Santo Domingo Print Shops

This walk takes you through Mexico City's historic paper and printing district, where public scribes and historic bookshops keep centuries-old literary trades alive.

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1. UAM First Printing House in America

The Casa de la Primera Imprenta de América is a colonial building identifiable by its location at the corner of Moneda and Licenciado Primo Verdad streets. Originally constructed in the fifteen twenties, the house earned its name in…

2. Librería Porrúa - Casa Matríz

Librería Porrúa Casa Matríz is recognizable by the striking corner location at the intersection of República de Argentina and Justo Sierra, where the building maintains an eighteenth-century facade that has become a familiar sight on the…

3. Murales de la Secretaría de Educación Pública

The Secretaría de Educación Pública building stands apart for the sprawling cycle of frescoes covering its inner walls, a collection widely considered the foundation of the Mexican Mural Renaissance. While the exterior presents a…

4. Antiguo Palacio de la Santa Inquisición

You can pick out the Antiguo Palacio de la Santa Inquisición by the unusual, flattened corner of its exterior. Built between seventeen thirty-two and seventeen thirty-six by the architect Pedro de Arrieta, the building was designed with…

5. Plaza de Santo Domingo

The Plaza de Santo Domingo is defined by the Portales de Evangelistas, a long, arched colonnade on its west side where rows of vintage typewriters and printing presses have occupied the sidewalk for generations. This square, located three…

6. Portal de los Evangelistas

The Portal de los Evangelistas is defined by a long, stone-arched arcade that runs down the western edge of the Plaza de Santo Domingo. Originally built in the seventeenth century as housing, the structure gained its name in the nineteenth…

7. Impresos Tlacuilo

Impresos Tlacuilo occupies a small suite within a building located at Palma number five hundred five in the Centro Histórico of Mexico City. While the name shares a word with the Nahuatl term for a scribe—a designation famously used for a…

8. El Tomo Suelto

El Tomo Suelto operates as a second-hand bookstore specializing in rare and collectible volumes. The shop maintains a distinct reputation for its stock of antiquarian books and vintage magazines, which fill its shelves and provide a quiet…

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