Tepito - Notable Sites

Notable Sites

The Centro Deportivo Tepito is better known as El Maracaná because of its soccer field on which three days a week various teams from the barrio compete against each other. Next to the El Maracaná is the José "Huitlacoche" Medel Gymnasium which houses the boxing ring which is another reason the area is called the "barrio bravo" (fierce neighborhood). Here both men and women learn how to box, with most hoping to go pro. For many here, boxing is a social and economic outlet. The neighborhood has long history of producing professional boxers and other athletes, such as Raúl "El Ratón" Macías, Rubén "El Púas" Olivares, Lorenzo "Halimi" Gutiérrez, who won the national flyweight belt, Rodolfo Martinez and the most recent phenomenon, wrestler "Místico."

Perhaps the most well-known spot is an area that was once called "La Fortaleza" (The Fortress). It was a complex of 144 tenements located in the adjoining properties of Tenochtitlan 40 and Jesús Carranza 33. It had been one of the main drug distribution sites in Tepito, moving about eight kilos of cocaine and a half ton of marijuana each day.

In 2007, then-mayor Ebrard put forth a plan to expropriate the property. This caused fear in the area that it was a first step to transformation and expulsion of residents. The community organized and got assurances from the city government that was not the case. While not completely reassured, when the government took possession of the land, there was no resistance. Part of the reason for this was that it occurred very early in the morning without warning and many of the neighbors were tired of the "mafias" that were run from there. The government took over 5,600 square meters of land and arrested thirty three as a warning to other drug and gun runners. It also caused seventy-three families to lose their homes. The city demolished the structures on the properties after expropriation.

The land expropriated by the government was excavated by the National Institute and Anthropology and History (INAH), which found pre-Hispanic and colonial-era artifacts. The most significant of the pre-Hispanic finds was a child's burial, in which an obsidian bead with a duck's head, two other beads and deep plate-like objects called cajetes were found. The burial was found intact, mostly because of the fact that it was placed deep, about two yards under the first pre-Hispanic structure. Scattered around the site were more cajetes, mortars called molcajetes, dishes painted with eagles, serpents, and figures of Mexica deities, pieces of incensories, parts of musical instruments such as rattles and flutes, obsidian knives and needles made of bone and thorns. Most of these were found around a pre-Hispanic dwelling made of rock and compacted earth.

Finding that date from the colonial era include lebrillos, are clay containers used to store liquids in monasteries and hospitals to store liquids. Many of these have Greek letters, flowers and monograms on them. Lead-glazed pottery (majolica) has also been found along with the remains of 19th-century dwellings. The site is set to become the Family Integral Development (DIF) community center for Cuauhtemoc borough. Construction was begun in September 2008 with a budget of 125 million pesos. Completion of the project has been delayed because it is being supervised by an international organization who damaged that portions of the building under construction be demolished for being defective. The building must meet certain requirements in order to receive ISO-9001:2000 certification. On the corner of Tenochtitlan and Constancia is the Church of the Immaculate Conception. Although the feast day is 8 December, the crowds come to the church on 13 August to commemorate the apprehension of Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec emperor. This spot is known in Nahuatl as Tequipeuhcan, which means "place where slavery began". There is a plaque here with a statement Cuauhtémoc supposedly made exhorting Mexica or Mexicans to continue fighting for their own destiny.