Militar Marte

Militar Marte is a residential colonia in southern Iztacalco, Mexico City, and not a place of tourist sights: you come to see a neighbourhood planned in the mid-20th century. The project was pushed by Adolfo Ruiz Cortines's government in 1955 and built under Adolfo López Mateos, to offer good housing and affordable credit to senior army officers; the name refers to Mars, the Roman god of war. Families of first-generation ex-officers still live here, and it is among the colonias with the most older residents in the capital.

What stands out is the street naming: streets, footpaths and avenues carry the names of beaches in Acapulco, Cancún, La Paz, Manzanillo, Mazatlán and Veracruz, such as Playa Villa del Mar or Playa Roqueta, and the neighbouring Reforma Iztaccíhuatl colonias share the habit. The layout is a grid of long streets closed off at one end, with 1950s and 1960s functionalist architecture, low two-storey houses, horizontal windows and generous gardens. Two pedestrian walkways run east to west, from Calzada de la Viga to Avenida Plutarco Elías Calles, and gather a school, a cultural centre and the public market.

The most visitable corner is David Záizar park, formerly Parque de las Rosas, on Eje 5 Sur Playa Villa del Mar, with a bust of the singer and a plaque recalling the founding of the colonia. Also here are the parish of the Preciosa Sangre de Cristo and the Casa del Adulto Mayor. In December and January a Christmas nativity scene is set up on Eje 5 Sur, between Playa Caleta and Playa Copacabana. About 7,000 people live here, joined by more than 3,000 who come daily to work or study.