Colonia Roma
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Colonia Roma is a neighborhood in the central borough of Cuauhtémoc in Mexico City. Officially what locals call Colonia Roma are actually two neighborhoods: Colonia Roma Sur and Colonia Roma Norte. It is well known for its Beaux-Arts architecture. It is one of the centers of Mexico City's current real estate boom and new buildings are being built on the empty lots left by the 1985 Mexico City earthquake.
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[edit] History
The name of Colonia Roma comes, not from the Italian city, but from a small village located in a corner of what today is Colonia Roma. The Pueblo de la Romita during Aztec times was named Aztacalco and its name was changed after the Spanish conquest when the church N. Señora de la Natividad (Our Lady of the Nativity) was built in 1530. Even if most of La Romita was destroyed in the early 20th century, when Colonia Roma was developed, the church still remains.
As in the case of Colonia Condesa, the lands that later became Colonia Roma were also part of the Hacienda de la Condesa. It was developed by the Compañía de Terrenos de la Calzada de Chapultepec owned by: Edward Walter Orrin, Casius Clay Lamm, his son Lewis Lamm and Pedro Lascuráin.
Its original inhabitants were members of the Mexican middle and upper-middle class: lawyers, civil servants, etc. In the 1940’s the wealthier inhabitants began to leave the neighborhood towards the western suburbs like Las Lomas and in their place Lebanese, Jewish and other immigrants moved in.
The neighborhood was heavily damaged by the 1985 earthquake, however the heavier damage was done to (and by) the newer buildings. Of the remaining buildings built between 1906 an 1930 only five were partially or totally damaged. Most were damaged by neighboring newer buildings. In some cases small parks stand where some buildings collapsed.
[edit] Notable residents
- Writers Ramón López-Velarde, José Rubén Romero, Jorge Ibargüengoitia, Juan José Arreola, José Agustín, Sergio Pitol, José Emilio Pacheco, William S. Burroughs and Fernando del Paso
- Artists: David Alfaro Siqueiros, Pedro Friedberg, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Leonora Carrington.
[edit] Architecture
As a central neighborhood in Mexico City its architecture has suffered multiple changes and there are examples of almost all the architectural movements of the 20th century, however there are still many beaux arts buildings left that give the neighborhood its character. Rio de Janeiro square is a very good example of what the whole neighborhood looked like in the early 20th century. Some notable buildings are the Sagrada Familia Church, Casa Lamm and the Balmori building. This cosmopolitan neighborhood has a style that could easily remind the classic and art nouveau style from Central European cities such as Prague. The whole neighborhood has a European style look.
[edit] Today
Although it is less gentrified than Condesa its flavour is similar to the former and a lot of people refer to them indistinctively. Most people may not be able to identify where one neighborhood starts and the other one ends. There is, however, a price difference in the real estate market that makes Colonia Roma more appealing to younger people than Condesa which is definitely more "yuppiesque".
The main difference is the architectural style. The dominating style in Colonia Roma is the beaux-arts style, while Colonia Condesa features great art deco architecture.
[edit] Points of interest
- Rio de Janeiro Square. Historic square surrounded by Beaux Arts buildings.
- Square of the Cibeles. Reproduction of the Cibeles fountain in the Paseo del Prado in Madrid.
- Alvaro Obregón avenue. Wide boulevard surrounded by some Beaux Arts buildings such as Casa Lamm cultural centre.
