It was our first full day in Mexico City, and we were sitting in a coffee shop somewhere along the boundary line between Condesa and Roma trying to figure out what we should do with the rest of the time we had. I’m not great at planning my travels in advance, so these sorts of on-the-go brainstorms happen in just about every new city I visit. I wondered aloud if there was any Lucha Libre wrestling to be found here. “I mean, this is the literal center of everything Mexican, so it’s gotta be here somewhere, right?”
At that exact moment, we heard somebody say “Excuse me.” It was the man sitting next to us. He had overheard us talking. In perfect English, he proceeded to tell us everything we could have ever wanted to know about Lucha Libre wrestling in Mexico City. “It’s so fun! I go like every week!” he said emphatically.
Teotihuacán is one of the most historically, culturally, and architecturally significant cities in the pre-Columbian Americas. At its height, it was the largest city in both North and South America, with a population of 125,000 people (estimated). That might not seem like much today, but by Mesoamerican standards, that’s like Tokyo or New York. This wasn’t just a place—it was THE place. But here’s what makes it so fascinating…
The origins of Teotihuacán are utterly mysterious. The backstory behind its founders is totally unknown. And it’s not just unknown to us now, in 2020. Apparently the Aztecs discovered the ruins of this city and also didn’t know exactly where it came from or what the story was. Isn’t that INSANE? The AZTECS discovered this when it was already ruins!
Let’s start with size. Mexico City is really, really big. In fact, Mexico City proper has almost 9 million people and Mexico City metro is home to a whopping 21 million people, which just a few million less than Beijing. This makes it the largest population center on the entire continent of North America—bigger even than New York, LA, Chicago, Toronto, etc. It also puts Mexico City comfortably in the top 10 largest cities in the world.
