CDMX prepare celebrations for seven centuries of history

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“Our city has deep historical roots of more than seven centuries and that is why we decided to start on March 21 in Cuicuilco”, said Claudia Sheinbaum

The conclusion of the Paseo de las Heroinas, the change of name from Puente de Alvarado avenue to avenue. Mexico-Tenochtitlan, the installation of 10 mosaic murals, and the opening of a museum are part of the Mexico-Tenochtitlan commemorations program. Seven Centuries of History.

Photo: CDMX Government

This was announced yesterday by Claudia Sheinbaum. It will begin on March 21 with a ceremony for the spring equinox in the archaeological zone of Cuicuilco and will follow the unveiling of a mural dedicated to Margarita Maza in Azcapotzalco.

On May 13, the Chinampaxóchitl Museum (flower of chinampas) will open in the Xochimilco Ecological Park, and in May the urban rescue of the town of Magdalena Mixiuhca and the Tóxcatl ceremony will begin at the CDMX Museum.

The commemoration of the Victorious Night stands out, in Popotla, on June 30, with the symbolic planting of ahuehuetes, one of which descends from the legendary tree of 1520, and on July 26 a monumental model of the Tenochtitlan site will be placed in the plate of the Zócalo.

The Paseo de las Heroinas will be inaugurated (September 14), the commemoration of the bicentennial of the triumphal entry of the Trigarante Army into the capital (September 27), and the representation of the meeting between Moctezuma and Cortés (November 8).

Sheinbaum recognized that historians mark the founding of Tenochtitlan in 1325 and not in 1321, as the authorities had pointed out.

However, our city has deep historical roots of more than seven centuries and that is why we decided to start on March 21 in Cuicuilco ”.

The history of Mexico City

700 years ago, one of the most impressive cities in the world was founded in the middle of Lake Texcoco: Mexico-Tenochtitlan, the brand new capital of the Mexica empire, which had more inhabitants than its contemporary European cities.

But that glory did not last long, because from 1521 -196 years after its foundation and with the arrival of the Spanish-, the city began to be destroyed and, on its ruins, another city was built.

The history of Tenochtitlan begins with its founding, in 1325, the product of a prophecy in which the Aztecs had to find an eagle on a cactus, which would indicate the correct place where their city would be built.

“… Go there in the morning, you will find the beautiful eagle on the tuna and around it, you will see a lot of green, blue, red, yellow and white feathers of the galan birds with which this eagle sustains itself, and to this place where you will find the tuna with the eagle on top, I call it Tenuchtitlan … “

(“Relationship of the origin of the Indians who inhabit this New Spain”, Manuel Orozco y Berra).

The first inhabitants of that site belonged to the seven tribes that left Aztlán (“place of herons”), a place to the north of which their exact location is unknown. Legend has it that these men and women walked for years and became a wandering people until, one day when they reached the limits of Lake Texcoco (a region dominated by the lordship of Azcapotzalco), they saw the sign they had been waiting for so long right in an islet in the middle of the lake.

A majestic eagle spread its wings as Huitzilopochtli had promised, standing on a cactus that had been born from the heart of his nephew Copil, who had challenged him and who was killed:

“Huitzilopuchtli, very angry at the case, called his priests and told them all to go to that penol, where they would find the Copil’s traitor, placed as a sentinel of his destruction, and to kill him and bring the heart …

You already remember how I ordered you to kill Copil, son of the sorceress my sister called herself, and I ordered you to take out her heart and throw yourself among the reeds and cattails of this lagoon, which you did; know, then, that that heart fell on a stone, and a tuna came out of it, and it is so large and beautiful that an eagle lives in it … “

(“Relationship of the origin of the Indians who inhabit this New Spain”).

The Mendocino Codex shows us that scene in which the capital of the most powerful empire in Mesoamerica begins to be founded, which reached an area of ​​almost 15 square kilometers, not counting the cities around the lake, with up to 300 thousand inhabitants (according to the historian Eduardo Noguera), although the number increases to 700 thousand if we count the riverside populations (Jacques Soustelle).

Tenochtitlan was not the only city in the Valley of Mexico, because there an alliance called Excan Tlatoloyan (“empire of the three heads”) had been established, made up of the kingdom of Texcoco, that of Tlacopan, and that of Tenochtitlan.

The greatness achieved was possible thanks to the tributes that came to the empire from all the subject kingdoms. Upon the arrival of the Spaniards, Tenochtitlan and its surroundings were gradually modified and of its essence, only memory remained, as it was transformed into a colonial city.

This step can be seen on the Nuremberg map of 1524, that is, three years after the fall of Tenochtitlan. This is the oldest map of modern Mexico City and was sent by Hernán Cortés to Carlos V, making it the first image ever seen in Europe of what was once the Mexican capital.

By 1555, 34 years after the victory of the Spaniards over the Mexica, the city was already taking a totally different course, which we can see on the map of Upsala, where colonial buildings can be seen and it is seen that the only one that was preserved from Tenochtitlan it was the urban layout. We can see on this map the cathedral, a symbol of the end of the Mexican glory.

Already in 1572, the map of Flanders shows us the growth of the city, which can be seen as better organized. The Spanish have managed to colonize the territory of the Valley of Mexico.

Later, in the Nouvelle Ville de Mexique, it can be seen that what was once a city on a lake now dominates the panorama and the waters have begun to dry out, which shows us how the authorities of that time dedicated themselves to filling in with earth the lake to centralize its administrative buildings and its government.

By 1753, José Antonio de Villaseñor y Sánchez’s “Map of the noble and loyal Mexico City” shows in greater detail the urban composition of Mexico City, as well as its buildings, squares and the last parts of the lake.

Already in 1793, Diego García Conde’s “General Map of Mexico City” shows us a plan like those we can see in modern times, with a Mexico City as we know it now, although much smaller.

It is that in 1824, three years after the independence of Mexico was consummated, Congress decided to create the Federal District, an entity independent from the others, whose destiny would be to house the three powers of the union.

In 1881, the “Topographic Map of Mexico City”, by Antonio García Cubas, already lets us see the railway station to Veracruz, Paseo de la Reforma, Paseo de la Viga, Calzada San Antonio Abad, the road to Tacubaya, the Alameda garden and the Plaza de la Constitución.

By 1909, the plans of Mexico City drawn up during the government of Porfirio Día showed a huge city, in which the absence of lakes and the great expansion that the capital had had, to which colonies had been incorporated, was even more noticeable. for middle and lower class people, such as Colonia Doctores, La Obrera, and Morelos, and also colonies for the upper class such as Colonia Juárez and Colonia Roma.

In 1880, Mexico City once again had a population of 300,000, as Tenochtitlan once had. Already in 1890, the population was 600 thousand inhabitants and, in 1920, it reached one million.

In 1928 the Roji Guide emerged, founded by Joaquín Palacios Roji Lara, which grew to become the most important cartographic company in Mexico. In this guide, you could see all kinds of data, such as roads, guides, maps, and tourist points.

Since then, the map of Mexico City was updated annually, showing the overflow of the urban area towards its borders. In 1945 the city had 4.5 million inhabitants and it had already become the economic and labor center for the inhabitants of distant states such as Puebla, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, and Michoacán, which further accelerated its growth.

In 1980 the city had 8.8 million inhabitants. In almost 35 years it almost doubled its population.

Today what was the incredible Mexico-Tenochtitlan and that today is simply Mexico City has almost 22 million inhabitants and its growth does not seem to stop.

history of Mexico City

Source: matadornetwork.com, excelsior.com.mx

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