The Zócalo

Of Indian origin and from a small peasant village, Máximo Pacheco moved to Mexico City when he was fourteen years old. He later painted what surely must have dazzled him, a festival in the great square of the city called the Zócalo. First paved over by the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortés in the 1520s, the Zócalo, or Plaza of the Constitution, sits atop the ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlán. The original ceremonial grounds and the ruins of its great Templo Mayor (a pyramid with two temples) are just off the square, and the later cathedral (Catedral Metropolitana) and National Palace (Palacio Nacional) are on its north and east sides, respectively.