The Splendor of E V A / a v a N

o i v a t c O

San Juan Bautista Church. Portrait of Coyoacán Luis Everaert Dubernard *

lthough Man came to the south - a called the El Pedregal area, named for its r e r r a B

ern part of the , stony crags. e t n a D

particularly the lake region, almost Only two of the human settlements y b

A s o 25,000 years ago, today only a few ves - t buried under the dried lava have been o h p

l l a tiges of his earliest presence exist. Traces discovered and studied: el Bajo d e i f i c of human beings from later periods are e and , both in what is tradition - p s

e s i

more frequent and abundant, indicating w ally known as Coyoacán. r e h t o the high level of general development the A century ago, when the granite quar - s s e l n communities had reached with the pas - U ries were being mined in Copilco el Bajo, sage of time. a cemetery was discovered with several This rapid evolution is explained by graves that showed evidence of ritual several factors: on the one hand they had Coyote Fountain, a symbol of Coyoacán. burial, complete with very beautiful pot - magnificent soil, abundant fresh water, a tual side. A little before the Christian era, tery. In Cuicuilco, in the 1920s, excava - benign climate with a well defined rainy then, in the southern part of the valley, tions uncovered what turned out to be season and a wealth of rich and varied bordering on the foothills of the , the largest construction in the entire flora and fauna easy to gather and hunt, there must have been many population Western Hemisphere, the Cuicuilco “pyra - all of which were very kind to a low-den - centers, prospering thanks to the favor - mid,” built 2,000 years ago, which is sity population. able environment. actually two or three large cut-off cones These conditions favored the passage At that point, catastrophe struck: a superimposed on one another. Other, less - from nomadic groups to a sedentary life - series of eruptions of a small volcano on er constructions were also found, along style, with all its accoutrements: agricul - the Ajusco known by its name, with and, very importantly, small ture, basket weaving, pot tery, textiles and the , meaning navel, so called be - carved stone objects, outstanding among architecture on the mate rial side, and a cause of the form of its peak and crater. which is the first known Meso american religion, social organization, astronomy and Enormous quantities of lava covered the deity, the Old God of Fire, 1,000 years some incipient visual arts on the intellec - valley lowlands and plains, burying sev - later called Huehuetéotl or Xiuhtecutli eral human settlements. When dry, the by the Nahuas. We still do not know what * Chronicler of Coyoacán. thick layer of magma formed what is today the original inhabitants of Copilco and

81 VOICES of MEXICO • 50

Cuicuilco called themselves or their set - Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Coyoa - Europe; received appointments from Car - tlements, or what language they spoke. cán and its many neighborhoods prac ticed los V and used them to make governmen - The Xitle’s eruptions extinguished and perfected the art of stone carving. Or - tal decrees. In Coyoacán, Cortés would what are called the Early Preclassical dered by their Mexica masters, they made write his famous Tercera Carta de Re la - cultures in Coyoacán. Only five or six the imposing monolithic statues of Coa- ción (Third Report) to the emperor, a centuries later groups of the tlicue, the stone of the Sun or Aztec cal - masterpiece of military history. But, he culture appeared in the Pedregal area, endar and the gladiatorial sacrificial stones would also sully his name by torturing but left little trace. of Moctezuma I and Tizoc. his prisoner, Cuauhtémoc, the last Mex - Around the year 1000 of the Chris- Coyoacán also makes an appearance ica king. tian era, and probably as a derivation of in another of the manifestations of Me- The Franciscan friars established them - the creation of Culhuacán, the early so american art, the codices, with its cha r - selves tentatively in Coyoacán in 1526,

After the fall of , Coyoacán became very impor tant. Hernán Cortés founded his capital and created the first ayuntamiento , or city gov ernment, in the highlands there.

Coyoacán’s plazas are an invitation to contemplation.

