coyoacan refers to one of the boroughs of Mexico city, and a particularly historic and interesting one particularly for those of us who like to wander around and seek out the resonances of times and societies past which can still be found enlivening little corners of our present. The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means “place of coyotes” when the Aztecs named a pre-Hispanic village on the southern shore of Lake Texcoco which was dominated by the Tepanec people. Against Aztec domination, these people welcomed Hernán Cortés and the Spanish, who used the area as a headquarters during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire and made it the first capital of New Spain between 1521 and 1523.
The area is now preserved and presented to the touring public as an historic area. One (or well, two) of the main attractions for me are the two large plazas filled with Indian laurel trees on which this area is centred, called the Jardin del Centenario and the Jardín Hidalgo. These are well worth a look unto themselves. There are now over 860 retail businesses in the historic area, mostly restaurants, about 200 of which were established in the last five years.
Category: Streets, Squares and Neighbourhoods
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