Coyoacán

▪ delegation, Mexico

      delegación, central Distrito Federal, central Mexico. It is a large residential area south of central Mexico City, on the La Magdalena River (now channeled underground). Coyoacán was built on the site of a pre-Columbian settlement from which the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés launched his attack on Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital (now Mexico City), and was the first capital of New Spain. The name is from Nahuatl, meaning “place of coyotes.” The most notable surviving colonial buildings are the San Juan Bautista Church (1583) and the Dominican monastery (1530). Ciudad Universitaria, the campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (founded 1551), is at nearby Alvaro Obregón. Pop. (1990 prelim.) 640,006.

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