An Introduction to Iztapalapa, the Baddest Barrio You've Never Heard Of

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting Mexico City as a tourist, it's doubtful that you set foot in its most populous borough, Iztapalapa. The neighborhood holds over 1.8 million people, more than the entire city of San Antonio, Texas. Though many locals will tell you to avoid it because of rampant crime, it is near impossible to enjoy a single meal or walk through a mercado without experiencing the borough indirectly. Iztapalapa is home to the Central de Abasto, the largest wholesale market in the world that provides 80 percent of the city’s food supply, as well as a significant supply of food that is exported to other regions of Mexico and even to the United States.

Despite the Mexican government’s “Sana Distancia” measures to slow the spread of Coronavirus, the Mercado of Mercados remains open and busy as ever. Critics have expressed concern over the business-as-usual in a crowded, chaotic market where more than 90,000 people work and 500,000 people visit per day. But given the importance of the market to supplying a city of over 20 million people, many of whom struggle to survive day-to-day, shutting down or even slowing down are not really viable options.

Just south of the Mercado is the Centro Histórico de Iztapalapa. This is the starting point for another Iztapalapa Institution: the Passion of the Christ Procession that begins in the Centro and ends atop the Cerro de Las Estrellas, a large hill further south that was once the site of the Aztecs’ New Fire Ceremony that celebrated the start of the new Aztec Calendar cycle every 52 years.

For the first time in 175 years, the Passion Play will be held inside and televised, without its normal crowds that usually number in the millions throughout the Holy Week. This turn of events is particularly ironic because the Passion Play was begun as a celebration of the end of a major cholera epidemic. Although many commentators have characterized the current Coronavirus crisis as unprecedented, the origins of the Passion Play are an unpleasant reminder of the extent to which infectious disease was such a dominant feature of everyday life until well into the 20th Century.

Global pandemics have shaped history for over a millennium, and Mexico is no exception. It is widely assumed that people like Cortez defeated the Aztecs because of superior technology, but some historians like Thomas Mann dispute this assumption. In his book 1491, Mann argues that the popular narrative underestimates the extent to which unfamiliar diseases brought by the Spaniards helped Cortez conquer the Aztec empire by first decimating a large portion of the native population.

When Cortez arrived in Mexico, much of Iztapalapa consisted of chinampas, fertile farmland that was irrigated by the surrounding network of canals that the Aztecs had diverted from Lake Texcoco. Before Cortez claimed victory over the Aztecs, the then-inhabitants of Iztapalapa blocked his path by intentionally flooding many of these canals, killing many Spaniards and their indigenous allies but unfortunately only delaying the inevitable fall of the empire.

In the centuries that followed, successive governments gradually drained much of Lake Texcoco, leaving only a relatively small portion of canals in Xochimilco, just south of Iztapalapa. Iztapalapa remained sparsely populated and largely agricultural until the mid-20th Century, when the population of the city exploded. The Mercado de La Merced, located closer to downtown, was originally the city’s main wholesale market (La Merced still exists, and is an amazing attraction just a brisk walk from the city center). When the city’s growth began straining La Merced’s capacity, city planners began designing a new wholesale market.

Construction of the Central began in 1981, which was a difficult endeavor because much of the excavation site sat atop significant ancient history, from the Culhuacan people to the Aztecs. The construction also required significant land expropriation from local peasants, many of whom still operated communal land called ejidos that were recognized by the Mexican Constitution of 1917 (to learn more about the Mexican government’s poor track record in seizing indigenous land, please check out our Travel page here).

Today, both the Centro de Abasto and the Passion Play are important economic powerhouses for Iztapalapa. The complex histories of Iztapalapa’s landmarks—and how they are adjusting to the current pandemic—are also symbolic examples of the richness of Mexico City culture. Like the city at large, both Iztapalapa institutions show the inextricable link between native and European culture. The Central de Abastos is in many ways a modern version of the sprawling open-air markets that predated the conquest and fascinated the Spaniards when they arrived. It also no coincidence that the Catholic Passion Play ends with Jesus sacrificing himself on top of the Cerro de La Estrella, a past site of Aztec ceremonies that involved human sacrifice. In Mexico City, the past mixes with modern life in every corner, from the ancient ruins that can be seen in subway stations to the Templo Mayor, from which you can see the skyline of both the main cathedral and the modern Torre Latinoamericana.

As the world waits nervously in Coronavirus limbo, the wheels of Mexico City remain turning, and this author cannot wait to get back there once the dust settles.

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