Ciudad Satélite (), commonly known as Satélite, is a
Greater Mexico City
Greater Mexico City refers to the conurbation around Mexico City, officially called Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico ( es, Zona metropolitana del Valle de México). It encompasses Mexico City itself and 60 adjacent municipalities of the S ...
upper middle class suburban area located in
Naucalpan
Naucalpan, officially Naucalpan de Juárez, is one of 125 municipalities located just northwest of Mexico City in the adjoining State of Mexico. The municipal seat is the city of Naucalpan de Juárez, which extends into the neighboring municipal ...
,
State of Mexico
The State of Mexico ( es, Estado de México; ), officially just Mexico ( es, México), is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Commonly known as Edomex (from ) to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is ...
. Officially, the name corresponds exclusively to the homonym neighborhood, Ciudad Satélite, founded circa 1957. With time, the area surrounding it, including upper-class neighborhoods like
Lomas Verdes
Lomas Verdes is an upper-middle-class neighborhood located in the north of Mexico City. The community was developed in the late 1960s and is near Ciudad Satélite (which was founded in 1957). Lomas Verdes means "Green Hills" in Spanish, as the te ...
, Echegaray, Paseos del Bosque or Colonial Satélite, alongside adjacent municipalities
Atizapán de Zaragoza
Atizapán de Zaragoza is a municipalities of the State of Mexico, municipality, in State of Mexico in Mexico. The municipality covers an area of 91.07 km². In 2010, the municipality had a total population of 489,937. At the west side of the ...
and
Tlalnepantla de Baz
Tlalnepantla de Baz is one of 125 municipalities of the state of Mexico, north of Mexico City. The municipal seat and largest city in the municipality is the city of Tlalnepantla. ''Tlalnepantla'' comes from the Náhuatl words ''tlalli'' (land) ...
, have become collectively known as "Satélite", due to its prominence as both an economically and socially dynamic area.
Initially conceived as a city outside the city, in response to the increasing population 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 ...
's upper classes, it was one of Mexico's most prominent architectural ventures of the 20th century.
Ciudad Satélite, historia de un sueño moderno
Excelsior. Retrieved October 26, 2018. Designed and built by Mexican architects 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 ...
and José Luis Cuevas Pietrasanta
José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ).
In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacu ...
on grounds of then president Miguel Alemáns family ranch, Los Pirules, which was purchased from the Fuentes-Centurion family on the hacienda Los Chabacanos, it quickly rose to prominence among city dwellers wishing to acquire property outside the city proper.
Definition
Satélite was originally conceived as a satellite city
Satellite cities or satellite towns are smaller municipalities that are adjacent to a principal city which is the core of a metropolitan area. They differ from mere suburbs, subdivisions and especially bedroom communities in that they have mun ...
, a commuter bedroom community developers hoped to maintain a green belt between it and Mexico City, but its rapid development (and rising property prices) made this untenable.
However, popular culture, market segmentation, availability of services, and comings and goings of life in this area have helped to define Satélite as a cultural center. Ciudad Satélite became the core of a new suburban phenomenon that eventually included not only single-family dwellings but also apartment buildings, condominiums, and retail spaces. In addition to that, some manufacturing also developed. This was a vast departure from the original concept. Over time, the progress of real estate development has expanded on the original meaning of the Satélite community in the minds 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 ...
residents.
The project was approved by then president Miguel Alemán Valdés
Miguel Alemán Valdés (; 29 September 1900 – 14 May 1983) was a Mexican politician who served a full term as the President of Mexico from 1946 to 1952, the first civilian president after a string of revolutionary generals. His administr ...
in 1948. The city remained uninhabited until 1952, when people started to move in because of the attractive prices. Public services such as the phone lines were not finished yet in all circuits and people initially had to use public phones. By the 1970s, the Ciudad Satélite population vastly increased.
Due to rapid growth, more neighborhoods were developed and are considered as part of the area of Satélite. These neighborhoods are Las Américas neighbourhood, next to Naucalpan
Naucalpan, officially Naucalpan de Juárez, is one of 125 municipalities located just northwest of Mexico City in the adjoining State of Mexico. The municipal seat is the city of Naucalpan de Juárez, which extends into the neighboring municipal ...
