La Merced is a barrio or a neighborhood of Mexico City defined by its socioeconomics and history rather than by an official designation. It extends over the southeast of the historic center of Mexico City and is one of the oldest sections of the city, established over 700 years ago by the Mexica as part of the founding of Tenochtitlan. Over its history the area was associated with commerce, first as a major docking area for boats bringing goods to Tenochtitlan/Mexico City on Lake Texcoco, later via canals as the lake was slowly drained. In the latter 19th century, the La Merced market was established in the area replacing the massive La Merced monastery which was almost completely destroyed in the 1860s. This market was established to centralize the marketing of foodstuffs for the city on one area. The first La Merced market was built in 1890 and then replaced by the current building in 1957, one of the largest traditional Mexican markets in Mexico City. In the 1980s, the wholesale function of this market was taken over by the newly constructed Centro de Abasto in the south of the city, with the barrio then going into economic and social decline, with the area having problems with poverty, prostitution and population loss. Although there have been efforts to revitalize the area and the La Merced market remains important.
Geography
La Merced is a "barrio" an unofficial city division, located in the southeast corner of the historic center of Mexico City. Although somewhat fluid, its borders are generally considered to be formed by the streets of Corregiadora, Zavala and Candelaria in the north, Fray Servando Teresa de Mier in the south, Congreso de la Unión to the east and José María Pino Suárez to the west. It covers a territory of 106 city blocks or 121 hectares, accounting for about thirteen and a half percent of the city's historic center. It is part of the declared World Heritage site, with about forty percent of the area's historic buildings.
Officially, the area is divided among two of the boroughs of the Federal District of Mexico City, Cuauhtémoc and Venustiano Carranza. In addition, it is divided into "colonias" or official neighborhoods called Merced Balbuena (in Venustiano Carranza) and Colonia Centro (in Cuauhtémoc).
The neighborhood is defined by both its history and its social structure with most of formerly occupied by the massive La Merced monastery complex. The neighborhood is divided into three zones. The "antigua" (old) section is the largest with 97 blocks and corresponds to the lands of the La Merced monastery and the first La Merced market. It is defined by the streets of San Pablo to the south, Corregiadora to the north, Circunvalación to the east and José María Pino Suárez to the west. Here the population is more stable although it has suffered a loss of population like the rest of the historic center. Its businesses have shifted from retail outlets to warehouses with the exception of the westernmost section. The western section is almost entirely commercial with few residences. This area also has the largest number of street vendors.
The San Pablo section was the former Teopan shrine. It is bordered by Fray Servando Teresa de Mier to the south, San Pablo to the north, Circunvalacion to the east and Pino Suárez to the west. It itself subdivides into two areas. The southeast dominated by the San Lucas plaza and the other by two churches called San Pablo el Viejo and San Pablo el Joven. The last section is dominated by the current La Merced market, commonly referred to as "las naves" (the naves) and belongs to the Venustiano Carranza borough. This area subdivides into the market area devoted to produce, a residential area dominated by the Candelaria de los Patos apartment complex and another residential area along the Congreso de la Unión.
Socioeconomics
The barrio has been mostly defined by both its socioeconomics and history, traditionally associated with retail and wholesale commerce, especially traditional Mexican foodstuffs. Its reliance on commerce done in families and influx of migrants has supported a notable social structure made up of social clusters within the barrio. As the area's commerce provided ready employment in the 20th century, the area attracted migrants from other areas of Mexico and from abroad. It has absorbed various Mexican indigenous peoples such as the Triquis, Mazahuas, Otomis, Mazatecos, Nahuas, Chinantecos and Purépechas. Foreign immigration has included Lebanese, Jewish, Spanish, Greek, Italian, Turkish, French, Syrian, Irish, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, African, German, Croatian, Bohemian, and Armenian from Europe, Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, and Indians from Asia as well as immigrants from Africa and the Middle East. One notable establishment related to immigration in the area is Café Bagdad, which is popular among the Lebanese population, which comes to drink Middle Eastern style coffee. It is famous for its antique cash register as well as its coffee and pastries. The area remains multicultural although Catholic religious festivals still dominate.
