Mixquic
19°13′29.69″N 98°57′51.43″W / 19.2249139°N 98.9642861°W
San Andres Mixquic is a community located in the southeast of the Distrito Federal (Mexico City) in the borough of Tláhuac. The community was founded by the 11th century on what was a small island in Lake Chalco. “Mixquic” means “in mesquite” but the community’s culture for most of its history was based on chinampas, gardens floating on the lake’s waters and tied to the island. Drainage of Lake Chalco in the 19th and 20th century eventually destroyed the chinampas but the community is still agricultural in nature, despite being officially in the territory of Mexico City.
San Andres Mixquic is best known for its Day of the Dead commemorations, which consist of both ritual and cultural events lasting from 31 October to 2 November. These events draw thousands of Mexican and international visitors, and culminate in the Alumbrada, when the cemetery that surrounds the community’s main church glows with thousands of candles and smoke from incense the evening of 2 November. This community was designated as a "Barrio Mágico" by the city in 2011.
The community of Mixquic was most likely founded around the 11th century by people who migrated here from Xochimilco. In the pre-Hispanic period, Mixquic was a small island in Lake Chalco, around which the inhabitants built chinampas or floating gardens. Originally the community was an independent dominion, but because of its location in prime chinampa territory, it was subsequently subdued by Xochimilco, Chalco, Azcapotzalco and finally Tenochtitlan. Bernal Diaz del Castillo describes Mixquic in his True History of the Conquest of New Spain as full of white towers and temples and was initially named by the Spaniards “Venezuela” for its similarity to Venice. Hernán Cortés subdued this area on 20 May 1521, after which soldiers from Mixquic helped subdue Tenochtitlan, with which they had had bad relations.
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