General Information

Colonia del Valle, a neighbourhood in the Benito Juarez borough of Mexico City, includes a number of parks, vast tree-lined streets, prestigious shopping malls, and some city landmarks. It is, however, most famous (or rather infamous) as a crime-ridden neighbourhood, being the second-most dangerous neighbourhood in Mexico City.

Additional Information

Within the Del Valle are two of the oldest educational institutions in the country; the College and Institute of Mexico and its Centro Universitario Mexico, and the Colegio Simón Bolívar. Graduates of these schools include Octavio Paz (a Mexican writer, poet, diplomat and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for literature) and Germán Dehesa (a Mexican journalist, academic and writer).

History: Highlights

While serving as a streetcar route from Mexico City to Coyoacán, the area was developing slowly until 1920, when it expanded and the Avenida de los Insurgentes was paved. Large-scale home and mansion construction started. The area also featured monument construction and green areas; one is the Paque Hundido, built on a former sand mine.

History: Explained

In the 1960s the area was as fully developed as many other neighbourhoods of equal purchasing power on its borders. Commercial development included two major facilities: Liverpool Insurgentes, opened in 1962, and the country’s first shopping centre, University Plaza, in 1969. In 1978 the decision to build major roads transformed the neighbourhood radically and permanently. Axes 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 south crossed from east to west and 1, 2 and 3 from south to north. This drove many families to look for a quieter place to live and began the process of redeveloping the area. Mansions were replaced by apartment buildings, offices or schools.

Architecture: Highlights

The architecture in the area includes large mansions in Californian mission revival Art Deco style and, to a lesser extent, surviving examples of Porfiriato. At the end of the 1960s many small skyscrapers, both commercial and residential, were built, making the area one of the most densely populated ones in Mexico City. Housing complexes were also erected.

Architecture: Explained

The neighbourhood also houses churches, such as the Temple of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and buildings dating from the period of colonisation and Conquest, including the Temple of San Lorenzo and the Xochimanca, cultural areas and parks like the Sunken Park or Mariscal Sucre Park, the French Kiosk, art galleries, libraries, auditoriums Polyforum Cultural Siqueiros, Plaza México, and Estadio Azul – the Blue Stadium.