Pueblo Santa Cruz Meyehualco

The Pueblo Santa Cruz Meyehualco centers itself around the Parroquia del Señor de la Santa Cruz Meyehualco. The Parish Church, it’s the old spiritual center of the town, one of 15 original settlements in Izatapalapa. Traditionally founded in 1496, it’s rather recent in ancient Iztapalapa. The town is thought to have hosted a Franciscan chapel already in the 1530s.

The church we see today was begun in 1797. It was greatly expanded in 1954 although the original walls were preserved. The southern of the two bell towers also date from that rebuilding. Ornately decorated on the inside, it’s always worth a look around. The church is noted for still being in possession of a 16th-century figure of Christ.

The church, somewhat unusually, also retains much of its original atrium. Today it’s the site of the kiosko, the traditional public center of town. The pueblo itself also retains very much of the character lost in similar pueblitos, surrounded as they are by the larger city. Meyehualco’s crooked and irregular street patterns surround a small but charming business and shopping district.

All those winding irregular streets stand in contrast to the much larger Colonia Santa Cruz Meyehualco directly to the north. On the former El Peñon land grant, some 3,000 housing units were built between 1958 and 1963. New residents had been relocated from other parts of the city. Some had been among an estimated 800 families who were dependent on the giant garbage dump that is today the Cuitláhuac Park and sporting complex to the north. It’s a fascinating corner of Mexico City history.