Clavería

Iván del Rivero

In Mexico, the word clavería referred to the office that collected and distributed the chapter's revenues in cathedrals. In turn, the clavero was responsible for keeping the keys of a city or a church. It is not common, however, for us to think of those definitions when we hear the word; it is far more likely to bring to mind that historic neighborhood in the north of Mexico City.

Pride of the whole Chintolo community, the ground that saw the birth of El Príncipe de la Canción among eucalyptus, lemon and orange trees. This is Clavería, one of the first neighborhoods laid out in the area, and one that has kept its vibrant urban landscape for more than 117 years.

It was in 1907 that the lands of the Clavería estate, owned by Mr. Juan Antonio Clavería Villarreales, were subdivided to form the neighborhood then called Ampliación del Imparcial. During the post-revolutionary period, with a city returning to calm, it was renamed Clavería.

The neighborhood saw the birth of the most prodigious voice in Latin America and was also witness to his bohemian nights working the tables of El Chaparral and El Patio. José José would leave his house and, with a couple of friends, walk through the neighborhood singing serenades until well past midnight. Those walks would end at the La Tocha store, at the roundabout, or in his beloved Parque de la China — an iconic spot in the area that began as an extensive nursery and tree garden and today holds the most visited statue of Clavería's pride.

To speak of it is to remember the Cuitláhuac cinema and its three thousand seats, the first branches of Casa de Toño and El Bajío, the vast selection at the Librería Parroquial, the market on Irapuato street, Nicos and its celebrated chile en nogada, the prestigious IPADE in the main house of the Clavería estate, and the endless stories that happened in its small but beloved bandstand.