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Colonia Juarez is one of the better–known neighborhoods or colonias in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City. The neighborhood is shaped like a long triangle with the boundaries: Paseo de la Reforma on the north, Avenida Chapultepec on the south, and Eje 1 Poniente (Avenida Bucareli) on the east.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title= Colonia Juarez )〕 It is located between the historic center of Mexico City and the Chapultepec Park area, just south of the Paseo de la Reforma, which is one of Mexico’s main commercial districts and its financial center.〔 Since it was established in the late 19th century and early 20th as a haven for the wealthy leaving the city center, the colonia has been in near constant change. Most of the mansions built in the early part of its history have either been abandoned, converted into businesses or been taken over by squatters. However, it has had a cosmopolitan and intellectual reputation since its founding, which was reinforced with the influx of artists and intellectuals in the 1960s. The area has suffered deterioration since the 1980s, due to the 1985 Mexico City earthquake and other factors, but there have been efforts to return the area’s former prestige, including tourism promotion, historic conservation efforts and the urbanization of areas close to Paseo de la Reforma. The best known area of the colonia is Zona Rosa (Pink Zone) which is a tourist attraction for its artistic and intellectual reputation and is home to Mexico City’s gay community. It is also home to “Little Seoul,” center of the city’s Korean immigrant population. ==History== In the 1860s, this area was shallow lake waters and swamp and was almost completely uninhabited. However, one reason that the city eventually expanded this way was the decision by Empress Carlota to build a road to connect the Castle of Chapultepec to the downtown of the city. The road was designed by Austrian engineer Allois Bollan Kuhmackl in 1865 with its trajectory recommended by the emperor. Its use was exclusive to the emperor and his retinue. When Republican forces overthrew the emperor, this avenue was named Paseo Degollado. A few years later, it received its current name. Between 1872 and 1876, President Lerdo de Tejada widened the road to its current dimensions and opened it to the public in 1877.〔 In the very late 19th century and early 20th century, the historic center of Mexico City was deteriorating as its colonial and Baroque buildings came to be seen as antiquidated. Many of the city’s elite moved to new neighborhoods being constructed in the western suburbs along Paseo de la Reforma.〔 Around the 1880s, the city had west past Colonia Santa Maria de la Ribera, enveloping the areas where now are found the streets named Donato Guerra, Antonio Caso, Balderas, Chapultepec and Bucareli. Just beyond this around 1887, there were still groves and cornfields; however, soon to be built were the streets named Roma, Milán, Lucerna, Dinamarca, Hamburgo, Londres, Berlín, Río Neva, Río Amazonas and Avenida de los Insurgentes, which form the heart of Colonia Juarez.〔 Many of the new streets were named after European capital due to early resident and ex-consulate of Mexico Ricardo García Granado, as his children had been born in some of these cities as he performed his diplomatic duties. Originally, the area now known as Colonia Juárez consisted of four colonias established in the mid-19th century: Los Arquitectos, Bucareli, Del Paseo and Nuea del Paseos. Much of this area was lakebed that was in process of drying up; in fact at the beginning of the 20th century, there were still gulleys with water in them, most of which were around what is now the Cuauhtemoc traffic circle.〔 The four colonias would officially be unified in 1906, under the name of Colonia Benito Juárez García, but the area was unofficially known as Colonia Americana for some time before that.〔 At the end of the 19th century, this area became a favorite getaway for the wealthy elite of Mexico City, who began to build country houses here, to be close to the Chapultepec forest. Many foreigners also located here, due to the presence of a number of embassies.〔 However, because these houses were built in an orderly fashion along straight streets, the area soon lost its country look. The city government initially tried to halt the development by the area but extending and raising property taxes, but it did not work.〔 The area became the most exclusive in Mexico City, as wealthy families sought to create a European mode of living.〔 The first residents of the new colonia were those who made their fortunes in land speculation, haciendas in other parts of Mexico, mines, banks, oil and railroads. Many of the buildings had French influence, which was popular at the time, which even included mansard roofs, despite the fact that it never snows here.〔 Because many of the houses on Londres Street in the east part of the colonia had these mansard roofs, the area was popularly known as Colonia Limantour, for this and the presence of one of the most important people to live here, José Ives Limantour, the then Minister of Taxation.〔 Prices for land in the colonia rose rapidly from 50 cents per unit in 1872 to $25 in 1903. This was one of the first residential areas of the city to have electricity. This allowed residents the luxury of staying up late, and began the area’s reputation as a night spot, as residents went out for coffee and other socializing spaces nearby.