Metro Cuauhtémoc

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Metro Cuauhtémoc is perhaps only obscure because it stands precisely in the liminal space between too many neighborhoods. The intersection of Bucarelli/Cuauhtémoc and Chapultpec/Arcos de Belen marks also the borders between Juárez/Centro to the north and Roma Nte/Doctores to the south. So whose station is it?

In fact, it serves residents of all of these neighborhoods, as does the Mercado Juárez. (One entrance to the market is visible in the photo above.) And in truth, all of them have developed beyond anyone’s expectations in just the past ten years.

The Metro Cuauhtémoc is named for the final tlaotani of Tenochtitlan. He’s a figure popular even today. He took over after the death of  Cuitláhuac. He tried to rebuild the fallen city, beset though it was with outbreaks of smallpox and famine in the wake of the arrival of the Spanish army.

He was actually hanged by the Spanish on February 28, 1525. Today, of course, the section of Mexico City that was Tenochtitlan is named for him as are many other sites, buildings, roads, businesses, and monuments.

Metro Cuauhtémoc is convenient to the four neighborhoods mentioned above.

• From the Observatiorio-bound platforms (north) you exit to the very east-end of the colonia Juárez.
• Here you’ll find, not just the Juárez market, but a rapidly developing residential and business neighborhood.
• This touches on the historical lower-end of the Avenida Buccarelli which is technically the Centro Historico. It’s growing, along with Juárez, into an important cultural and artistic hotspot all set in some of the Porfiriato’s most dramatic historical architecture.
• Miguel Ángel de Quevedo‘s dramatic and much loved Conjunto Mascota housing project for the workers of the Buen Tono tobacco factory is along much of Buccarelli. It starts just across Turin street from the Market.
• From the Pantitlan-bound platforms (south), you’re technically in Roma Norte. There’s a cute-as- a-button barriocito called La Romita just behind the Plaza centro cultural Cuauhtémoc. The Metro exit is right next to it.
• Across the Avenida Cuauhtémoc, you’re in Doctores. Crossing the street, you’ll see the Cuauhtémoc Metrobús station (Line 3).
• The Arena Mexico is one more block east.
• This part of the Colonia Doctores is pedestrian heavy. Much of the sidewalk business caters to those working in the government buildings and hospitals of which there are many.