Barrio San Miguel, Iztapalapa

The Barrio San Miguel is today one of the eight central neighborhoods of Iztapalapa, the colonial-era Iztapalapa de Cuitlahuac. The neighborhood was recorded with this name as early as 1720, although the area was inhabited long before.

Like the other neighborhoods, San Miguel was long centered around a chapel, dependent on the San Lucas Church. The parish church was only begun in 1958. And today it’s the center for religious life, as San Miguel plays an important role in the Semana Santa celebrations each year.

Today, the giant neighborhood radiates from the Avenida Luis Hidalgo Monroy, which stretches some 2.6 kms across the most important parts of it. It’s interestingly one of the only Avenida Hidalgos in the city that’s not named for Independence Hero, Miguel Hidalgo.

• Luis Hidalgo Monroy (1876 -1946) was an important pedagogue, teacher and school administrator. Originally from Veracruz, he taught at many schools and later at the National Teachers School in Mexico City. He later participated in the Mexican Revolution and eventually achieved the rank of colonel. After the war, he became a teacher at the National University and was head of Primary Instruction and Pedagogical Studies for the Federal Secretary of Public Education.

With the Iztapalapa campus of the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM) just to the north of the neighborhood, it’s been growing quickly. The Purisima Market and adjoining sports complex were parts of an extensive 2014-15 urban renovation plan that modernized the Hildalgo corridor. That runs all the way from San Lucas in the northwest, to the end of the Barrio San Miguel in the southeast. It’s a much -improved walking, biking, and commerical corridor and one that’s increasingly important in Iztapalapa.