〔 During the regime of Porfirio Díaz, the area was filled with restaurants, cafes, bakeries and plazas were people gathered to socialize during evenings and weekends. One early prominent location was the Hotel Emporio on Paseo de la Reforma, which had tea rooms and cafes, attracting some of the wealthiest families in the city. Another similar locale was the Hotel Imperial, which also had various stores. Both buildings still exist and the Emporio conserves most of its original facade. Another famous hotel was the Hotel Reforma. It was home to a bar called “Ciro’s” during the 1940s and 1950s, where Pedro Infante began his career; María Félix visited and Agustín Lara gave concerts. It has since been demolished for redevelopment. When the colonia was built, a large number of sculptures were added to the public areas, especially on Paseo de la Reforma. Lining both sides are statues honoring writers, political leaders, and others. One prominent sculpture is that of Cuauhtémoc, for which neighboring Colonia Cuauhtémoc was named. Another is a monument to Christopher Columbus, which was a gift from Antonio Escandon.〔 The most famous section of Colonia Juarez, Zona Rosa, began as development by Rafael Martínez de la Torre, which he envisioned as a satellite city away from Mexico City catering to the wealthy. At his death in 1882, the project stagnated until Salvador Malo acquired the rights to the area and participated in creating a district council for it. Work on developing this area faltered again until the early 20th century when the México City Improvement Company and the Chapultepec Land Improvement Company took over.〔 The Mexican Revolution brought the upscale and international community here to an end, as it represented the Porfirian era. Many of the houses here were abandoned and some, such as the one belonging to Francisco I. Madero were burned during a Decena Trágica in 1913. After the war was over, a number of these mansions were appropriated by the government to house institutions such as the Secretary of Health, now Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social .〔 By the mid-20th century, the semi rural colonia was soon engulfed by the rapidly expanding city. Many of its first residents then moved to new neighborhoods such as Lomas de Chapultepec, Polanco and Colonia Del Valle. The older houses, especially in the Zona Rosa area, began to be converted into businesses.〔 However, it still remained upscale with the wedding of Alex Berger to María Félix occurring at an Art Nouveau mansion at Londres #6 in 1956 (today the Wax Museum).〔 In the 1960s, artists and writers from the La Ruptura movement such as José Luis Cuevas, Carlos Monsiváis Aceves, Carlos Fuentes and José Agustin moved into the Zona Rosa area. This group gave the area its name because it was “too red to be white and too white to be red,” meaning that it tolerated some vice but not too much. In 1967, Cuevas, in an act which was reported by various local stations, created a mural on a roof in Zona Rosa which he destroyed seconds after he finished, as a protest against the social and political content of post- Revolution Mexican muralism . The presence of artists and intellectuals in the area prompted the opening of bookstores and art galleries. The colonia hosted other names such as Guadalupe Amor, Manuel Felguérez, Lilia Carrillo, Alfonso Suarez del Real and Elena Poniatowski .〔〔 These people brought a new wave in internationalism to the area and made the area popular with international tourists to Mexico City. This spurred more development in the way of restaurants, handcraft markets, antiques, nightclubs and more, not all of which was upscale. In the late 1980s into the 1990s, restaurants and bars displaced art galleries and other cultural establishments, but this did not diminish the area’s popularity with tourists.〔〔 The Colonia retained its intellectual and artistic reputation from the 1960s to the late 1980s.〔 However, the 1985 Mexico City earthquake damaged many buildings in the area and devastated a number such as Plaza Washington. This and a severe economic crisis started a process of deterioration, with many residents moving out.(lacustre) Street peddlers have significantly increased in number and many of the damaged structures are inhabited by squatters or have been converted into tenements, with absentee landlords that did not bother to collect the long-frozen rents. Most of the stately homes still in good condition have been converted into businesses such as nightclubs. Residents complain that infrastructure, especially lighting, has not been sufficiently maintained, leading to crime.〔 Until recently, Zona Rosa has remained popular with tourists although this has waned somewhat with the area’s deterioration.〔 Tourism has been both a blessing and a curse to the area. It has attracted big names such as Paul McCartney, to stay here, but it has caused damaged and vandalism to sites. One major incident of this type when British soccer fans caused damage in 1985,leading to the destruction of the Calinda Geneve Hotel. Another was a more recent boycott of Jewish businesses by anti-Zionists.〔 Soon after their installation, the parking meters paid for major reconstruction work on Havre Street. Major sidewalk, pedestrian street and garden area reconstruction was undertaken in the Zona Rosa area in the mid-to-late first decade of the 21st century, after 20 years of no maintenance. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Colonia Juárez, Mexico City」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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