Cuauhtémoc () is a borough of Mexico City. Named after the 16th-century Aztec ruler Cuauhtémoc, it contains the oldest parts of the city, extending over what was the entire urban core of Mexico City in the 1920s.

Cuauhtémoc is the historic and cultural center of Mexico City, although it is not the geographical center. While it ranks only sixth in population, it generates about a third of the entire city's GDP, mostly through commerce and services. It is home to the Mexican Stock Exchange, the important tourist attractions of the historic center and Zona Rosa, and various skyscrapers, such as the Torre Mayor and the Mexican headquarters of HSBC. It also contains numerous museums, libraries, government offices, markets, and other commercial centers, which can bring in as many as 5 million people each day to work, shop, or visit cultural sites.

This area has had problems with urban decay, especially in the historic center. Efforts to revitalize the historic center and some other areas have been going on since the 1990s, by both government and private entities. Such efforts have resulted in better public parks, such as the Alameda Central, which was renovated, and the modification of streets such as 16 de Septiembre and Madero that have become car-free for pedestrians ().

Description

Cuauhtémoc is centered on the Zócalo or main square, which contains the Aztec ruins of the Templo Mayor, the Metropolitan Cathedral, and the National Palace of Mexico. The borough covers 32.44 km2, divided into 34 colonias, 2,627 city blocks, 1,267,000 m2 of green areas, 1,500 buildings classified as national monuments, two archeological zones (Tlatelolco and Templo Mayor), 1,290 private buildings with official historic value (), 210 public buildings with official historic value, 120 government buildings, and two major planned-housing complexes (Unidad Habitacional Nonoalco-Tlatelolco and Centro Urbano Benito Juárez). In addition, the borough contains 43 museums, 23 clock towers, 150 public and private libraries, 24 centers for infant development, six cultural centers sponsored by the borough, 38 publicly sponsored markets with 14,434 vendors, 25 stage theaters, 123 movie theaters and 9 public sports complexes.

The sports facilities include Deportivo Cuauhtémoc in Colonia Buenavista, Deportivo José María Morelos y Pavón in Colonia Morelos, Deportivo Peñoles in Colonia Valle Gómez, Deportivo Guelatao in Colonia Centro, Deportivo Tepito in Colonia Morelos, Deportivo Antonio Caso in Tlatelolco, Deportivo Francisco Javier Mina in Colonia Guerrero, Deportivo Estado de Tabasco in Colonia Exhipódromo de Peralvillo and Deportivo Cinco de Mayo in Tlatelolco. A new center called the Deportivo Bicentennario has been started in Colonia Buenos Aires. The area has 264 public and private preschools, 116 middle schools, 102 technical and regular high schools, and 13 teachers' colleges.

Because it is the oldest part of Mexico City, with buildings that are centuries old, deterioration is an ongoing concern. Currently, at least 789 inhabited buildings in 12 colonias have been listed as in danger of condemnation, due to structural damage caused by sinking into muddy soil of the former lakebed. These are mostly located in the historic center and the colonias immediately surrounding it. Some of these have been classified as having historic or artistic value by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes or Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. This has been a problem for the area for centuries and has involved famous structures such as the Metropolitan Cathedral, which had major foundation work done to stop the damage caused by uneven sinking.

A large part of this borough is divided between commercial zones and historic and cultural sites. While the borough does not have the highest crime rate in the city, with 13.9% of all Mexico City crime committed here, it was, as of 2007, considered to be fairly dangerous because of its urbanization and because most of the people found in the borough are there only to work or visit. In some older neighborhoods, people live and raise children along with street vending, squatting, and takeover of public spaces by drug addicts, drug dealers, and prostitutes. As of 2007, seven of the borough's 34 colonias had at one point been ranked in the top 10 most lawless in the city by the secretary of public safety of Mexico City, with a few, such as Tepito, gaining infamy for being so. Some of these rundown areas were lower class colonias such as Colonia Guerrero and Colonia Morelos, but similar problems were also found in upper middle class colonias such as the northern part of Colonia Roma. The most common crimes were muggings, with 1.47 reports per day, robbery of businesses with .78 reports per day, and car theft with .71 reports per day.

Most of the 5 million who come into this borough each day are there to work, visit the area's markets, shops, and cultural attractions, or are tourists. The borough is the most visited area of the city by tourists, who mostly come to see the historic center and Zona Rosa. People from other parts of the city come to visit the museums and large public markets such as La Lagunilla, Mixcalco, Hidalgo, Medellín, and San Juan. The influx brings in 800,000 vehicles to circulate its streets each day, with traffic jams, especially in and near the historic center nearly a daily occurrence.

Demographics

While it is the most important borough economically, bringing millions of people into its territory on any given day, its population of 545,884 in 2020 ranks only sixth out of the city's 16 boroughs. This population has been steadily decreasing even as the population of the rest of the city has remained static, although a slight increase occurred in the last 10 years. A fairly large percentage of the population is over 60 years of age and over half of the residents are either single or living with a partner. The borough contains only seven percent of all housing units in the city.

