15-07-20-Plaza-de-las-tres-Culturas-RalfR-N3S 9297

The Plaza de las Tres Culturas ("Plaza of the Three Cultures") is the main square within the Tlatelolco neighborhood of

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

. The name "Three Cultures" is in recognition of the three periods of

Mexican history The written history of Mexico spans more than three millennia. First populated more than 13,000 years ago, central and southern Mexico (termed Mesoamerica) saw the rise and fall of complex indigenous civilizations. Mexico would later develop ...

reflected by buildings in the plaza:

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

, Spanish colonial, and the independent nation. The plaza, designed by Mexican architect and urbanist

Mario Pani Mario Pani Darqui (March 29, 1911 – February 23, 1993) was a famous Mexican architect and urbanist. He was one of the most active urbanists under the Mexican Miracle, and gave form to a good part of the urban appearance of Mexico City, with ...

, was completed in 1966. 15-07-20-Plaza-de-las-tres-Culturas-RalfR-N3S 9336

The square contains the archaeological site of the city-state of Tlatelolco and is flanked by the oldest European school of higher learning in the Americas called the College of Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco (built in 1536 by friar Juan de Torquemada; for the role of Torquemada, see his ''Monarquía indiana, Lib. XVII, cap. 5'') and by a massive housing complex built in 1964. The former headquarters of the

Secretariat of Foreign Affairs The Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs ( es, Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, ''SRE'', lit: Secretariat of External Relations) is the government department responsible for Mexico's foreign affairs. Mexico currently has 80 embassies, 3 ...

(

foreign ministry In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

) also stands on the southern edge of the square. This headquarters now houses a memorial museum called "Memorial 68", opened by

UNAM The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigge ...

in October 2007,
Arroyo is the Director of CCUT, which houses the museum. to remember the 1968 Mexican student demonstrations and the

Tlatelolco Massacre On October 2, 1968 in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City, the Mexican Armed Forces opened fire on a group of unarmed civilians in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas who were protesting the upcoming 1968 Summer Olympics. The Mexican government and ...

victims and survivors. On the south side of the Plaza stands a large stone memorial erected on October 2, 1993, the 25th anniversary of the massacre, in memory of the hundreds killed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Plaza De Las Tres Culturas Plazas in Mexico City Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City Landmarks in Mexico City

See also

References