Zona Rosa

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This article is about Mexico City, for other uses read Zona Rosa (disambiguation)

The Zona Rosa (Pink Zone) is the name used to refer to a part of Colonia Juarez in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City on one side of Paseo de la Reforma. This part of Mexico City received its name because of the many buildings painted on wonderful shades of pink.

The area is roughly in bound by the Paseo de la Reforma, Insurgentes Avenue, Chapultepec Avenue, Florencia Street and the Paseo de Bucareli with signs properly marked to determine where the Zona Rosa is.

During the administration of President Porfirio Diaz, the neighborhood became an important suburb of Mexico City. The mansions (called "casas porfirianas") were built in Beaux-Arts architecture. During the time between 1891 and 1902 a trolley provided transportation from this area to Chapultepec.

In the 1950s the suburb became a business, commercial, social and tourist center. In the 1960s, art galleries were created with the support of artist and intellectuals such as José Luis Cuevas and Guadalupe Amor and the area received many tourists during the 1968 Olympics. The cosmopolitan feature of the area attracted local and international visitors which encouraged the creation of hotels, nightclubs and restaurants as well as handicraft markets and antique stores.

Today the area is better known for encapsulating a big portion of the city's gay bars and restaurants; the "pink" in Pink Zone taking whole new meanings.