Toltecs, who spoke a proto-Nahuatl lan - ac teristic, engaging glyph that represents guage, founded Coyoacán and gave it its the full figure of a coyote with an enig - name. The correct name seems to have matic black circle to one side. been “Coyo-hua-can,” or “place of those After the fall of Tenochtitlan, August who own coyotes.” 13, 1521, Coyoacán became very impor - Around the year 1200, the second or tant. When Hernán Cortés created New third wave of Nahua tribes entered the Spain, he founded his capital and creat - Valley of Mexico, the who ed the first ayuntamiento , or city gov ern - found ed Acapotzalco and successfully ment, in the highlands there. From occupied and developed Coyoacán until there, for two years, he planned and car - their lord, Maxtla, was defeated and ried out the conquest of Pánuco, Mi choa - killed in 1430 by Itzcóatl, king of the c án, Soconusco and Guatemala; discov - Mexicas of Tenochtitlan. At that time the ered the Mexican coast of the Pacific capital was dominated by the Ocean; imported and adapted fruit trees, Mexicas until the arrival of the Spaniards grains, vegetables and industrial plants in 1520. from Europe; exported Mexican goods to The Conchita Church, on the plaza of the same name.

82 The Splendor of Mexico

and the Dominicans took up permanent agricultural ranches, but the Crown took the priest of , was discov - residence in 1528 when they began care to also grant communal lands to the ered and crushed. A few days after the building the large church and monastery indigenous peoples to guarantee them Battle of Monte de las Cruces, the ad - of San Juan Bautista. their own land and water rights. In the van ce of the insurgents was defeated in When Hernán Cortés was named Mar - town, spinning and weaving workshops Coyoacán. quis of the Valley of Oaxaca by Carlos V, were set up with free labor, slaves and Once independence was won and the he designated Coyoacán the capital of prison laborers. republic established, the town became his state and marquisate. Very ambitious construction was car - part of the State of Mexico. But, when the During the three centuries of Spanish ried out all over the area: seven or eight area called the Federal District was ex - domination, Coyoacán’s fertile lands pro - neighborhood and town chapels, the large panded, Coyoacán became part of it as a pitiated the creation of haciendas and San Juan Bautista parish church and mo - municipality, which it continued to be for

In the 1920s and 1930s many professionals, musicians, composers and painters moved into and worked in Coyoacán: Jo sé Clemente Orozco, Frida Kahlo and Die go Rivera, among them.

Interior patio of the Camilo Brothers rest home. nastery, ranch and hacienda main hous - a century until 1929 when all the Fe de ral es, avenues, a half dozen large bridges, District’s municipalities were abolished. hydraulic works and canals, public works During the War of 1847, Coyoacán of different kinds and semi-rural country was the site of a major battle, the heroic houses. Of the latter, the El Altillo ranch defense of the bridge and Churubusco house survives, as well as houses incor - monastery, and later was occupied for 10 rectly named for , like the months by U.S. troops along with the Pedro de Alvarado house, the Diego de rest of the Valley of Mexico. Ordaz house, Hernán Cortés and the Ma - In the second half of the nineteenth linche house and the Camilos Brothers century, little by little, peace returned once Haven. again to Coyoacán. The last 25 years of the In the early nineteenth century, at the century marked increased migration and time the independence movement began new prosperity. Many wealthy families from with the Grito de Dolores (the Shout of the city moved there, but, above all i ntellec - Independence in Dolores, Hidalgo), a tuals, writers, poets, jour nalists, mu sicians, The San Antonio Panzacola Chapel, part of the conspiracy headed by Father Altamirano, priests and politicians, among them Fran - San Juan Bautista parish.