Despite being part of the historic center of Mexico City and a World Heritage Site, the area is marginalized and poor, lacking the cultural amenities found in other parts of the historic center. Its socioeconomic marginalization is a result of various disruptions such as population movement and modernization efforts that included dividing the area politically and through the construction of large thoroughfares. This history has made residents skeptical of government interventions. Depopulation of the areas since the 1980s has limited residential areas west of the La Aguilita Plaza, which has acted as a barrier to commercial growth to the west side. This area has problems with squatting, prostitution, robbery, the establishment of strip clubs and corruption. Many of the buildings were traditionally of mixed use being residence, storage and commercial, with commercial uses on the lower floors and residential uses for the upper. The depopulation has led to many building with empty upper floors despite the fact that the city overall has a housing shortage.
The most visible of the area's ills is prostitution, being one of Mexico City's seven red-light districts where the practice is tolerated by authorities. The tolerance has led to problems with the trafficking of women . Lines of prostitutes can be seen even in the daytime. The estimated number in the area vary between 800 and 1,200, with most seen on Fridays, Saturdays and traditional paydays. Most perform their services in one of four hotels. About forty percent are from Puebla and Tlaxcala, thirty percent from Oaxaca, twenty percent from Veracruz, Chiapas, Hidalgo and Tabasco, with the rest from Mexico City, the State of Mexico and Morelos.
The Brigada Callejera (Streetwalker Brigade) is a civil organization founded in 1983 to protect the human rights of prostitutes, and well as of transgender people and people with HIV/AIDS. The organization states that most prostitutes begin as minors and in 2008 prompted the city to crack down on hotels in La Merced and Buenavista where sexual exploitation of women and girls was worst. However, the problem persists.
Legends and stories In addition to a long history, the area is home to many legends and ghost stories. These include that of Esperanza Goyeneche de Ruiz Garica whose ghost is said to appear in narrow alleys. One related to the old Merced church states that the priest once caught a thief there. The priest then cut off the thief's hand and displayed it in the church to deter others. A reference to this story can be seen with the representation of a hand at the entrance of a house facing the Plaza Alonso Garcia Bravo. In the 1980s a rumor began about a fifty-kilo rat blamed for the disappearance of domestic cats and dogs. Although proof was never found, many people still believe the story, said to have gotten to that size eating the mounds of garbage produced by the La Merced market.
Landmarks
With a few exceptions, buildings have not been preserved for their historic value but rather used for commercial purposes. There are seventeen historic sites declared with the World Heritage Site declaration in 1980, 39 declared such by INAH and 33 more contained in other catalogs. The most important of these is the cloister of the La Merced monastery, the parish of La Soledad, the church and former convent of Jesús María, the former monastery of San Gerónimo, the Candelaria chapel, the parishes of Santo Tomás de la Palma, San Pablo el Viejo and San Pablo en Nuevo, the San Luca chapel, the monastery hospital of San Camilo, the San José de Gracia church, the Hospital San Lázaro, the Palace of the Counts of Calimaya and the Casa Talavera. Other historic landmarks include the Casa de las Gallas, the Casa de Calpixques, the former Garita de San Lázaro and the Casa de Diezmo. Thirty nine of these buildings are at high risk of being lost.
The best known landmark of the barrio is not historic but rather commercial, a massive traditional market of the same name, La Merced . Located in the barrio's heart, between Anillo de Circunvalacion and Morazán streets, this market is one of the largest of its kind in Latin America. With the main structure 400 meters long and containing over 3,000 stalls, with its own Metro station inside. In its earlier history, it was not only the wholesale market for the city but one of the main ones for the country. The Nave Mayor sells produce and the Nave Menor sells meat, fish, dairy, packaged groceries and cold cuts. A section called the "desnivel" (not-level) has a variety of food stalls. There is also an area dedicated to handcrafts, tools/utensils and toys and annexes dedicated to fresh and artificial flowers and plants as well as one dedicated to candy. While still a large and important market, at its height it supported hundreds human carriers called mecalapers, watchmen, baggers and warehousers, trades such as carpentry, tailoring and glassworking and other businesses such as restaurants, lodging, cantinas and bars specializing in pulque.
The origin of the barrio's name really comes from a monastery built at the end of the 16th century called Nuestra Señora de la Merced de la Redención de los Cautivos (Monastery of Our Lady of Grace of the Redemption of Captives), the only major Mercedarian establishment in New Spain . All that remains of a complex that extended over most of what is now the modern barrio is a small cloister near the Plaza Alonso García Bravo, noted for its highly elaborate relief work.
Another major colonial religious institution was the Jesús María convent, which was founded in the 16th century for upper-class Spanish women. It was home to the illegitimate daughter of Philip II of Spain. Only the main patio of the convent and its accompanying church remain. The convent building was home to a furniture store and a cinema but today it is abandoned and being rehabilitated by INAH.