Green Spaces in the City

Mexico City Ambles has been focusing on many of its various neighborhoods, particularly ones that originated as indigenous pueblos before the Spanish arrived five hundred years ago and their numerous fiestas. It occurred to us that looking at the city's wide variety of green spaces as a topic in and of itself would be interesting and, perhaps, even revealing of the city's character.

From that perspective, we reviewed the posts we have published over the five years to see which ones included presentations of some form of green space: plazas, parks, boulevards or gardens. Only one, on Chapultepec Woods, is solely about such a space, the huge park west of Centro. However, a dozen or more others include such spaces as a significant part of the tale. The colonias developed during the Porfirato (dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, 1876-1911) and the first decades after the Revolution (1911-17), such as La Roma and Condessa, sought to imitate Parisian elegance, including arbolado (tree-filled) plazas, parks and boulevards.

Other colonias, such as those at the center of Coyoacán, Mixcoac and San Angel, which have maintained their Spanish Colonial heritage of central plazas and large church atrios, atriums, therefore also contain significant green space. The Delegación/Alcaldía of Xochimilco, with its indigenous chinampas, man-made islands with their surrounding canals, and its evergreen-covered foothills, is particularly green, as are the Delegaciones/Alcaldías of Milpa Alta, and parts of Tlalpan, Cuajimalpa and Magdalena Contreras. However, these are at the southern and western peripheries of the city, and therefore difficult for a visitor to the city to reach.  So below, we are listing the most accessible green spaces, nearer the center of the city.

The Alameda Central: From a Spanish to a French Park

While there are a number of small plazas and hidden, plant-filled patios in Centro (which we will get to later), the major exception to Centro's general lack of green space is the Alameda Central, which is one of the most pleasant places in the City to take a paseo, a stroll. It was created in 1592 at the direction of Viceroy Luis de Velasco. making it the oldest urban park in the Americas. In the first decade of the 20th century, President (dictator) Porfirio Díaz had it remodeled to embody French Neo-classic tastes.
Completely renovated in 2012, with marble walkways and restored fountains and plantings, it is at its most beautiful in March and April when the many jacaranda (hah-cah-RAHN-dah) trees are covered with their incredible lilac blooms. It is a few blocks west of the Zócalo and is reached via Metro Line 2, the Bellas Artes station. 

Chapúltepec Woods: From Bustle to Tranquility, Present to Past: The Bosque de 

Chapultepec (Chapultepec Woods) is one of the largest city parks in the Western Hemisphere. The name means "grasshopper hill" in Nahuatl and designates a volcanic formation called Chapultepec Hill. It was inhabited and held apart as special since early in the Mesoamerican era. With the rise of the Mexicas/Aztecs in the 14th century, it became a royal retreat. After the Spanish Conquest in 1521, the King declared that it should remain a natural space for Spanish residents of the new city. Today it's everyone's backyard. It is reached via Line 1 of the Metro, Chapultepec station.

Paseo de la Reforma:

The Paseo de la Reforma, a wide, tree-lined boulevard, is Mexico City's emblematic avenue. Its central section runs from Chapultepec Woods near the Alameda Central, a few blocks west of the Zócalo, Mexico City's central plaza. Although today it is lined with the postmodern skyscrapers of global corporations, its wide, park-like, shaded walks bounded by long stone benches invite resting and its many fountains and statues convey a grand, even imperial, 19th-century European ambiance, rather like the Paris of Napoleon III's Second Empire. 

Parque de los Venados, Deer Park

The park informally known as Parque de los Venados, Deer Park, is in Delegacíon/Alcaldía Benito Juárez, south of Centro, on the major Avenida Division del Norte. It is easy to reach by Metro, Line 3, the Zapata station, or by taxi.  The park is a favorite place for Mexican families on weekends. It offers various kinds of miniature vehicles, such as four-wheeled peddled carts, miniature electric cars and a miniature train for carrying Mexican family members of all ages along the wide sidewalks. It also has a small "amusement park" with some juegos mecanicos ("mechanical toys", i.e., carnival rides) on the east side. Clearly, this is a place to come on Sunday to have some fun riding around the park in all kinds of ways, teach your kids how to ride trikes and bikes or just relax and watch others pass by. It's a real window into Mexican family life.

