For just 5 pesos you can visit all these exhibitions without leaving the Mexico City Metro. There is everything!
In the Metro you can find the biggest bargains in the world. It doesn’t matter how expensive an item is; As you enter the orange wagons, everything “10 pesos is worth it, 10 pesos it costs you.” But the vagoneros’ offers are only surpassed by the cultural offer of art, science and history exhibitions that you can enjoy in the Mexico City Metro for only 5 pesos.
Moving slowly since 1969, the Metro can make us travel more than 12,000 years into the past. Its 226 kilometers of tracks run through the temples of our ancestors. In addition, many of its 195 stations are portals to music, sports, muralism and even the culture of our country.
The main method of transportation for 4.6 million Chilangos, the Metro is both a miracle of engineering in the depths of a lake terrain and an epitome of the negligence that buried 27 lives. It is the backdrop for the most everyday scenes, but also the scene of the most astonishing cultural expressions.
Join us on this tour that you can take through 10 exhibitions of the Mexico City Metro!
1. Talisman’s Mammoth
When it is ensured that the Metro connects us with the past, it is said in a very literal sense. At the Talismán station, on Line 4, you can see the real skeleton of a mammoth that lived approximately 12,000 years ago, that is, in the Ice Age. The mammoth skeleton was found in 1978 during the construction of the aforementioned line when an excavation was being carried out at the intersection of Talismán and Congreso de la Unión avenues. According to the Transportation System itself Collective, an Archaeological Rescue team from the National Institute of Anthropology and History carried out the rescue of the fossil remains and determined their age. The mammoth, estimated to be 4 meters tall, has been exhibited since 1981 in a dome at the eastern entrance of Metro Talisman.
It may interest you: They find archaeological remains outside the San Fernando Pantheon.
2. The pyramid Ehécatl
Another of the Mexico City Metro exhibits that connect us with the past is the Ehécatl pyramid. It is a shrine to the Mexican god of the wind whose construction dates from approximately the year 1400. It is located in the Pino Suárez station, right in the corridor that connects the entrance of Line 1 with the transfer to Line 2. Interestingly, its location It makes it the most visited archaeological zone in the country, since it can be observed by the more than 54 million users of the Metro that annually pass through this station.
In turn, the pyramid of Ehécatl is the smallest archaeological zone in the country, comprising an area of only 88 square meters. However, this was not always like that. According to the Institute National of Anthropology and History, the pyramid is part of an extensive ceremonial center that included several interconnected shrines, stairways, cells and rooms that extended through what is now José María Izazaga Street. This archaeological gem was discovered in 1968, during excavation work for the construction of the oldest Metro line.
3. Museum of caricature in Metro Zapata
In contrast to the age of the previous ones, one of the most recent exhibitions offered by the Mexico City Metro in the Cartoon Museum located in the Zapata station, lines 3 and 12. It was inaugurated in 2017 as part of a tribute to the great Mexican cartoonists. It has a total of 6 sections. The first shows cartoons published in the oldest newspapers in Mexico, such as The Son of Ahuizote. The second section is dedicated to the creator of the Catrina, José Guadalupe Posada. For its part, in the third and fourth are works by cartoonists such as Gabriel Vargas, Rius, José Hernández, El Fisgón, Paco Calderón and Rictus. Finally, the fifth section contains caricatures about Emiliano Zapata made by Naranjo, Magú, Helio Flores, Kemchs and Chango Cabral, among others, while the sixth is a gallery for temporary exhibitions.
Unfortunately, the Cartoon Museum is one of the victims of the Line 12 disaster. The transfer to Line 12 is closed after a section of the elevated section that connects the Tezonco and Tezonco stations collapsed on May 3, 2021. Olivos, costing 27 people’s lives. However, the first 3 sections are observable from Line 3.
Also read: Life can only be endured with sarcasm: the illustration of Lic. Domínguez.
4. Science tunnel in La Raza
The Mexico City Metro also has scientific exhibits. Such is the case of the Tunnel of Science. It was inaugurated in 1988 and is considered the first scientific museum in the world built on public transport facilities. It has an area of 6,177 square meters and includes a representation of the Celestial Vault, in which the constellations of the zodiac are shown. It also has a permanent photographic exhibition on astronomy, as well as several temporary exhibitions.
