Colonia Tabacalera

The ground that holds La Tabacalera today was originally part of the Hacienda de San Francisco de Borja, whose lands the viceregal government auctioned off in 1782 after the expulsion of the Jesuits.

The property passed to the Count of Selva Nevada and, some time later, his widow commissioned the architect Manuel Tolsá to raise a sumptuous residence there that would become the Palacio de Buenavista.

Through the nineteenth century those walls sheltered the lights and shadows of figures such as Antonio López de Santa Anna, until in 1899 the palace became the seat of La Tabacalera Mexicana, the company that ended up naming the neighborhood for good.

During its viceregal period the area was closely tied to the nearby Cárcel de La Acordada, the Paseo de Bucareli and the old bullring, serving as the antechamber to the city's westward growth. Over the decades, La Tabacalera established itself as a showcase of architectural and engineering landmarks fundamental to contemporary Mexico.

The heart of the neighborhood beats in the Plaza de la República, crowned by the Monumento a la Revolución. Originally conceived under Porfirio Díaz as the central dome of a lavish Federal Legislative Palace, the project was cut short by the outbreak of the Revolution in 1910. Decades later, the architect Carlos Obregón Santacilia rescued that colossal abandoned iron structure and transformed it into a vibrant public space and the mausoleum that now holds the remains of figures such as Francisco Villa, Venustiano Carranza and Lázaro Cárdenas.

*Photographs from the Fototeca Nacional archive.

A few steps from this revolutionary heritage stands “El Moro”, home of the Lotería Nacional and an icon of urban modernity. Inaugurated in 1946 on the land that once belonged to the residence of Ignacio de la Torre y Mier, this mass of concrete was for a time the tallest skyscraper in the country.

La Tabacalera also holds artistic treasures on a more intimate, bohemian scale. The most refined example is the Museo Nacional de San Carlos, which recovered the neoclassical halls of the old Palacio de Buenavista. That artistic atmosphere connects with the residential architecture of the area, where the house Luis Barragán designed on Ignacio Mariscal street — as a studio and refuge for the painter José Clemente Orozco — stands out.

Historically, the streets of the neighborhood worked as a meeting point for exile and critical thought. Refugees from the Spanish Civil War found shelter here and, years later, the Latin American movements of figures of the stature of Fidel Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara took shape.

The streets of La Tabacalera carry the weight of centuries, and although the tremors of time — such as the painful earthquake of 1985 — changed the face of its blocks, the true root of the neighborhood is still its people: a close-knit community that goes on inhabiting these streets with the pride of knowing themselves guardians of a fundamental piece of our history.