La Magdalena Contreras

The borough of La Magdalena Contreras has 247,622 residents (2020 census), yet it began as a single pueblo: Magdalena Atlitic, on the lower slopes of the Sierra de las Cruces in the city's south-west. Atlitic is a Nahuatl name tied to water, and water explains the rest. Friars arrived from 1535 and a chapel to Mary Magdalene went up; in 1543 Jerónimo de León set a waterwheel to work cloth, and the Contreras family, who later took over his works, gave the district its second name. In the 1800s the Magdalena river drove wool and cotton mills; El Águila Mexicana opened in 1849, and part of it is now the borough's Foro Cultural.

The heart of the old village is the church of Santa María Magdalena de Atlitic, with a baroque front, Mudéjar touches, a neoclassical altar and a large painting of the saint; it became a national historic monument in 1932. Right by the plaza is the Mercado Turístico La Magdalena, where goat birria is the dish to try. About 500 m away, the borough esplanade (Avenida Álvaro Obregón 20) has two Ariosto Otero murals and a bandstand, and the Parque de la Estación recalls the Mexico City to Cuernavaca railway, opened in 1897.

The canyon that climbs from the village leads to Los Dinamos, a forest of about 2,429 hectares along the Magdalena river. The Feria de la Trucha y la Quesadilla has been held in the area since 2010. The big feast is 22 July, the saint's day, with food, music, fireworks and fairground rides in the plaza; Holy Week brings the Passion play on the Cerro del Judío in San Bernabé Ocotepec, and on 2 November many people visit the cemeteries of the neighbouring villages.