Coltongo station

Neighbouring stations

• 3Line 3Magdalena de las Salinas ← Coltongo → Cuitláhuac

The story behind the icon

The station icon represents the stained-glass window at the entrance to the Chapel of Jesus of Nazareth. The station takes its name from being located in the Barrio Coltongo neighbourhood. The streets and façades of Coltongo say little of the reality lived inside its tenements. Gates and entryways hide cardboard walls, wooden partitions, sheet-metal roofs, dirt floors, hunger, misery, neglect. Poverty is the daily drama.

The barrio is one of the oldest but also one of the poorest in Azcapotzalco. The Barrio de Coltongo de las Salinas takes its indigenous name, Coltongo, meaning "crooked place" or "place of Coltzin". This barrio lies in the eastern part of the district seat and in pre-Hispanic times did not belong to the barrios of Azcapotzalco but to those of La Magdalena de las Salinas, together with Las Salinas, San Andrés, Ahuehuetepanco and Santa Cruz, which formed part of a large island.

As its name indicates, the place is connected with the cult of the ancient hunchbacked god of Tollocan, Tollotzin, "the venerable stooped one", also known by another name as Coltzin, "the venerable bent one", god of the Matlatzinca people who inhabited this barrio; it might also refer to the fact that it is here that the Coltongo road bends to reach the neighbourhood. During the viceroyalty a chapel dedicated to Jesus of Nazareth was raised on this spot, which syncretically resembles the ancient hunchbacked god Coltzin, since the image in the chapel shows Jesus with his hands bound, bowed by the lashes and by the heavy burden of the cross and the suffering of his martyrdom. The chapel dates from the eighteenth century and remains of the original vaults and tepetate walls are still preserved, although it was remodelled in the last century. Modern buildings have been added to the present parish church on the north and south sides, in the presbytery, on the façade and inside. The patronal feast of this barrio is celebrated on 8 August, the day of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Jesus of Nazareth

What's near Coltongo

• Terminal Central de Autobuses del Norte