Parque Hundido: Mexico City's Sunken Park

Parque Hundido, the Sunken Park, has become one of our favorite parks in Mexico City. It is also in Delegación Benito Juárez, on the major Avenida Insurgentes. It is accessible by Metrobus. It is "sunken" below street level, which makes it quieter. It fills what was once an excavation for clay to make bricks. Now, it provides a wooded, therefore shady, cool retreat from the urban barullo (hubbub) and the Mexican sun. It is about the size of a couple of city blocks, so it can be explored in its totality during a leisurely walk. There are many benches for resting and people watching. It is never crowded. Like Parque de los Venados (Deer Park), also in Delegación Benito Juárez, it is more of a neighborhood park, used by the people living around it.

Colonia Roma Norte:

Southwest of Centro, south of Chapultepec Avenue and east of Insurgentes Avenue, is la Colonia Roma Norte. If you walk down Calle (street) Orizaba from Chapultepec Avenue a short distance, you will come to the Plaza Río de Janeiro, a tranquil, arbolado, tree-filled, park, lined with many French-style homes built at the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries. At the park's center stands a very large reproduction of Michelangelo's David. 

Continuing south on Orizaba three short blocks, you will reach the core of La Roma, Avenida Álvaro Obregón. Although it is now named after the Revolutionary general and president (1920-24), it is a wide, European-style boulevard, with a tree-lined camellón, a park-like walkway, down the middle of the street. It is studded with reproductions of classic Greek statues—the very epitome of Porfiriato Neo-classic taste. The Avenue, itself, it lined with many excellent restaurants. Our favoite is in the garden courtyard of the Casa Lamm, the mansion on the northeast corner of Orizaba and Álvaro Obregón. You can reach La Roma via Metro line 1, Insurgentes station. 

Condessa: Parque España, Parque México and Avenida Amsterdam

The area known as Condessa, just across Avenida Insurgentes from La Roma, was mostly developed in the 1920's, but following the same European model as La Roma. It actually consists of four colonias, neighborhoods: Condesa, Condesa Hipódromo (Condesa Racetrack), Hipódromo, and a part of Roma Norte that is located on the west side of Insurgentes. At its center are two parks only a block apart, Parque España and the larger Parque México. Parque Mexico was once, briefly a race track and retains its oval shape. Both are pleasant places to walk and sit. Parque México is a favorite of dog walkers. You will see every breed imaginable.

A short block outside Parque México and running in an oval around it is Avenida Amsterdam. It is, in fact, a narrow street with a camellon, a tree-lined, almost jungle-like walkway, running down the middle. Walking along it is also an architectural treat, as buildings range from the California colonial style of the early 20th century, through geometric art deco of the 1930s to modern glass multi-story apartment buildings and even a geodesic dome!

Villa Coyoacán

After Cortés conquered the Mexica/Azteca city of Tenochtitlan in August 1521, he then set up his headquarters in what he named Villa Coyoacán while the Mexica city was rebuilt into the Ciudad de México. In naming Coyoacán a "Villa", he was declaring it officially to be a Spanish village according to Spanish law, with rights to internal self-government by its Spanish residents (somewhat like an official village in the U.S.) and to direct appeal to the king. This was his way of claiming independence from the governor of Cuba, who had charged him with an exploration of the mainland coast, not to land and attempt to conquer it. He thereupon bypassed the governor of Cuba and communicated directly with King Charles, reporting his victories and seeking royal approval of his rule.

Because of Cortés choice of Coyoacán as his initial official seat of power, the earliest Spanish Colonial government buildings and churches in Mexico City and Mexico are here. (The earliest Spanish settlement on the continent had been established in 1510 in Panama). At the center of la Villa is el Jardin de los Centenarios, the Garden of the Centenarians. It is a tree-filled park centered on a fountain containing a statue of two coyotes. On weekends, many Mexican families come from around the city to eat at one of the restaurants around the edge of the garden or just have a paseo, a walk, and eat an ice cream. Coyoacán can be reached by the Metro Line 3, the Miguel Ángel de Quevedo station (and then a long, but picturesque walk along the colonial street, Francisco Sosa, which is just north of Ave. Miguel Ángel de Quevedo, or Line 2, the General Anaya Station and then take a cab to "el centro de Coyoacán".

Ex-Convento San Diego Churubusco 

 Also in Coyoacán is a much less known green space, and it is a short walk from the
 General Anaya Station on Line 2. It is the fomer Dominican convent of Our Lady of the Angles. Now it houses the Museum of the Interventions, displaying the histories of the various invasions Mexico has experienced. The convent, itself, has a tranquil entrance patio and a good-sized tree and plant-filled garden that originally was the kitchen garden. Furthermore, the convent is surrounded by a tree-filled park with soft paths for walking and running. Nearby, just west of the convent, on Ave. Xichotencatl, is Parque Xicotencatl, another shady, quiet place.