Today, Narvarte is undoubtedly one of the most popular and highest-value areas in the CDMX; however, it is almost laughable to think that just 80 years ago Narvarte was relegated to the city's border zone, and the streets that today host avant-garde architecture, green boulevards and shopping malls, were once reduced to a wet and irregular terrain.
After the disappearance of the town of La Piedad, its temple and even its river -which we now know as Viaducto Miguel Alemán-, Colonia Narvarte was finally ready to take on its own piece of glory in the history of modern Mexico, as the site of the first housing complex in the country's capital, a precursor to the massification of housing nationwide. It is the Unidad Habitacional Esperanza, a complex that 72 years after its conception still stands out among the city's contemporaneity, with its 164 apartments spread over 10 buildings.
The history of Unidad Habitacional Esperanza cannot be told without the story of the Spanish migrants who crossed the Atlantic in search of a better quality of life in the 1940s. After the ravages of World War II (1939-1945), but particularly the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), waves of refugees arrived in the country fleeing the horrors of war, a situation that the government took advantage of to consolidate its foreign policy prestige.
At the same time, the demographic density of the city grew rapidly as a result of migration from the countryside to the metropolis. In 1940, 70% of the labor force lived in rural areas, while by 1970 this percentage was reduced to 40%. At the same time, the country's total population tripled in just 30 years. This period is known as "the Mexican miracle". An interval of time in which the national economic model transmuted from agrarian to industrialized and, consequently, brought with it development and a commercial boom. But also new housing and habitability needs.
The visionary who laid the first stone of mass urbanization was Don Ramón Ramírez Gómez. A Spanish immigrant who graduated as an economist from UNAM and assistant director of the Bank of Public Works and Services, he headed the team that worked on the pilot project of the Unidad Habitacional Esperanza. Carlos Lazo (Ciudad Universitaria) and Antonio Serrato (Hospital de Zona) were in charge of the design, under the principles of "coexistence and respect for individuality". Appealing to these values, a distinctive feature of the project is that only 25% of the land was built, leaving the rest free for the design of common and recreational areas. This "empty space" scheme would be fundamental in the fertilization of the rest of the housing complexes in Mexico.
Once the project was completed and inaugurated in 1949, Ramírez Gómez invited his exiled compatriots to take an apartment in the Unidad Habitacional Esperanza. Hence its name, since for many it meant the beginning of a new life on the other side of the continent that saw them leave. To acquire the homes, a down payment and a 20-year monthly payment scheme were required. At that time, the rates were set at $255.5 pesos.
More than seventy years have passed since the Unidad Habitacional Esperanza opened its doors, becoming an oasis of calm in times of war. Its walls, rooms and gardens tell an essential chapter in the development of housing in Mexico, something that the residents of Narvarte -perhaps the longest-lived- deeply treasure. It is located between the streets of Xochicalco, Petén and Icacos, and is definitely worth appreciating its historical and architectural richness, even if only from afar and for a moment.