The formerly rural borough, which was home to some farms and canals as late as the 1970s, to an area with its only greenery in parks; nearly all of its population employed in commerce, services and industry.

Iztapalapa remains afflicted by high levels of economic deprivation, and a significant number of its residents lack access to clean drinking water.

It has a territory of 116.67 km2 (11,667 ha; 28,830 acres; 45.05 sq mi), and is located on the east side of the Mexico City bordering the boroughs of Iztacalco, Xochimilco, Tláhuac, Coyoacán and Benito Juárez.

[8] Primary problems facing the borough include crime, especially drug trafficking and sale of stolen auto parts, and also lack of water supply.

It was built to house an image of Christ made of cornstalks which is called the “Señor de la Cuevita” (Lord of the Small Cave).

[28] The Cerro de la Estrella National Park was established in 1938 and is considered to be the most important natural area in the eastern part of the Valley of Mexico.

[9][29] The area is managed by the Secretaría de Agricultura y Recursos Hidráulicos, but it lost its original forest cover due to over-cutting of trees.

[9] This museum in Colonia Agua Prieta is an enormous multicolored monument of Benito Juárez’s head that measures 13 metres (43 ft) in height and weighs six tons.

It was built to take over from the La Merced Market, which was no longer large enough to meet the city's needs for the wholesale distribution of produce and other foodstuffs.

[35][36][37] The Fábrica de Artes y Oficios Oriente was inaugurated in 2000, located between the two largest apartment complexes of the borough, the Iztapalapa and the Unidad Vicente Guerrero.

[49] The first public primary school classes in Iztapalapa were established in 1914 under the government of Venustiano Carranza at Escuela Enrique Laubscher and in the San Lucas Church.

[51] Public high schools of the Instituto de Educación Media Superior del Distrito Federal (IEMS) include:[52] The Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana was established in 1974 with three campuses in Azcapotzalco, Xochimilco and Iztapalapa.

Industry includes food processing, bottling, tobacco products, metals, machinery, surgical equipment, paper and printing and textiles.

However, the passion play incorporates areas which were special or sacred to the pre Hispanic world, including the gardens that once belonged to the emperor Cuitláhuac and the hill on which the New Fire ceremony was performed.

[9] Since that time, this Passion Play has become a major event with the participation of 450 actors and attended by 2 million people over the course of the week and 2,000 police to provide security.

The Palm Sunday procession proceeds then to the Casa de la Mayordomía in the San Miguel barrio followed by hundreds dressed as Nazarenes and thousands more spectators.

The man playing Jesus must carry the cross 2.5 miles (4.0 km) from the center of Iztapalapa to the summit of the Cerro de las Estrellas to be crucified.

[57] This event is named after the Aztec New Fire ceremony, which was celebrated every 52 years at the summit of the Cerro de la Estrella hill.

The first city on this peninsula was Culhuacán on the south side next to the Cerro de la Estrella, which grew to contain various neighborhoods surrounded by chinampas, or artificial islands in the lake used to grow food.

They were also an ecosystem home to wide variety of land and aquatic flora and fauna, including storks, flowers, trees, reeds, quetzals, frogs, and fish.

[33] Culhuacan was moved to a site called Tollantzingo in the 950s, and shortly after that migrants from Tula came into the area to settle as well, bringing with them the worship of Quetzalcoatl.

[63] Iztapalapa was important in pre Hispanic times militarily and religiously as the side of the Huixachtécatl, today called the Cerro de la Estrella.

Women and children would stay at home while the men participated in the distribution of the “new fire.” It was celebrated a total of nine times, with the last one in 1507 (2 acatl by the Aztec calendar).

[58][63] By the time the Spanish arrived, Culhuacán was no longer an important city; rather it had been eclipsed by Iztapalapa as one of the Aztec royal towns, chosen as such due to its defensive position.

[10][64] After the Spanish and their allies regrouped in Tlaxcala, Cortés decided to attack Iztapalapa before besieging the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, in part to secure supplies.

[27] During the colonial period, Iztapalapa was very rural, notable only as one of the primary providers of produce and flowers to Mexico City and its lake and canal transportation.

[19] Culhuacán had eighteen villages surrounding it in the pre Hispanic era, butby the 18th century, only San Lorenzo Tezonco and Santiago Acahualtepec remained.

New canals were dug to connect Mexico City with Peñón Viejo, Chalco and San Isidro as well as the villages of Ayotla, Tlapicahua and Tlapacoya.

In the 1940s, the urban sprawl of Mexico City had reached sections of the borough and furthering this was promoted by the federal government which favored industry over agriculture.

[19] In 2006, there was a dispute in the election for borough president between activist Rafael Acosta Ángeles [es], better known as “Juanito”, and Clara Brugada, then a former federal deputy.