Cristo Rey, Church, Tacubaya

Photos: Catedrales e Iglesias/Cathedrals and Churches, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

The Church of Cristo Rey Tacubaya stands at a highly visible corner just beyond the Alcaldía headquarters in Álvaro Obregón. It’s a small but lively local parish, but due to the busy intersection and the innovative architectural style, it stands out far and away from anything in the surrounding area.

“El cuartito,” that is, The Little Room, was a historically tiny church even closer to Tacubaya to the east. It was founded in the late 1920s and over the course of the mid 20th century, it came to outgrow the wooden former church structure. By 1957, the church became a parish. It would thrive as the parish for some 12 different neighborhoods in the west of Tacubaya. The Feast of Christ the King was only added to the liturgical calendar at around the same time, in 1925. The Lateran Treaty would only finalize the status of the Vatican in 1929. This treaty was intended to consolidate the status of the old Papal Estates in the wake of Italian Unification.

The name had spread to the mines of western Tacubaya, one of the most prominent of which was the Minas Cristo Rey. And thus, the Cuartito church of the old mining communities took on the same dedication, that is, to Christ the King.  The feast is still celebrated every November 20 – 26.

The parish demolished the old wooden church in the 1980s and work began on the innovative new building. It was dedicated in 1993 and today the parish claims a size of some 12,000 people.

The church celebrates not just it’s own holy day. That one sends processions through all of the 2 neighborhoods. Parishioners also show up for the Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe (December 12) and throughout the week leading up to Easter (Semana Santa).

The 40-year-old parish church is among the most prolifically muraled, even despite the irregularity of the interior walls. It’s also just a few steps from the front of the Cristo Rey Market.