5. Authors and composers from Mexico
On the other hand, the Mexico City Metro also has exhibitions on music. At the Zapata station on Line 3 you can find the exhibition Authors and Composers of Mexico, which has more than 400 portraits of Mexican singer-songwriters such as José Alfredo Jiménez, Juan Gabriel, Agustín Lara, Armando Manzanero, Roberto Cantoral and Ana Gabriel, among others. .
The exhibition opened in 2017. In addition, it has a piano that you can use if you have musical gifts. And last but not least, at the station you will find a totally free jukebox-karaoke where you can sing more than 3000 songs, both classic and contemporary. According to data from the Metro, around100 users a day take time to take a pigeonat the jukebox-karaoke.
This #CompositorDay we celebrate those who with their songs have left a legacy in the heart of the city and of Mexico.
We invite you to enjoy karaoke that is located at the División del Norte station on Line 3 of the Metro.
#CapitalCultural from America pic.twitter.com/bz3FegapqD– CDMX Government (@GobCDMX) January 15, 2020
Look here: Motorcycles and even microwaves, lost objects in the Metro in 2021.
6. Legends of wrestling
If what you like is sports, the Mexico City Metro also has exhibitions for you. One of them isLegends of the struggle free. It is located at the Guerrero station on lines 3 and B. It was inaugurated in January 2017, being the first sports-themed station of the Metro. The exhibition covers an area of 2000 square meters with art printed in tribute to fighters such as El Santo, Cavernario, Blue Demon, El Perro Aguayo, El Tinieblas and Mil Máscaras, among others.
7. Idols of Mexican boxing
Just 3 months later, the second of the sports exhibitions that you can find in the Mexico City Metro was inaugurated. It is about Mexican boxing idols, located at Garibaldi station on Line 8. The exhibition has 2 murals and paintings on the stairs where 47 boxing champions are honored, such as Julio César Chávez, Raúl ‘Ratón’ Macías, José Ángel ‘Mantequilla’ Napoles, Ana María ‘La Guerrera’ Torres, Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Márquez or Humberto ‘La Chiquita’ González. Also, in the exhibition you can find world title belts, briefs, gowns and other personal objects that belonged to great Mexican boxers.
Lupe Pintor: from a snow vendor in Cuajimalpa to a boxing legend.
8. British station
Another of the exhibitions that you can enjoy in the Mexico City Metro is that of the so-called British station. Formally named as the Emblematic Station of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the exhibition was inaugurated in 2018 as a sign of fraternal friendship between the governments of Mexico and that of that country. It is located in the Metro Auditorium on Line 7. There you can find images of emblematic London sites, as well as murals alluding to great icons of British music, such as David Bowie and John Lennon. It also has sections dedicated to acclaimed British television series, football teams and UK contributions to science.
9. The weather profile
Perhaps the most impressive of the murals found in the Mexico City Metro is The Profile of Time, the work of the artist Guillermo Cenicero. It is located in the Metro Copilco of Line 3 and has an area of 1000 square meters. It covers both sides of the station platform, as well as the stairwells. It is a visual review of the global history of humanity with sections alluding to each of the continents. Its central section shows representations of Cuauhtémoc, Quetzactóatl, Tezcatlipoca, Huitzilopochtli and Moctezuma. The opposite mural shows Hernán Cortés and the conquerors. Likewise, you can see reproductions of great works of art, such as Guernica, by Pablo Picasso.
10. Metro Museum
With the aforementioned exhibitions, it is clear that the Mexico City Metro is much more than a means of transportation. It is a public space that connects us with our history, our culture and our traditions. Thus,the Metro has its own Museumat the Mixcoac station on Lines 7 and 12. The museum has works by prominent artists such as José Luis Cuevas, Leonora Carrington, Raúl Anguiano and Alfredo Zalce, among others. However, most of its rooms are dedicated to the history of the Collective Transport System itself. You will find the first plans for the design of the Metro, pre-Hispanic pieces found during its construction, exhibitions on the logos and fonts of the stations, as well as old tickets.
And this rose? 🌹 The Museum of Modern Art reopens its doors with 3 exhibitions! 🎉
