Casa de Cultura IV República

The Casa de Cultura IV República is a small cultural center serving primarily the La Lagunilla, Tepito, and Peralvillo neighborhoods. These three, nearly unofficial, barrios make up the north of the Mexico City center. With some overlaps, they’re mostly parts of the more-official Colonia Morelos. Some local residents certainly come from parts of the Centro Histórico to the immediate south.

The center is mostly known for offering workshops in ballet and dance, choral singing, yoga and karate for young people. It was opened in 2012 in a historic 19th-century building. The casa is operated by the local alcaldía, that is, by the Cuauhtémoc government.

• The IV República, The Fourth Republic, is one of those difficult-to-pin-down, aspirational descriptions of a political Mexico that citizens hope to see. The phrase has cropped up in political rhetoric, speeches, and government programs since at least the end of World War II, with the closure of the period following the Mexican Revolution. It may have been subsumed, as a concept, within the larger 4T movement, that of a “Fourth Transformation” of the present administration.

The Casa de Cultura IV República offers a bright spot for the local community. The ancient neighborhood has long lived a somewhat obscure resistance to the nearby center of Mexico City. That partly explains the confusing mis-naming and renaming of actual barrios and communities. But it’s long been a center of culture, commerce, exchange, and spirit. The Casa is an important part of all of that.

Hours: Daily 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.