Santa Anita Monument / Arch, La Viga

The Santa Anita Monument and Arch greet visitors to Santa Anita Zacatlamanco Huehuetl, a historic original settlement along the old La Viga canal. This is the front door to the town, which by a twist in Metro Line 8 has ended up with most guests arriving to the town by the back door. That is, guests are much more likely to arrive via Metro Santa Anita literally on the other side of town.

But the arch and monument recall the same history depicted in the Metro station’s extensive mosaics. Only here, everything is on site, by the side of the old canal. The monument depicts the canal boat operator who echos  from Morado’s older monument to Alonso García Bravo. Even more in the public eye, Leonora Carrington’s Crocodile draws on the same history.

Outside of Xochimilco, Santa Anita may be the most canal-oriented place in Mexico City. That’s true even if those same canals once spread all over the old Valley of Mexico. From here, canal boats departed for the southeast, across central Xochimilco to the Chalco Lake. But they’re perhaps most fondly recalled for having extended northward across the Historic Center to the Colonia Guerrero. Specially outfitted canal boats peddled Santa Anita’s tamales all along the way.

The neighborhood installed the historic monument here in 2017. Although the canal was paved over in 1957, its legacy informs this part of the City and still draws wistful memories.