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cisco Sosa, Mariano Ortiz de Mon te lla no, Adrián Unzueta, Francisco de Ola guíbel, Rubén M. Cam pos, Elena Piña y Aguayo, Francisco de P. Andrade and Je sús Galin - do y Villa. In 1890, all of them attended the inaugural c eremony of the Colonia del Car - men neigh borhood, opened officially by Pre - sident Porfirio Díaz and his wife Carmen. At the turn of the century, as Coyoa cán was modernized with streetcars, electric street lights and paving, more Mex ican and foreign families began making their homes there. New names were added to the list of resident intellectuals: José Juan Tablada, Julián Ca rrillo, Miguel Angel de Part of the original building of the former El Altillo hacienda. Quevedo, , Concepción Ca - the most outstanding examples are Fermín a museum. In the 1940s, many others came brera de Armida, Luis Cabrera, Aure lia - Revueltas, Francisco Díaz de León, Fernan - to live: Sal va dor Novo, the former King no Urrutia, Cecil O’Gorman, Guillermo do Leal, Mar donio Maga ña, Guillermo Carol of Ro ma nia, Dolores del Río, Robert Kahlo and the young Agustín Lara. Toussaint, Eve rardo Ramí r ez, Gabriel Fer - Motherwell, Wolfgang Paalen, Aurora The 10 years of the armed Revolution nández Le desma, Rosario Cabrera and Reyes, Nabor Carrillo, José Chávez Mo ra - (1910-1920) brought suffering, tribulations, Jorge Enciso. do, Olga Costa, Luis Car do za y Aragón, sadness and reversals for Coyoa cán, as it In the 1920s and 1930s many profes - Lya Kostakowsky, Jorge Gon zález Cama - did for the whole country. In Coyoacán the sionals, musicians, composers and painters rena, Roberto Cossío y Cossío, José Goros - troubles began to abate, symbolically, with moved into and worked in Coyoacán: Jo sé tiza, Fidias Elizondo and Angela Gurría. the centennial celebra tion of independence Clemente Orozco, Frida Kahlo and Die go The construction and 1952 inaugura - in 1921 when the old atrium of the San Rivera. Political refugee Leon Trot sky took tion of University City in the ward of Juan Bautista parish church and San Felipe up residence there in the house where he Coyoacán was an outstanding event for Street were remo deled and renamed Cen - was later assassinated, a house that is today Mexico. This attracted hundreds of UNAM tennial Park and Centennial Street. Urban public works and construction slowly renewed as Coyoacán and the nation as a whole tackled the tasks and activities of the postrevolutionary period. In the cultural field, this meant the founding of the First Open-Air School of Painting in 1923 by painter Alfredo Ramos Martínez, previous director of the San Carlos Academy. The school, first located in the San Pedro Mártir hacienda, later moved to the San Diego Churubusco Mo - nastery. The new methods of painting taught and self-esteem imbued in the students awakened true artistic vocations. Among Monumentalism in modern architecture. National Center for the Arts.

84 The Splendor of Mexico

As the 1970s began, this process extend - ed to the dozens of square kilometers of El Pedregal, with land takeovers by home - less people, which totally extinguished this exceptional natural park. Coyoacán’s land was practically satu - rated with urban development, and its picturesque nooks and neighborhoods continued to attract important figures from cultural and artistic milieus like Héctor Azar, who founded the Center for the Dramatic Arts, Raúl Anguiano, Luis Nishizawa, Arturo García Bustos, Hum - berto Peraza, Rina Lazo, José E. Iturria ga, The Alvarado House today houses the Octavio Paz foundation. Elí de Gortari, Adolfo Mexiac, Jorge Alber - professors and academic researchers to That change in demographics meant to Manrique, Clementina Díaz y de Ovan - the old town. At the same time, in the that from 1960 on, new neighborhoods do, Miguel León-Portilla, Jorge Ibargüen - 1950s, Rufino Tamayo, Pablo O’Higgins, and housing projects, educational and goitia, Rafael Solana and Sergio Pitol, Angel Boliver, Gabriel Figueroa, Emilio university centers, public works, includ - among others. Fernández and Antonio Castro Leal ing new boulevards, were constructed, The ward authorities took a very big arrived on their own. often accompanied by the destruction of risk in 1978 when they banned cars in Salvador Novo established the La Ca - important monuments like four colonial downtown Coyoacán to reserve the two pilla Theater and Restaurant in 1953, a bridges that were obliterated. At the same plazas, Hidalgo Gardens and the Cen- major event in Coyoacán’s development. time, however, the building fever brought tennial Plaza, exclusively for pedestrians. It was the first hall for presenting serious with it a series of very beautiful church - This abolished a central feature of tradi - theater established outside ’s es, large public and corporate buildings tional Mexican plazas because it elimi - downtown area at a time when the capital’s and urban works that occupied all the nated their surrounding sidewalks, and demographic explosion had already begun. lands previously dedicated to agriculture. turned the traffic into a nightmare by cut - ting off the throughway of the historical s

a town’s main street. The worst, thing, how - v e u C

o ever, was that the inevitable happened: r d e P the 25,000 or 30,000 square meters of both plazas became an enormous week - end open-air market where anything goes. Paradoxically, a 1990 presidential decree declared Coyoacán’s Historic Down - town a protected monument, a concept not at all compatible with the degrading, devastating use that it is being put to today. If a civilizing solution to this state of things is not implemented, historic Co - yoacán’s days are numbered. UNAM University Cultural Center Library.

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