Mixcoac

Mixcoac is an area of southern Mexico City which used to be a separate town and municipality within the Mexican Federal District until it was made part of Mexico City proper (the Departamento Central at the time) in 1928. Mixcoac consists of the colonias (official neighborhoods) of Nonoalco, San Juan, Extremadura Insurgentes, Mixcoac and Insurgentes Mixcoac and is part of the borough of Benito Juárez. It is bounded by Avenida de los Insurgentes to the east and the Periférico freeway to the west, south of Colonia Nápoles and San Pedro de los Pinos.

It is a designated Barrio Mágico ("magical neighborhood") of Mexico City.

The name "Mixcoac" comes from the Nahuatl language mixtli (cloud), coatl (serpent), cómo (in), and means "Place of the Cloud Serpent", alluding to the Milky Way and the god Mixcóatl.

Before the Spanish conquest there was a small settlement on the edge of Lake Texcoco, the lake that surrounded the island city of Tenochtitlan, today Mexico City. The ruins of the settlement, occupied between about 900 AD and 1521 AD, can be seen at the Mixcoac archeological site (see ).

After the Conquest, ranchos and haciendas were established in the area, as well as a textile factory which is today forms part of the Mexico City campus of the Universidad Panamericana. In the late 19th century, wealthy people from Mexico City began establishing summer residences here and in nearby towns such as Tacubaya, San Ángel and Coyoacán. In 1910 the large La Castañeda psychiatric hospital opened, functioning until 1967. In 1928 the Municipality of Mixcoac was absorbed into Mexico City proper, becoming part of a new Departamento Central within the Mexican Federal District.

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