Ágora de Cénide in Ciudad Universitaria is a learning, meeting and leisure point of the Autonomous University of Mexico State (UAEMéx), through which the Auriverde community dedicates this area through various musical, pictorial activities and workshops organized by the Administration 2021-2025 .
Concerts of musical talents such as the “Cafeína Rock” group were held in this place; The photo gallery, for example, “From Here You See Toluca” by university student Jose Carlos Sanabria Escutia, as well as bicycle repair and composting workshops.
The construction of the Ágora de Cénide originated as part of the “Vivas, Defenders of Universities” programme, among whose objectives stands out the rehabilitation of university spaces and has been consolidated in the administration headed by the Rector of the United Arab Emirates University, Carlos Eduardo Barrera Diaz.
The agora is inspired by a public square in ancient Greece and is located on a road used daily by members of Ciudad Universitaria. It has been incorporated as a space that allows for outside academic functions, such as rehearsals by BA students; In addition, it is a place for leisure activities and school life.
It is worth noting that in its construction, one of the buildings raised to adapt this space was to form a community, collaborative and integration project; For this reason, a call for designs evoking the history of Cénide was published and 30 proposals were received, winning the work of Martha Eugenia Diaz, who made the mosaic mural that is today a monument to the university.
The Cénide myth was chosen for its validity in the current context and for its symbolism, in which Cénide represents a sexually abused woman who fights back and decides that tragedy will not affect her negatively. This means the shifting of the female position from victimhood to a more vital or existential one that reflects resistance.
The architect who designed the work, Joaquín Campos, took great pains to create an open space that was not restricted to any faculty, a place that invokes and integrates into the university community and has become a symbol of UAEMéx’s university identity.
