The “Barrios Mágicos” of Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

is a list of twenty one areas in the Federal District, which have been named “magical neighborhoods” in order to attract tourism to them. The program is sponsored by the city government but is patterned after the “Pueblos Mágicos” (Magical Towns) program of the Mexican federal government. However, one difference is that the city does not require the “barrios” to make changes in their appearance to be accepted.

The first of the barrios were named in 2011 by city Secretary of Tourism Alejandro Rojas Díaz Durán. Each of the twenty one named neighborhoods received stylistic scrolls with the accreditation with acceptance by registration in the official newspaper called the Gaceta Oficial del DF. The first to receive its scroll was Santa María Magdalena Atlitic.

The twenty one neighborhoods include the historic center of Coyoacán

Coyoacán

Coyoacán refers to one of the sixteen boroughs of the Federal District of Mexico City as well as the former village which is now the borough’s “historic center.” The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means “place of coyotes,” when the Aztecs named a pre-Hispanic village on the southern shore...

, the Roma

Colonia Roma

Colonia Roma is a colonia or neighborhood located in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City just west of the city’s historic center. The area was a very shallow part of Lake Texcoco, dotted with tiny islands and one small island village of Aztacalco during the pre-Hispanic period...

-Condesa zone, the historic center of Xochimilco

Xochimilco

Xochimilco is one of the sixteen delegaciones or boroughs within Mexican Federal District. The borough is centered on the formerly independent city of Xochimilco, which was established on what was the southern shore of Lake Xochimilco in the pre-Hispanic period...

, San Ángel

San Ángel

San Ángel is a colonia or neighborhood of Mexico City, located in the southwest in Álvaro Óbregon borough. Historically, it was a rural community, called Tenanitla in the pre Hispanic period. Its current name is derived from the El Carmen monastery school called San Ángel Mártir...

, San Agustín de la Cuevas (historic center of Tlalpan)

Tlalpan

Tlalpan is one of the sixteen administrative boroughs of the Federal District of Mexico City. It is the largest borough, with over eighty percent under conservation as forest and other ecologically sensitive area. The rest, almost all of it on the northern edge, has been urban since the mid 20th...

, Santa María la Ribera

Santa María la Ribera

Colonia Santa María la Ribera is a colonia located in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City, just west of the historic center. It was created in the late 19th century for the affluent who wanted homes outside of the city limits. The colonia reached its height between 1910 and 1930. In the 1930s,...

, Zona Rosa

Zona Rosa

Zona Rosa is a neighborhood in Mexico City which is known for its shopping, nightlife, gay community, and its recently established Korean community...

, Garibaldi

Plaza Garibaldi

Plaza Garibaldi is located in the historic center of Mexico City, on Eje Central between historic Calle República de Honduras and Calle República de Peru, a few blocks north of the Palacio de Bellas Artes. The original name of this plaza was Plaza Santa Cecilia, but in 1910 it was renamed in...

, Villa de Guadalupe, Mixcoac, Tacubaya

Tacubaya

Tacubaya is a section of Mexico City located in the west in the Miguel Hidalgo borough. The area has been inhabited since before the Christian era, with its name coming from Nahuatl meaning “where water is gathered.” From the colonial period to the beginning of the 20th century, Tacubaya was...

, Santa María Magdalena Atlitic, historic center of Azcapotzalco

Azcapotzalco

Azcapotzalco is one of the 16 delegaciones into which Mexico's Federal District is divided. Azcapotzalco is in the northwestern part of Mexico City...

, La Merced, Mixquic, historic center of Cuajimalpa

Cuajimalpa

Cuajimalpa de Morelos is one of the 16 boroughs of Mexico City. Its name comes from the indigenous expression "over sticks of wood"...

, San Pedro Atocpan

San Pedro Atocpan

San Pedro Atocpan is one of the communities that make up the borough of Milpa Alta in the Federal District of Mexico, better known as Mexico City. This location is known for the preparation of mole sauce, which employs over 90% of the community and provides almost all of the sauce that is eaten in...

, Pueblo Culhuacán

Pueblo Culhuacán

Pueblo Culhuacán is an officially designated neighborhood of the Iztapalapa borough of Mexico City, which used to be a major pre Hispanic city. Ancient Culhuacán was founded around 600 CE and the site has continuously occupied since...

, Tacuba

Tacuba (Mexico)

Tacuba is a section of northwest Mexico City. Tacuba was an autonomous municipality until 1928, when it was incorporated into the Central Department along with the municipalities of Mexico, Tacubaya and Mixcoac...

, Santa Julia and the historic center of Iztacalco

Iztacalco

Iztacalco is one of the 16 delegaciones into which Mexico's Federal District is divided. It is located in the center-east of the district and is the smallest of the city’s boroughs. The area’s history began in 1309 when the island of Iztacalco, in what was Lake Texcoco, was settled in 1309 by the...

. The city's Secretary of Tourism plans on having thirty such neighborhoods, with areas such as the Los Dinamos ecological reserve nominated.

The neighborhoods have been declared only on paper as the neither the city or the boroughs have the money to promote them. The program's legality has been questioned by the president of the ALDF Tourism Commission, Carlo Pizano as the designations were made without prior public publication.