Plaza Garibaldi is located in the historic centre of Mexico City, between Calle República de Honduras and Calle República de Peru, a few blocks north of the Palacio de Bellas Artes. Its original name was Plaza Santa Cecilia, but in 1910 it was renamed in honour of Lt. Col. José Garibaldi, who joined with the Maderistas in the attack on Casa Grandes, Chihuahua, during the Mexican Revolution.
The Plaza is best known as the Mexico City home of mariachi music. At all hours of the day and night, mariachi bands can be found here playing or soliciting gigs from visitors to the Plaza. The Salón Tenampa, which started it all here in the 1920s, is still in business on the north side of the plaza. The plaza and the neighbourhoods around it are undergoing extensive rehabilitation to halt the decades-long degeneration of the area. Plans include a remodelled plaza, extensive rehabilitation of the surrounding buildings and streets as well as making the area a zone where it is safe to be 24 hours a day for visitors.