Alameda Central

This guide to Alameda Central in Mexico City centers on Luis de Carvajal, known by the secret name Joseph Lumbroso, and the fate of his family of conversos accused of secretly practicing Judaism under the Inquisition. It traces the two centuries this stretch of ground served as Mexico City's public execution site, and how a viceroy quietly ordered it torn up and folded into the park's expanding lawns in 1770. Notice how little marks the western edge today, where fountains and tree-lined walkways now stand.