Parque Revolución, Nueva Santa María

Photos: ProtoplasmaKid, Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International 

The Parque Revolución is the center-piece of the colonia Nueva Santa María. It’s actually one of Mexico City’s most beloved neighborhoods. And it’s one of the most walkable too.

The park was part of a street plan that called for one east-west avenue, Clavelinas. This is intersected five times by northwest avenues. Yuca is a sixth, at the western end of Clavelinas. Each of these avenues is home to a wide median. Lined with mature trees, they run through a “garden city” today. It’s a neighborhood that has only grown more popular, and with much of the “sidewalk culture” so strived for in contemporary urbanism.

All of this new city-planning came about in the 1940s. The land had long been part of the Camarones Ranch, a farm named for the Calzada de Camarones which ran out to the west of Azcapotzalco. It connected south of Nueva Santa Maria with the ancient Calzada México Tacuba.

Residents refer to the park also as the “Glorieta Parque Revolución,” reinforcing its status as a traffic circle. It is that, too. But the park is old enough, some 80+ years now, to be home to some truly mature trees. Among these stand a number of stunning ahuehuetes. These grant some added majesty to the bust of Miguel Hidalgo, and certainly to the central kiosk.

The Parque Revolución is still the axis around which Nueva Santa Maria revolves. It’s a quiet neighborhood park, but one that residents wouldn’t trade for anything.