Biblioteca Vicente Guerrero

The Bilioteca Vicente Guerrero is the neighborhood library within the Alameda del Sur park. It opened as a library in 1987. Prior to that the building had been used a primary school.

The entire library was rebuilt in 2014. Today it operates as community center with a greatly expanded collection of books. There’s a reference room, kid’s room, and video library. The library also hosts workshops and homework assistance to local school kids.

The library is best known for the mural, La Comunicación Postal. This was created by artist, Jesús Álvarez Amaya.

His work had originally been completed in 1976 at an old mechanized postal station. That work was nearly destroyed in the 1985 earthquakes when the building collapsed. Somehow it survived, but was damaged irreparably during the 2004 construction of the Vasconcelos Library on the same site. Amaya recreated it here over two years and it was finally dedicated in 2006.

The mural famously depicts a letter from Vicente Guerrero addressed to Maximiliano of Habsburg along with numerous verses and symbols.

But for the mural, the library is probably not first and foremost for international visitors. It is an essential part of the fabric of the park and the many neighborhoods beyond.