The borough was named after the prominent community and former municipality of San Pedro Cuajimalpa which remains the seat of local government.

[6][8] In the 17th century the Carmelites founded a hermitage and monastery called Desierto de los Leones, today a museum and national park.

To this end, a type of codex called “techialoayan” was created to document the history of indigenous communities to make legal claims.

[9] From the colonial period into the 19th and early 20th centuries, the most common economic activities in the area were the harvesting of firewood and the making of charcoal, with some raising of crops and livestock for domestic consumption.

During the last decades of the 19th century and into the 20th modern services such as running water, paved roads and electric lighting were introduced.

[7] During the Mexican Revolution there were clashes in the area between forces loyal to Venustiano Carranza and Emiliano Zapata in El Contadero and San Pedro.

One story from the time says that the Zapatistas cut the ears of the inhabitants of the town of Cuajimalpa to distinguish them from those loyal to Carranza.

[5][6] New residential construction fueled the growth, covering former forest and agricultural areas especially in areas such as San Lorenzo Acopilco, Las Lajas, La Pila, Las Maromas, Xalpa, Cola de Pato, Atliburros, Cruz Blanca, Moneruco, Chancocoyotl, Teopazulco, Tlapeaca, Texcalco and Pito Real.

These include large residential subdivisions such as El Contadero and Lomas de Vista Hermosa, as well as unregulated settlements on the sides of hills and small canyons.

[6] The pace of growth remained high in the 1980s, in part due to the 1985 earthquake, which prompted many to move away from the soft soils of the city center into the more solid rock of the west and south of the valley.

[6] Much of the territory has been urbanized and contains some of the city's most expensive residential and commercial real estate, with newer developments for upper classes pushing out lower income groups.

[5] In the 1990s and 2000s there were changes in the borough's borders due to the settlements of disputes between the Federal District and the State of Mexico.

Because of the many cracks in the soil and rock, the borough is an important aquifer recharge area as well as the source of water for freshwater springs.

[5] Although there are official efforts in place to control building, illegal settlements are a significant concern, especially those on the edges of the national park.

[5][13] The former rural town of San Pedro Cuajimalpa still maintains a distinct identity although it has been fully incorporated into the urban sprawl of Mexico City.

The town used the Techialoyan Codex of Cuajimalpa, written in Classical Nahuatl at the end of the 17th century, "to prove its rights to its lands, which it retained until 1865.

While only very few of the old traditional houses remain (two on the corner of Avenida Juarez and Coahuila Street with a few next to Jardín Hidalgo), the historic center of the town still exists.

[15] The historic center contains a traditional Mexican market, the main plaza and the borough hall and former municipal palace.

It is named after a 20th-century film star who made part of a movie called Vuelven los García on the spot.

The portal is Neoclassic with a frieze formed by metopes and triglyphs from ancient Greek architecture, along with a thick cornice.

The vaults and cupola of the ceiling have simple ornamentation, the side walls have various oil paintings and there are a number of images of various saints.

The current town was founded in 1532 by Hernán Cortés, with Viceroy Enrique de Almanza taking possession in 1571.

[5] Today the buildings of the former monastery are home to three museums, one dedicated to the site, one to the bicentennial of Mexico's Independence and one to the Mexican Revolution .

[7][17] The site is surrounded by the Desierto de los Leones National Park, the first such declared in Mexico in 1917 by Venustiano Carranza.

Services of the park include the Peteretes Ecological Center and an area with restaurants selling local specialties.

[18] The largest and most important annual event of the borough is the passion play and fair, the 100th edition of which was held in 2013.

[7] The passion play involves over 200 people in various speaking and non-speaking roles and locals design and make the sets.

[21] The reenactments include events related to Jesus's entrance to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and the washing of feet and the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday .

[22] Their tasks begin at 8am when they “rob” various stands related to the traditional fair although in reality the items are donated by the vendors.

At 3 pm the captured Judas's are “hung” from the bell tower but then people come to the atrium to donate money for their release, often receiving one of the “stolen” items from the fair in return.