Ribera de San Cosme

The Ribera de San Cosme is a middle section of the longer Calzada de México Tacuba. It’s an iconic street, not just because it acts as the border between Santa María la Ribera (to the north) and San Rafael (to the south). Both are highly iconic neighborhoods. But San Cosme is one of the City’s rare borders that also survives as a place unto itself. No one walks down San Cosme and wonders “Where am I?”

Some of this anti-liminality can be explained by the historical fact that San Cosme existed before either San Rafael or Santa Maria. The farmland and orchards around the old Cosme and Damian Church were being referred to as San Cosme when the church occupied but a thick spot on the Causeway. The newer neighborhoods would only come hundreds of years later, on the farms and orchards that lined the old causeway.

But today’s San Cosme is famous (iconic) more than anything for the semi-permanent tianguis that occupies most of the south side of the street. It’s one of the longest-running and most reliable street tianguis in this part of the City. It operates as something of an extension of the market. That’s where it officially ends, anyway.

But the Ribera de San Cosme still seems to be flanked, on both sides, by truly loving neighborhoods. The tiny Jardín de Mascarones, opposite the Casa de los Mascarones, invites one to enjoy the avenue that much more. Or that much longer. Most of the Calzada was re-landscaped in 2022. Today, this central part makes a good section to give you an idea of the whole. The Calzada México-Tenochitlan is directly east. To the west, the Calzada opens up to Popotla and the slightly more distant Tacuba area. Here, the Metro San Cosme is exactly in the middle. It’s a wonderful place to get to know many of these parts of Mexico City.