Колония Рома: История и Возрождение Мексиканского Района

Colonia Roma, also called La Roma or simply, Roma, is a district located in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City just west of the city's historic center. The area comprises two colonias: Roma Norte and Roma Sur, divided by Coahuila street. The colonia was planned as an upper class Porfirian neighborhood in the early twentieth century. By the 1940s, it had become a middle class neighborhood in slow decline, with the downswing being worsened by the 1985 Mexico City earthquake. Since the 2000s, the area has seen increasing gentrification. Roma and neighbouring Condesa are trendy and popular with foreign residents; the area rivals Polanco as the center of the city's culinary scene. Besides residential buildings, the neighborhood streets are lined with restaurants, bars, clubs, shops, cultural centers, churches and galleries. Many are housed in former Art Nouveau and Neo Classical buildings dating from the Porfiriato period at the beginning of the 20th century. Roma was designated as a "Barrio Mágico" ("magical neighborhood") by the city in 2011.

The area was a very shallow part of Lake Texcoco, dotted with tiny islands and one small island village of Aztacalco during the pre Hispanic period. During the colonial period, the area dried up and became rural lands first owned by Hernán Cortés and then by the Counts of Miraville. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this area west of what was Mexico City proper was being turned into “modern” colonias for the wealthy seeking to escape the deterioration of city center. The colonia's height as an “aristocratic” and “European” enclave was from its founding in the 1900s until about the 1940s. However, wealthy residents began to move to newer neighborhoods as early as the 1940s and problems associated with urbanization began to appear in the 1950s. Older mansions began to give way to modern commercial buildings in the 1960s and 1970s as the deterioration became more serious. The 1985 Mexico City earthquake caused widespread destruction in the colonia, especially to newer and more commercial and apartment buildings, even causing one major development to mostly disappear. Since then, there have been efforts to conserve the area's architectural heritage and regain some of its former prestige with some success.

Roma Norte II and III, east of Avenida de los Insurgentes and north of Av. Coahuila, bisected by Roma's signature boulevard, Avenida Álvaro Obregón, is where the vast majority of the hippest restaurants, bars, clubs, etc. are found. It is home to about 1,100 mansions and other architecturally and historically important structures, mostly built between 1906 and 1939. Most of these are no longer residences but rather offices, cultural centers and other businesses. Examples of these adaptations include the Casa Lamm Cultural Center, the Casa Universitaria del Libro, the main building of the Universidad de Londres and the various art galleries which are mostly found on Colima street. In the northeast corner of this area is the pre Hispanic village of La Romita.

Roma Norte I, west of Insurgentes, has fewer landmark buildings and is a mix of offices, restaurants, retail and residential. The Palacio de Hierro department store Durango branch occupies a city block here and the landmark Fuente de Cibeles fountain is at the center of a major cluster of restaurants, cafés and clubs.

La Romita is a small section of Roma which used to be an independent village and colonia and whose streets are still significantly different from the rest of Roma. The territory of modern Colonia Roma in pre Hispanic times consisted of the very shallow waters of Lake Texcoco and a number of very small islands of firm ground, on one of which stood the village of Aztacalco. It was an independent village until the very early 20th century, when it was made its own colonia in 1903 with the name of La Romita.

In the far southeast corner of Roma stands the Centro Urbano Benito Juárez, or Multifamiliar Juárez, a very large apartment complex in the 1940s and early 1950s. It was one of several projects of this type by architect Mario Pani, designed to house city government workers and to be semi autonomous with its own schools, administration, businesses etc. and incorporate as much outdoors space as possible. Carlos Mérida’s mural work here was the most important of his career and the largest mural project in Mexico in the 20th century. Most of the complex and murals were destroyed by, or demolished after the 1985 Mexico City earthquake. Most of the land where the demolished buildings stood has become the Jardín Ramón López Velarde park.