City Hall, Vista del Valle (after the famous Norwegian poet), Paseos del Bosque, Pedregal de Echegaray and El Mirador. Some consider the neighbourhoods of San Mateo, La Florida and the Echegaray borough to be part of the south zone of Satélite. The central-western zone consists of Ciudad Satélite, the core neighbourhood, Lomas Verdes
Lomas Verdes is an upper-middle-class neighborhood located in the north of Mexico City. The community was developed in the late 1960s and is near Ciudad Satélite (which was founded in 1957). Lomas Verdes means "Green Hills" in Spanish, as the te ...
, Boulevares, Naucalli Park, and La Concordia. The northern zone consists of Fuentes de Satélite, Santa Cruz del Monte, Bellavista, and Calacoaya neighbourhoods.
History
The only pre-Hispanic facts known about the area are that once the Tlatilca culture lived in the area formed between Totolinga, Los Cuartos and Hondo rivers. (tucked inside the industrial zone of Naucalpan is a small museum).
Later, during the colonial period, the Shrine of Our Lady of Los Remedios was built when a Spanish officer found the religious figure under a maguey plant. It is said that the small virgin had been brought by Gonzalo Rodríguez de Villafuerte. The shrine, which divides the Satélite area from the popular zones of Naucalpan municipality, was built in the sixteenth century, and in the architectural compound the well-known caracoles or Los Remedios Aqueduct can be found.
Ciudad Satélite, the core neighborhood, started as a new urban concept in the mid-fifties, when the rapid growth of Mexico City and the rise of a new, energetic middle class forced the development of entire new neighborhoods. It has been said that the grounds (in the northwestern suburbs of the city, near the old highway to Querétaro) originally belonged to Mexican President Miguel Alemán Valdés
Miguel Alemán Valdés (; 29 September 1900 – 14 May 1983) was a Mexican politician who served a full term as the President of Mexico from 1946 to 1952, the first civilian president after a string of revolutionary generals. His administr ...
, who was in office from 1946 to 1952. He kept some acres and built a mansion in Doctors Circuit. Architect Mario Pani created most of the urban design.
The great novelty in Ciudad Satélite is the total absence (at least in the core neighborhood) of traffic lights, due to an ingenious street layout with "circuitos" or wide oval circuits where incorporation to other main roads allow drivers to see if cars are coming. Each of Ciudad Satélite circuits has several streets with names of famous professionals relating to the circuit's name. The names of the circuits are the following: Centro Comercial (The Mall), Centro Cívico (Civic Center), Sculptors, Painters, Musicians, Mineralogists, Pedagogues, Scientists, Engineers, Teachers, Historians, Surgeons, Doctors, Medics, Geographers, Sailors, Playwrights, Orators, Missionaries, Architects, Poets, Novelists, Economists, Heroes, Jurists, Journalists, Diplomats, and the two external circuits (Circunvalación Oriente y Circunvalación Poniente).
The urban design and the original pricing for the grounds was deliberately intended for segmenting the new city into three areas: middle class, upper middle class and high class. Novelists and Economists were the circuits with the highest ground prices, so the most spectacular manors were built there.
Many of Ciudad Satélite's houses were built in a functionalist style, absent of any kind of decorative elements in the façade. This also applies to the so-called Ciudad Satélite's cathedral, San Felipe de Jesús Sanctuary. This big, spectacular church features many functionalist style elements, as well as paintings. Other styles present in the neighborhood are colonial
Colonial or The Colonial may refer to:
* Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology)
Architecture
* American colonial architecture
* French Colonial
* Spanish Colonial architecture
Automobiles
* Colonial (1920 au ...
, modernist
Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...
(vintage Mexican architecture), and Spanish or Californian colonial style.
The next neighborhoods were then developed, and the urban extension of Satélite area has been growing ever since. Contemporary issues in Satélite include the big traffic problems (as this is a sleep-over zone, many people drive to Mexico City everyday), the decrepit state of many roads, new concerns of car robberies, violations of environmental regulations
Environmental law is a collective term encompassing aspects of the law that provide protection to the environment. A related but distinct set of regulatory regimes, now strongly influenced by environmental legal principles, focus on the manage ...