Those who do live here are mostly employed in services (57.5%) and commerce (23.4%).

Government

The borough was first established on December 30, 1970, after the circumscription of Mexico City was split into four boroughs. Before the political reforms of 2016, it was governed by a borough chief ()) and a cabinet consisting of a secretaria particular, coordinacion de asesores, dirección interinstitucional y de fomento economico, subdirección técnica, subdirección de comunicación social, and subdirección de unidades habitacionales. After becoming an , the head of government became a mayor.

The seat of the borough government is located in Colonia Buenavista.

Colonias These are the and neighborhoods in Cuauhtémoc:

Colonia Centro Colonia Doctores Colonia Obrera Tepito Colonia Algarín Colonia Ampliación Asturias Colonia Asturias Colonia Atlampa Colonia Buenavista Colonia Buenos Aires Centro Urbano Benito Juárez Colonia Condesa Colonia Cuauhtémoc Colonia Esperanza Colonia Exhipódromo de Peralvillo Colonia Felipe Pescador Colonia Guerrero Colonia Hipódromo Colonia Hipódromo Condesa Colonia Juárez Colonia Maza Colonia Morelos Colonia Paulino Navarro Colonia Peralvillo Colonia Roma Colonia San Rafael Colonia San Simón Tolnahuac Colonia Santa María Insurgentes Colonia Santa María la Ribera Unidad Habitacional Nonoalco-Tlatelolco Colonia Tabacalera Colonia Tránsito Colonia Valle Gómez Colonia Vista Alegre Zona Rosa

History

Tenochtitlan

The early history of the delegation coincides with the history of Aztec Tenochtitlan and colonial Mexico City. Tenochitlan was founded on a marshy island in Lake Texcoco. It was divided into four capuillis or neighborhoods centering on the Templo Mayor. This temple's ruins are located very close to the modern main square or Zocalo today.

Spanish rule When the Spanish conquered Tenochtitlan in 1521, they destroyed most of the old Aztec public buildings, but kept the basic layout of the city, which roughly extends over what is now known as the historic center or Colonia Centro. The cathedral was built over a portion of the sacred precinct (teocalli) of the destroyed Templo Mayor, the National Palace was built over Moctezuma's New Palace, and the Zocalo was built over what was an open space near the sacred temple space. Over the early colonial period, European-style construction replaced Aztec ones over the entire island city, with the most important public buildings concentrated on the blocks adjoining the Zocalo.

As the center of New Spain, the city held the greatest prestige, prompting those who had made their fortunes through conquest, mining, commerce, and other means to have homes in the city, as close to the Zocalo as possible. The city soon became filled with mansions, large churches and monasteries, and monumental public buildings, which would eventually earn it the nickname of "City of Palaces".

At the beginning of the 19th century, this city remained mostly within what is now called the historic center, although various drainage projects had been enlarging the island. The city proper contained 397 streets and alleys, 12 bridges, 78 plazas, 14 parish churches, 41 monasteries, 10 colleges, seven hospitals, a poorhouse, a cigar factory, 19 restaurants, two inns, 28 corrals for horses, and two official neighborhoods.

Independence era

After Mexico gained its independence in 1824, Mexico City was designated as the capital of the new country, and the city and its surrounding area (11.5 km2) were incorporated as a "Federal District," separate from the other states. By the late, 19th century, the city began to break its traditional confines with the construction of new neighborhoods, called colonias, in the still-drying lakebed. This was especially true in the areas west of the historic area, with the creation of "modern" colonias for the wealthy along the Paseo de la Reforma, built earlier by Maximilian I. These colonias include Colonia Juárez, Colonia Roma, Colonia Cuauhtémoc, and Colonia San Rafael. Colonias for poorer and working-class people were built mostly north and south of the city such as Colonia Morelos, and Colonia Doctores.

20th century In 1928, President Álvaro Obregón divided the rapidly growing Federal District area into 13 boroughs (delegaciones), with what was then the city proper designated as the Cuauhtémoc borough. While the borough still remained the center of city's commerce, politics, academia, and culture during the first half of the 20th century, this historic center began going into decline, as the wealthy moved out into the new western colonias as early as the end of 19th century. By the 1950s, the country's main university, UNAM, moved almost all of its facilities out of the borough and into the newly built Ciudad Universitaria in the south of the city. In the 1940s, the city government froze rents in the borough, and by the late 1990s, when this was finally repealed, many tenants were paying the same prices they were in the 1950s. With no financial incentive to keep up their properties, landlords let their buildings disintegrate. Most of this occurred in the historic center, but this phenomenon also presented itself in other areas, such as Colonia San Rafael and the Centro Urbano Benito Juárez, as well.

Since the 1950s, the city has received the highest number of migrants from other parts of Mexico. Most of these come from very rural areas of the country, and a significant percentage speak an indigenous language with Spanish as a second language, or do not speak Spanish at all. As of 2005, seven percent of the borough's population is made up of these migrants, who have put strains on services such as education.

1985 Earthquake