Casa de Joaquín Fernández Lizardi

The Casa de Joaquín Fernández Lizardi is today a part of the private, Catholic Universidad Panamericana. Although the school has modified the building to suit its own needs, it remains much in outward appearance as it was at the turn of the 18th century.

The building bears a plaque dated 1738. It is thought to have originally served as a small textile factory producing a high quality silk for the New Spanish elite.  It later became home to one of the most important writers of the independence movement.

• José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi (1776–1827) was a writer and early political journalist. He’s best known as the author of El Periquillo Sarniento (1816), translated as The Mangy Parrot in English. It’s sometimes referred to as the first Latin American Novel.  He also importantly founded the Pensador Mexicano in 1812. An important independence-era newspaper, it lasted until just 1813. But Lizardi retained the nickname, for himself, until his death some years later.

The building also has a plaque dedicated to Nobel Laureate, Octavio Paz, a native of Mixcoac.  The Casa de Joaquín Fernández Lizardi building is sometimes open to visitors to the Panamerican University.

It’s just a stone’s throw from the Church of Santo Domingo de Guzmán and the Plaza Jáuregui.