Metro Mixiuhca

Metro Mixiuhca has done more to standardize the spelling of its oft-mispelled host-town than probably any other single act in history.

Mixiuhca was a legendary early settlement of Mexica people. Forced out of a settlement called Tizapan, they fled across some of the least desirable and swampiest places in the ancient Valley of Mexico. Of necessity, women and children were floated on over-sized shields which they used like rafts. At a place called Temazcaltitlán, one of the fleeing women rather notoriously gave birth. Since that time, even today, the place is called Mixiuhca, meaning “place of giving birth.”

Today the town itself is less well known than the sports complex that bears the same name. People are more likely to arrive to the sports facilities from Metros Velodromo, Ciudad Deportivo, or Puebla. (It’s a big complex.) But for the town of Magdalena Mixiuhca, the church, and for the colonia Jardín Balbuena, this is the Metro Station of choice. It’s one of just two pueblos originarios in the Venustiano Carranza alcaldía.

There are also a well-regarded market for Tropical Fish (Mercado de Peces Mixiuhca) and the Fray Nano Baseball Stadium, in addition to some of the western-most playing fields.

The symbol for the station and the illustration above are based on glyph or glyph-like illustrations from early in the colonial period.