Coyoacán

Coyoacán
Casa de Cortes off the main square of Coyoacan. Photo: AlejandroLinaresGarcia

Coyoacán is the place to stay in Mexico City if you love art and history. The original house of Malinche and Cortés is there. It dates from around 1521 and 1522 and it is on Higuera Street, across the street from the Plaza La Conchita, but it does not look like it looked back then, it is in very bad shape, and it is not open to the public. This is it today...

Casa-de-la-Malinche
Photo: Percisco

The building may have been a prison and a monastery at different times and until recently it was owned by two artists who knew Kahlo and Rivera well, linking all the characters in this story. Indeed Parque Frida Kahlo is a few minutes walk away too.

Also in Coyoacán is Frida Kahlo's La Casa Azul (now the Museo Frida Kahlo), and the Trotsky Museum (El Museo Casa de León Trotsky) - more here.

Hidden away unobtrusively in Coyoacán is the sculpture Monumento al Mestizaje by Julián Martínez y M. Maldonado (1982). The photo below only shows Malinche. Below that is the entire sculpture. Originally, I believe it was in the Coyoacán Zócalo, but following protests it was moved to a little known park, the Parque Xicoténcatl, Barrio de San Diego Churubusco. The sculpture depicts Cortés, Malinche and their son.

Malinche-statue
Monumento-al-Mestizaje
Photos: Javier Delgado Rosas