Plaza of the Three Cultures
Plaza de las Tres Culturas Mexico City
Travel And Tour Photos And Pictures

George And Audrey DeLange

Plaza of the Three Cultures: Located at Lazaro Cardeuas Y Manuel Gonzales Streets. (Three Cultures Square). Lázaro Cárdenas Av. at Eje 1 Norte Av., next to Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (Department of Foreign Affairs). Not far from Plaza Garibaldi. The Plaza of the Three Cultures, known as the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Spanish, symbolizes Mexico’s unique cultural heritage. Once the center of some of the most powerful Native American empires (Aztec), Mexico became a flourishing Spanish colony in the 16th century. Today, most Mexicans are mestizos, or persons with mixed European and Native American ancestry representing a third culture, thus the name of the area represents a mixture of all three cultures. The Plaza of 3 Cultures is located at the ancient city Aztec city of Tlatelolco where you can see the ruins of You can also see the Colonial Cathedral of Santiago which dates back to 1524 (although it was rebuilt in 1609), inside there is the baptismal fountain of Juan Diego, the indian to whom, according to tradition, the Virgen de Guadalupe de Guadalupe appeared in 1531. Also nearby there are many apartment buildings, and government buildings. The structures which represent the Three Cultures are therefore the ancient Aztec city of Tlatelolco, the Colonial Cathedral of Santiago, and the Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (Department of Foreign Affairs) building. These three structures can all be seen together at the same location. Of course, the modern city of Mexico City surrounds the entire area. The plaza is also important as being the site of three terrible events in Mexican history. It was at Tlatelolco that on August 13, 1521 the Aztecs made their final stand against the Spanish army led by Hernan Cortes. It is said that 40,000 Aztecs died in the desperate struggle and their bodies clogged the local canals for days afterward. The battle is memorialized in the plaza by a plaque which reads in part, "Neither a victory nor a defeat, but the painful moment of birth of the Mexico of today, of a race of Mestizos". With that day came the end of the pre-Columbian era in Mexican history. The second tragedy occurred on 20 October 1968 when Mexican soldiers, equipped with tanks and machine guns, fired into a crowd of 14,000 unarmed students who were staging a protest against spending on the 1968 Summer Olympics being held in Mexico City. A huge monument at the site lists the names and ages of some of the students who fell that day. The plaza was the site of more death on September 19, 1985 when an early morning earthquake caused a modern building adjacent to the plaza to collapse. For days thereafter tents were erected on the plaza as temporary shelter for some of those left homeless by the quake. The earthquake, which affected Mexico City, left at least 8,000 dead. The part of the ancient city Aztec city of Tlatelolco that is excavated is only a small part of Tlatelolco. Much of the ancient city is under the modern buildings that surround the plaza.

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