Santa María la Ribera

Colonia Santa María la Ribera is a colonia located in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City, just west of the historic center. It was created in the late 19th century for the affluent who wanted homes outside of the city limits. The colonia reached its height between 1910 and 1930. In the 1930s, the middle class moved in and a new era of construction began. The colonia began to deteriorate in the 1950s, as the city grew around it and apartment buildings were constructed. Since the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, poorer residents have moved in and economic housing has been constructed. Today, the colonia is a mix of old mansions and homes (with over 1,000 categorized as having architectural or historic value), small shops and businesses, tenements and abandoned buildings. The colonia has one major park and two museums. This area was designated as a "Barrio Mágico" by the city in 2011.

The colonia’s borders are marked by the following streets: Avenue Ricardo Flores Magon to the north, Ribera de San Cosme to the south, Insurgentes Norte to the east and Circuito Interior to the west. It consists of 116 city blocks located just west of the historic center of the city.

While the neighborhood was established as an upper class country getaway over 100 years ago, today, it is fully absorbed into Mexico City’s center. The oldest structures are mansions from the late 19th century. These and a number of buildings built until about 1930 make up the 1,040 structures which are considered to have architectural and historical value cataloged by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes. Structures built since that time have been for the lower classes such as apartment buildings. Older buildings have also been converted into apartments, tenements and businesses as well.

The neighborhood has a mix of middle and lower class residents, as well as squatters and homeless. The colonia is considered to be a traditional neighborhood, where family owned businesses mix with old houses and monuments. There is a problem with abandoned properties including 25 that are registered as architectural landmarks. Older residents tend to have extremely low frozen rents, which inhibits the care of older buildings. In a number of cases, historically valuable buildings have simply been demolished to make way for new condos.

The center of the colonia is the Alameda Park with its Morisco Kiosk, located at the intersection of Dr. Atl and Salvador Miron Streets, near Metro Buenavista. The kiosk was designed and built in the late 19th century by José Ramón Ibarrola to be the Mexico Pavilion at the World’s Fair of 1884 in New Orleans and of the Saint Louis Exposition of 1902. The structure is completely made of wrought iron, which was in fashion at that time. It is thought that the iron came from the Carnegie Steel Company of Pittsburgh. It consists of panels that can be disassembled and a glass cupola. After these events, the structure was brought back to Mexico at the beginning of the 20th century and installed on the south side of the Alameda Central. While it was here, it became the site of the national lottery drawing. For the Centennial of the Mexican War of Independence, the kiosk was moved to make way for the Benito Juárez Monument. The residents of the colonia petitioned to have the kiosk moved to this neighborhood.

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Wikipedia