, saturation and oversupply
In economics, overproduction, oversupply, excess of supply or glut refers to excess of supply over demand of products being offered to the market. This leads to lower prices and/or unsold goods along with the possibility of unemployment.
The de ...
of real estate due to new developments, and unauthorised commerce in residential-designed zones.
Sights
Many of the old history of the area is seen in Our Lady of Los Remedios Shrine and its aqueduct.
The Torres de Satélite
The Torres de Satélite ("Satellite Towers") are a group of sculptures located in the Ciudad Satélite district of Naucalpan, State of Mexico. One of the country's first urban sculptures of great dimensions, had its planning started in 1957 with th ...
(Satellite Towers) landmark stands in the middle of Periferico, Mexico City's main freeway. Designed by Mathias Goeritz
Werner Mathias Goeritz Brunner (4 April 1915, Danzig, German Empire – 4 August 1990, Mexico City) was a Mexican painter and sculptor of German origin. After spending much of the 1940s in North Africa and Spain, he and his wife, photographer ...
and Luis Barragán
Luis Ramiro Barragán Morfín (March 9, 1902 – November 22, 1988) was a Mexican architect and engineer. His work has influenced contemporary architects visually and conceptually. Barragán's buildings are frequently visited by international ...
and inspired in the painter Jesus Reyes Ferreyra's ideas, it is a significant piece of modern sculpture and architecture. Due to the fact that nobody really owns the land over which they were built, they were not maintained by any government and had fallen into disrepair. In the latter 1990s they were finally repainted in their original colors, which had been chosen by Barragán.
Naucalli Park is a large extension of eucalyptus
''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...
forest devoted to the recreation of locals and other inhabitants of nearby areas. It used to be an ejido
An ''ejido'' (, from Latin ''exitum'') is an area of communal land used for agriculture in which community members have usufruct rights rather than ownership rights to land, which in Mexico is held by the Mexican state. People awarded ejidos in ...
(communal agricultural grounds) called Ejido de Oro. An expropriation decree converted it into a park which has a jogging
Jogging is a form of trotting or running at a slow or leisurely pace. The main intention is to increase physical fitness with less stress on the body than from faster running but more than walking, or to maintain a steady speed for longer periods ...
circuit, many playground spots, monumental fountains, a convention center, an Aaora (forum for art exhibits), a culture house, the branch of a well-known Mexico City restaurant, an archery
Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...
training ground, a big forum for classical music concerts (the State of Mexico Symphonic Orchestra used to play here on Sundays) and an amusement park with animatronic dinosaurs.
Plaza Satélite
Plaza Satélite is a shopping mall in the northwest part of Greater Mexico City in Ciudad Satélite on the Anillo Periferico ring road. Opened on October 13, 1971, it was Mexico's first American-style shopping mall. It has over 240 stores and ser ...
, built in the late sixties by the studio of architect Juan Sordo Madaleno
Juan Sordo Madaleno (October 1916, Mexico City – 12 March 1985, Idem) was a Mexican architect.
Biography
Sordo Madaleno was one of the most important Mexican architects of his era. He worked with other renowned architects, including Lui ...
, is one of the biggest malls in Mexico City. It has undergone two full renewals and has all of the big department stores of the country, music stores, restaurants, boutiques, services and a big cinema complex.
Mundo E is a smaller, more middle to lower middle class mall, with libraries, boutiques, cinema complex, fitness center and a couple of nightclubs.
Other smaller malls are Heliplaza, Shopping Plaza and the commerces on Zona Esmeralda. A new and controversial big mall was built at La Cúspide (The Summit), which is the area's highest ground, offering sweeping views of Mexico City.
The Mall Circuit Zone (Circuito Centro Comercial) is Satélite's central commercial zone. Besides the big mall, it includes several commerces such as restaurants, nightclubs, cafeterias, three bookstores, and banks.
The Blue Zone (La Zona Azul) is a nostalgic pair of commercial blocks that have some of the first businesses that operated in the area. It is such a famous icon of Satélite that it is the local place for joy demonstrations after the Mexico national football team
The Mexico national football team () represents Mexico in international football and is governed by the Mexican Football Federation (). It competes as a member of CONCACAF.