The colonia was an exclusive area for the wealthy on the edge of the city when it was built in the very early 20th century. Roma started to decline around the mid 20th century and was heavily affected by the 1985 Mexico City earthquake. In the 21st century, it has revived somewhat as a Bohemian area with restaurants, art galleries, offices and more. Today, the area attracts younger generations of artists, writers and urban hipsters, with rents rising once again. Most of the streets are quiet and lined with large, leafy trees, mostly how they were laid out when the colonia was built. Along with the tree lined streets, green spaces were also created with the addition of small parks called plazas. The old heart of the neighborhood is the Plaza Río de Janeiro, originally called Plaza Roma. This plaza is surrounded by a number of old mansions as well as a couple a tall modern towers. In the center, there is a fountain and a replica of Michelangelo’s David. One mansion that faces this plaza is popularly called the La Casa de las Brujas (House of the Witches) although its official name is the Edificio Rio de Janeiro. The popular name of this red brick castle like structure, built in 1908, comes from the face that seems to be formed by the windows on the top of the corner tower and the Art Deco entrance, which was added in the 1930s. The Plaza Luis Cabrera is on the corner of Guanajuato and Orizaba Streets. It was the setting for part of a short story called “La batallas en el desierto” by José Emilio Pacheco.

Roma is one of a number of “modern” colonias such as Colonia Juárez, Santa María la Ribera and Colonia San Rafael, which were built on what was the western edge of the city in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for wealthy residents looking to escape the city center. The streets and houses were designed and built based on European styles, which can still be seen today, especially on Orizaba, Alvaro Obregon, Colima and Tonalá Streets, where the older facades are best conserved. These were homes of bankers, factory owners, politicians, artists and businessmen who worked in the city center but lived here. Like its sister colonias, Roma has since lost many of its original mansion homes, but it has resisted this loss better. Today, there are an estimated 1,100 structures which date from the 1930s or earlier, compared to the 500 to 600 the remain in Santa María la Ribera and Colonia Juárez. These earlier structures include examples of Neo colonial (which imitate the styles built during Mexico's colonial period) and Art Deco, but most are “Porfirian,” meaning that they are a mix of French, Roman, Gothic and Moorish elements which were all fashionable in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These houses and streets have provided the backdrop for films such as Los Olvidados, filmed in La Romita by Luis Buñuel and literary works such as Batallas en el desierto by José Emilio Pacheco, Agua Quemada by Carlos Fuentes, Manifestacion de Silencios by Arturo Azuela and El Vampiro de la Colonia Roma by Luis Zapata. However, the colonia now also has a large number of more modern structures, defined as having been built since the 1950s. These structures came to replace many of the original structures as the character of the colonia changed, along with the lack of urban planning, zoning and the destruction caused by the 1985 earthquake. While the older mansions are no longer economically viable as residences, there has been efforts since the 1990s to save them, by converting them into offices, stores, restaurants and other businesses with restrictions aimed at conserving their facades and the colonia's overall character. In the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, Jews moved further west to Polanco, Lomas de Chapultepec, Interlomas, Bosques de las Lomas, and Tecamachalco, where the majority are now based.

Roma is home to free standing Palacio de Hierro and Woolworth department stores. Enclosed malls include the Plaza Insurgentes shopping center, anchored by Sears, located on the site of the first Sears in Mexico, opened in 1947, and prior to that, the American Embassy. On Cuauhtémoc street are the Plaza Centro Cultural and Pabellón Cuauhtémoc. The large Parque Delta shopping center borders Roma on the south.

Many top chef driven restaurants are located in Roma including two in the "Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants" list by San Pellegrino: Máximo Bistrot (chef Eduardo "Lalo" García); and Rosetta by chef Elena Reygadas. Other celebrated restaurants are Fonda Fina by chef Jorge Vallejo of Quintonil); Delirio and Casa Virginia by chef Monica Patino; Huset by Maycoll Calderon; and Cocina Conchita and La Docena for seafood. The Mercado Roma, not a traditional public market but rather an upscale food hall, unites some of the city's diverse, upscale culinary offerings under one roof and was the first of an ever expanding number of food halls in the city; while converted mansions such as Casa Quimera, Purveyor, Colima 256, Durango 216, Blanco Colima and Roma Quince offer a variety of restaurants, quality fast food, art, hip artisanal products and services in different rooms of the mansions.

Mercado Medellín is located in Roma Sur (southern Roma) and is well known for offering products from other Latin American countries, particularly Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela.

