On Juárez Avenue

Juárez Avenue is a major street in downtown Mexico City.  It heads from the Paseo de la Reforma (the city's most famous boulevard) eastward, past the lovely park known as the Alameda and the Palace of Fine Arts, to the historic center.  The south side of the avenue was long a busy commercial area of stores, cinemas and hotels.  Then the tragic earthquake of 1985 left many of the buildings along the avenue in ruins.  The area became a sad and dangerous area.  Finally, in 2005 the area saw a resurgence with the construction of a complex known as Plaza Juárez.

The centerpiece of the complex is the colonial church of Corpus Christi which survived the quake.  It was built in 1720 and was part of a convent which was the first to allow indigenous women to belong to a religious order.  The former church was restored and now is an historic archives building.

Surrounding the church are modern buildings designed by one of Mexico's leading architects, Ricardo Legoretta.  These include two office towers which house the Secretariat of Foreign Relations and the Superior Tribunal.

Legoretta also designed the adjacent Museum of Memory and Tolerance, a museum which deals with the Holocaust, other genocides, and issues of human rights.

I visited it quite a few years ago, before I started writing this blog, I believe.  It is a sobering and impressive museum.  Perhaps on my next trip I will revisit it and write about it here.

At the entrance to the museum there is a fragment of the Berlin Wall on display.

In front of the museum are busts of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, and Nelson Mandela.

The courtyard between these buildings includes a number of works of art.  This monumental, abstract sculpture entitled "Bird of Two Faces" was done by a noted Mexican artist, Juan Soriano.

On the far wall of the courtyard is a three-dimensional mural by David Alfaro Siqueiros, one the "big three" of the Mexican muralist movement of the 20th century.  It is entitled "Velocity".

The mural was created in 1953 for the Mexico City Chrysler factory, which no longer exists.  Siqueiros, who experimented with "sculpture-paintings", used tiles and Venetian glass embedded in cement to create a work which would withstand the outdoor elements.  The mural was saved before the factory was torn down and transported to this complex.