Mexico has qualified to seventeen World Cups and has qualified conse ...
's victories. A well-known ice cream and spicy fruit parlour is the main culinary attraction. There are also other food options, a branch of a world class cafeteria and an old stationery store.
The Ruins of Acropolis was originally built as an outdoor shopping mall. It never obtained popularity and was abandoned. Nowadays it stands as one of the landmarks of Ciudad Satélite.
Luis Barragán
Luis Ramiro Barragán Morfín (March 9, 1902 – November 22, 1988) was a Mexican architect and engineer. His work has influenced contemporary architects visually and conceptually. Barragán's buildings are frequently visited by international ...
's landscape sculptures can be seen in Arboledas neighbourhood. However, some are in a decrepit state.
Parque de los Ciervos (Wild Deer Park) in Zona Esmeralda is a forest park where wild deer are raised. It has picnic and playground facilities.
Education, culture and sports
Satélite has some private schools as well as a couple of public junior high schools. School competition is officially low but is a big issue of pride for many "satelucos". The area houses the 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 ...
Faculty of Superior Studies at Acatlán and a Universidad del Valle de Mexico (UVM) university campus.
Some of Mexico's Olympic medallists have lived or currently live here, including Carlos Mercenario
Carlos Mercenario Carbajal (born May 23, 1967) is a Mexican retired race walker. He was born in Mexico City, Distrito Federal. He is the 1992 Olympic Silver Medalist in the 50 K walk and a three-time World Race Walking Cup champion.
Personal ...
, Soraya Jiménez
Soraya Jiménez Mendivil (a twin sister born 5 August 1977 – 28 March 2013) was a Mexican weightlifter and Olympic champion. She participated at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney where she won a gold medal. Jiménez became the first eve ...
, Dolores Knoll, and Fernando Platas
Fernando Fabricio Platas Álvarez (born March 16, 1973, in Mexico City) is a Mexican diver. He began diving since he was a young boy. In 1990 he won in Germany two tests of 2 and 10 metres, and in that same year he won three gold medals in the ...
. In the lower zone of Boulevares, almost next to Acatlán Town, are the fields of the zone representative teams, such as the Buccaneers (Bucaneros), the Cowboys (Vaqueros), the Black Dogs (Perros Negros), and the Redskins (Pieles Rojas). There is also a local soccer football league, Liga de Fútbol Satélite.
Cultural exports from Satélite include classical tenor Rolando Villazón
Rolando Villazón Mauleón (born 22 February 1972) is a Mexican operatic tenor, stage director, author, radio and television personality and artistic director. He now lives in France, and in 2007 became a French citizen.
Villazón has published ...
, the members of the band Café Tacvba, troubadour Fernando Delgadillo
Fernando Delgadillo (born December 7, 1965) is a Mexican musician and composer. He is considered a major representative of the Folk music genre in Mexico.
Biography
In 1986, Delgadillo began performing in "El Sapo Cancionero", a venue in Mexi ...
, and rock band Dildo.
In the 60s, Monseñor Jose de Jesus Lopez created ARDECUSA (''Arte Deporte y Cultura de Satélite'', in Spanish), a group of young people that enhanced the Cultural and sports life in Satelite through Theatre, Choirs, groups, sports teams, newspapers, and others. The most famous were Coro Genesis (founded by Gerardo Bru and Hilda and Gustavo Anaya) that was the only choir in the area that won 3 times the GYCAS (Grupos y Coros del Area Satélite). Also, Gerardo Bru was the President of ARDECUSA for many years and the group presented most of the very memorable Musicals like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The King and I, Something´s Afoot, Godspell, Grease, and Anything Goes.
References
External links
Ciudad Satellite TV
Television y guia por internet de los Satelucos
Satelín-Torres
activist group focused on creating conscience around the identity of Ciudad Satélite and being a "Sateluco".
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ciudad Satelite
Mexico City metropolitan area
Naucalpan de Juárez
Populated places established in 1948
1948 establishments in Mexico
Neighborhoods in the State of Mexico
Edge cities in Mexico
Mario Pani buildings