The modern face of the city is outlined in the Historical Archive of CDMX

The memory of this capital lies in the Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora Historical Archive of Mexico City. It houses a considerable part of the official documentation that accounts for just over 500 years of modern life of the city, from the initial moments of its formation after the Conquest, to its subsequent development and its constant process of transformation.

According to Gerardo Romero Medrano, coordinator of Research and Dissemination of that body, it is a political-administrative archive made up of six documentary collections and a plan library covering from 1524 to 1997, where there is also a record with the signature of Hernán Cortés. that files on the student movement of 1968, the dirty war, the assassination of León Trotsky, the imprisonment of José Revueltas and the first wrestling performances in the country, in addition to social mobilizations such as the one undertaken by residents of Peñón de los Baños to have their pantheon.

Altogether, the historian states, such a collection allows us to understand how the face of our metropolis has been defined in various areas, from the political, economic and social to commercial, police and health, among others.

These funds, he specifies, are that of the City Council of Mexico City, in which the documentation that emanated from the city council of this city is kept since it was established, in 1524, until its disappearance, in 1928, as well as the titled Government of the Federal District, in which there is documentation from 1824 to 1928, a period that covers from the creation of this entity and until the district powers were withdrawn with the formation of the District Department Federal.

The third is the Prisons and Penitentiaries collection, with documents from the city’s detention centers, from municipal prisons and Belén, to the Lecumberri penitentiary and a part of the Women’s prison, covering from 1900 to 1985. There is also the Municipalities, which begins in 1752 and ends in 1928, when the figure of municipality disappeared.

The Department of the Federal District collection has documents from 1929 to 1997, while the last one is the Esperanza Iris special collection, the only collection of private origin protected by that entity, which allows us to delve into the life and work of that outstanding actress (1888-1962). through some of her diaries and documents collected by her, such as photographs, administrative receipts from her theater, theater programs and posters, as well as work and intimate correspondence.

The plan library covers the period from 1776 to 1976, specifies the historian, who assures that the collection of that institution has a linear continuity that is only disrupted in two moments. The first, he explains, from 1521 to 1524, after the fall of Tenochtitlan, while the second is from 1654 to 1692.

It is documentation that we do not know if it was burned, lost or taken away. Outside of these gaps, the rest is in continuity with the historicity of the period. Obviously, we do not have all the documents that talk about the changes in the city, because not all of them went through the offices, due to bureaucracy. There are things that happened purely because of the population or by force.

Gerardo Romero specifies that the archive contains nearly 5 thousand volumes, of which he notes that only 5 percent has been digitized. It highlights that, as far as is known, this collection has not suffered theft or looting, although it admits that in 2020 They smashed one of the windows and took some boxes from the back of the Prisons and Penitentiaries, but we don’t know if it was an intentional robbery..

After highlighting that this historical archive is open for consultation to researchers, specialists and the general public, he emphasizes that among other files and collections here there is, within the City Council fund, the Book of Council Minutes, which covers from 1524 to 1529 , It is the oldest document in the country. It has 56 pages and at the end an annex of the copy of the granting of the coat of arms that Charles V made to the city, which is valid to this day.

It details that in that same fund, as part of the Government, Laws, Sides and Decrees collection, there is one of the first official prohibitions against marijuana in the Mexican capital, from 1869. According to the side of the time, the use of that plant It was regulated after its medicinal properties were surpassed by the social problems caused by its recreational use and excessive consumption. Thus, its sale was granted only to druggists, drugstore managers and pharmacists, being prohibited in markets.

The researcher highlights how one of the significant files from the Department of the Federal District fund that of the Secret Police, within which is the case of Support Cárdenas, famous multi-homicide and necrophile from the early 1940s who killed four minor women.

The file is important because it is one of the most complete we have. It contains the sequence of the judicial follow-up carried out by the police, newspaper clippings and photographs of the removal of the victims’ bodies.

The Historical Archive of Mexico City is located at República de Chile 8, in the Historic Center, with hours Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Guided tours are held on the second and fourth Friday of each month.