Parque Revolución

Parque Revolución, which everyone in Guadalajara calls the Parque Rojo after the red of its paving and furniture, sits where Avenida Juárez crosses Calzada del Federalismo, between the historic centre and Colonia Americana. It covers 1.1 hectares bounded by Pedro Moreno, López Cotilla and Marcos Castellanos streets, and beneath it is the Juárez light-rail station, where Lines 1 and 2 meet.

The ground has a long history. It was the orchard of the Carmelite convent, begun around 1724. In 1841 three quarters of the orchard were bought to build the Penitenciaría Escobedo, a project of Governor Antonio Escobedo; the first stone was laid on 24 May 1845 and the prison opened in 1870. Its reddish stone walls earned it the nickname Casa Colorada. In front of its gate was the Jardín de Escobedo, opened in 1874, where public letter-writers known as evangelistas wrote letters for hire, many of them for prisoners. The penitentiary was pulled down piece by piece from 1911; its portico went in 1925 to join Avenida Juárez to Avenida Vallarta, and the last wall fell in 1933.

In 1934 the Jalisco government held a competition for a new park, won by brothers Luis and Juan José Barragán Morfín with a modern design of reinforced-concrete benches, a round fountain 14 metres in radius where children sailed toy boats, a cascade fountain, a hundred lamp posts and red and blue tabachín trees. It opened in late February 1935. Statues of Francisco I. Madero and Venustiano Carranza by Miguel Miramontes were added in 1959, and in the 1970s the widening of Federalismo took the park's eastern strip.

The latest restoration took about 11 months, and the park reopened on 25 March 2026. Original benches, fountains and lamp posts were repaired, three main fountains run again, the children's area was rebuilt, new planting brought the total to 341 trees, and green-and-white Cerámica Suro tiles now frame the light-rail entrances. The reopening ended the Saturday street market that had filled the park for years.