Colima Street is home to a number of art galleries which have worked since the 1990s to establish themselves as an international art market to compete with New York, Paris, London and Tokyo. These galleries include the Landucci Gallery. Artists such as Mexican photographer Victor Carresquedo and American Barry Wolfryd have set up shop in the area as well as the Centro Libre de Arte, Mexico City's newest fine arts school. The goal is to promote Mexican art from its current status as regionally relevant to one with broader appeal, by not only promoting native artists more effectively at home but also by sponsoring international tours, featuring established artists such as Francisco Toledo, Roberto Márquez and Alfredo Castaneda as well as newer talents such as Cisco Jimenez and Guillermo Kuitca. The area is also attracting South American and Central American artists looking to break into the U. S. and world art markets. It stands out for being one of the main points in the city where street art is present. You can find different murals made by national and international artists such as D*Face, Interesni Kaski, Saner, Revost among others.

The Centro Cultural (formerly Telmex) theater complex is located in the northeast corner of Roma, while Cine Tonalá is a well known indie/art house cinema in Roma Sur with a sister venue in Bogotá, Colombia. Cinemex multiplex cinemas are located in three enclosed shopping centers around Roma. The district is the namesake for the 2018 film Roma, written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón, which takes place in the neighborhood during the 1970s.

Casa Lamm is a cultural center and restaurant located in a restored mansion that dates to 1911 on Avenida Álvaro Obregón. On the ground floor of the building, facing the street are the bookstore and restaurant.

The Sagrada Familia Church is located on the corner of Puebla and Orizaba Streets. Its architecture is classified as Romanesque Revival and Gothic Revival, it was designed by Mexican architect Manuel Gorozpe. The first stone was laid in 1906, but most of structure was built between 1910 and 1912, of reinforced concrete. At the time, the church was criticized as “mediocre, ostentatious and of decadent taste”. In the 1920s, painter and Jesuit priest Gonzalez Carrasco decorated the interior with murals, with two smaller paintings realized by Hermano Tapia. The interior also contains the remains of Miguel Agustín Pro, a Jesuit priest executed by Plutarco Elias Calles in 1927 during the Cristero War and considered to be a martyr. The church is fronted by a small atrium bordered by a wrought iron fence constructed by the Gábelich workshop, which was in neighboring Colonia Doctores. It is one of the few wrought iron works to survive from the early 20th century. On Avenida Cuauhtémoc between Querétaro and Zacatecas streets is the Nuestra Señora del Rosario Church, which was built by Mexican architects Angel and Manuel Torres Torija. This church is Gothic Revival begun in 1920 and concluded in 1930. While built after the Porfirio Díaz era of the late 19th and early 20th century, the church shares many of the features as churches from that time. Records indicate that the project was probably planned around 1911 but was delayed due to the Mexican Revolution. The facade contains a decorative rose window, common to Gothic styles with ojival doors and windows. The interior is spacious with three naves with notable stained glass windows with orient themselves vertically.

In addition to the educational programs at the Casa Lamm and the Casa Universitaria del Libro, Roma has a number of private educational institutions from primary school to university. Some, such as the Instituto Pedagogico Anglo Espanol, the Instituto Renacimiento and the Colegio Mexico have been established since the first half of the 20th century. The Universidad de las Américas de la Ciudad de México (UDLA) was founded in 1940 as the Mexico City Junior College (MCC). In the 1960s, its name changed to the University of the Americas and shortly thereafter to the current one. It was founded in Colonia Roma but moved to a facility on the Mexico City Toluca highway. When the institution split in the 1980s, one campus moved to Puebla and the other moved to the current location back in Colonia Roma in newly built facilities. UDLA offers seven bachelor's degrees, four graduate degrees and various certificate programs. It is located in a modern facility on Puebla Street. Colegio Amado Nervo is a private school in Colonia Roma Sur. The Colegio Liceo Mexicano, a private elementary school, is in Colonia Roma. Several other small public and private school and universities exist in the area.

The neighborhood has public bus, Metrobus bus rapid transit, pesero (minibus), trolleybus and metro (subway/underground) service, as well as EcoBici bikeshare stands. Metro stations are all at the edges of the neighborhood and include Sevilla, Insurgentes, Cuauhtémoc, Centro Médico, and Chilpancingo. Roma is bordered or crossed by several ejes viales (main crosstown arteries, mostly one way): 1 Sur (two way, Chapultepec), 2 Sur (eastbound, Yucatán/Querétaro/San Luis Potosí), 1 Poniente (two way, Cuauhtémoc), 2 Poniente (northbound, Monterrey), and 3 Poniente (southbound, Yucatán/Medellín). The southern boundary of the neighborhood is the Viaducto Miguel Alemán freeway.