Viceroyal CDMX Tour - Art Scenes

CDMX

Viceroyal

After the Castellan conquest of the Mexica Empire, thanks to the alliances among Hernan Cortez and the subjugated people of Mesoamérica (plus diseases), Tenochtitlán became the capital of the kingdom of the New Spain; and a whole new city of monasteries and palaces emerged in XVI-XVIII centuries that you can still visit today — so put on your sarape to go back to the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz days.

Time period: 1600-1810

Movie/book: Hidalgo-La Historia Jamás Contada (2010)/Poems by Sorjuana Inés De La Cruz

Soundtrack: Manuel de Sumaya/Ignacio de Jerusalem’s music

Fashion: colorful outfit, a geometrical sarape, plus a wide brim hat

Budget:

Unknown Artist: Early map of Mexico City around the 1600s; CDMX, 1720

D. Ignacio Callera Mro: Plano Ignographico de la Nobilissima Ciudad de Mexico; CDMX, 1778

This walking tour would take you through the historic district of Mexico City, the neighborhood where the Spaniards created palaces for the new nobility and monasteries for the growing clergy; and where you can find many of the government institutions that’s still rule the country to this day. The area is characterized by: hidden baroque churches, narrow streets, and buildings covered in tezontle (red volcanic rock). The Hapsburgs created a vast empire that stretch a cross the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, from the Rockies in the north to the Andes in the south; and right in the middle there was Tenochtitlán (which became Ciudad de México in reference to the Mexica). Although Madrid was the capital of this vast empire, Mexico City was the soul of it. European monks, African slaves, Asian and Native American artisans, plus Arabs disguised as peninsulares carried out their businesses in the new city setting up a global trade that would change the diet of the world financed by Peruvian gold and Mexican silver. This new capital became the first global-multicultural city of the world where a sophisticated cast system got developed but soon overthrown cuz it got to complex and racist; nonetheless the Criollos (Spanish nepo-babies) kept their prestige. A lot of the wealth remained in the city in the form of: monumental buildings made out of rock from the pyramids; infrastructure like aqueducts and roads, plus the gold retablos and paintings that adorn the inside of every baroque church in the historic center. The Mexican court impressed European nobles by their high quality of life thanks to: its delicious food, music with exotic instruments; and their fashion style with: feathers, jewels and sarapes. The first city created by the Spaniards (and the remnants of Tenochtitlán) got flooded in 1629-1630; but a new neoclassical city of palaces emerged with a very powerful clergy who lived in sumptuous monasteries and large convents where monks and nuns transformed the pagans into Catholics. The enlightened ideas of the French masons reach the city with the rise of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain in 1714. This is the time when the elite of La Nueva España (military men, nobles of Spanish decent, hacendados and mine owners) started moving into the city to be closer to the court; building their city-mansions in the western side: between the cathedral and the Alameda (the garden of the city) and far from the lake Texcoco. By the end of the 1700s Mexico City was the third largest city in the world (below Edo and Constantinople but above Paris and London) plus one of the most beautiful thanks to: the viceroy Revillagigeido who cleaned and paved the city; and the architecture plus sculptures of Manuel Tolsa. Nonetheless these enlightened ideas will also fuel the independent movement; and in 1810 the war for the Mexican independence started, putting an end to the 300 year old kingdom of La Nueva España. The tour suggest visiting 3 palaces in the morning: one is a store/restaurant and 2 are small museums; then visiting 3 public buildings: the cathedral, national palace, and the first printing house of the Americas during the afternoon; and to end the day an architectural baroque walking tour plus dinner inside a palace that now its a boutique hotel.