Another Historic Corner of the City

One gray, dreary day last week I walked to a little corner of the city which I had not seen before, even though it is not too far from my apartment... Colonia San Juan.  It is a largely residential neighborhood just off of busy Avenida Revolución with not much of interest.  However there is a small plaza which is flanked by a colonial church and a couple of historic houses.

The Church of San Juan Evangelista y Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (St. John the Evangelist and Our Lady of Guadalupe) dates back to the 17th century.  The interior is quite attractive.

The plaza in front of the church is named after Valentín Gómez Farias, a 19th century politician.  A bust of him stands on the plaza.

Gómez Farias was a prominent member of the liberal party in the years after Mexico won its independence from Spain.  He sponsored reforms to abolish special privileges of the Church and the army and to secularize education.  His efforts were thwarted by conservatives, and his reforms were rescinded under the dictator Santa Ana.  Nevertheless his ideas were central to the reforms later enacted by President Benito Juárez.

This house facing the plaza was the home of Gómez Farias.  It now houses a research institute.

Next door to the Gómez Farias home is a 19th century house that was the home of the Mexican poet and essayist Octavio Paz.  Paz won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990 and is most famous for his book of essays "The Labyrinth of Solitude", an analysis of the Mexican character.

The house is now a convent of Dominican nuns.

As I was heading back to Avenida Revolución to return to my apartment, a taxi driver with a passenger stopped and asked me where the house of Octavio Paz is.  "Just down the street," I said.