La Paz station
Metro · A Line A
Neighbouring stations
The story behind the icon
The station silhouette is a dove.
The place is so called because it lies in the very geographical heart of the municipality of La Paz in the State of Mexico, also known by the name Los Reyes, La Paz.
The municipality lies in the eastern portion of the state, to the north-west of Chalco and to the south-east of Texcoco, on the boundary with Mexico City.
According to the population census of the year 2000, it has 212,694 inhabitants. In this municipality there are also small settlements and neighbourhoods such as La Magdalena and San Sebastián Chimalpa, among others. After being a place of farming activity for migrants of indigenous origin, it formed part of the State of Mexico and the Federal District, so that almost all the population is urban.
In South America, meanwhile, there are forty-nine species of wild dove, among them the rock dove, which is a symbol of peace the world over. That is why we can see the same dove in St Mark's Square in Italy, in Red Square in Moscow, in Trafalgar Square in London and in Bolívar Square in Bogotá. This species is the one trained as a carrier pigeon.
In mythology the dove is a symbol of purity and simplicity and a bearer of peace and harmony. In Greece it served to determine favourable omens and was the sacred bird of Aphrodite.
During the Second World War a pigeon saved hundreds of lives. When the allied countries were trying to call off a bombing raid, the communication systems failed, so the last option was to send the pigeon G.I. Joe to the military base. It flew 37 km in under twenty minutes, saving more than a thousand lives.