Peñón de los Baños

East of Mexico City, surrounded by the ceaseless roar of aircraft turbines and the concrete of the airport, rises Peñón de los Baños. Known in pre-Hispanic times as Tepetzinco (“the little hill”), this site is a historical mosaic where ancient history, myth and a very present neighborhood identity are woven together.

Centuries ago Tepetzinco was surrounded by the salt waters of Lake Texcoco. Its strategic position made it an ideal point for lake navigation, but its real fame came from within: the thermal springs found there, with uniquely medicinal properties.

Mexica rulers, among them Moctezuma Xocoyotzin, used it as a place of recreation and purification. They linked the Peñón to deities of water and fertility, considering it a point of connection between the earthly world and cosmic forces.

From the colonial period onward, the surroundings of Peñón de los Baños changed drastically. The construction of the chapel of Santa María de Guadalupe in 1765 marked the beginning of a fusion of beliefs that endures to this day.

In the early twentieth century the Panteón del Pueblo del Peñón de los Baños appeared, an iconic cemetery built by the community itself, which — short on land — opted for a vertical arrangement. It is the testimony of a neighborhood that claims its right to territory even in death.

The greatest change, however, came with the drying of the lake system and urban expansion. At the start of the 1950s the opening of the airport altered the area forever. The Peñón ended up fenced in by hangars, runways and those metal birds crossing the sky, but the spirit of its community held firm.

Today Peñón de los Baños stands out for its vibrant popular culture. Whether through its historic carnival, its reenactment of the Battle of the Fifth of May, the legendary Torneo del Carmen football tournament or its legacy as the birthplace of the sonidero movement, this original town protects its roots with admirable force — a cultural resistance that keeps alive the echoes of that sacred threshold of springs and thermal waters.