Geneve Mexico City Hotel’s Porfirio Diaz in Mexico City

Porfirio Diaz

One of the most characteristic features of the Porfirio Díaz regime was its international policy, which promoted foreign investment in Mexico. That is why Porfirio Díaz was a great promoter of the opening of the Geneve Hotel, since he was the one who convinced a Canadian architect to invest in the opening of a hotel like those that existed in Europe at that time.
In recognition of Porfirio Díaz as promoter of the opening of the Geneve Hotel, today we can find in the hotel corridors some paintings and sculptures with his image.
In the Veranda corridor you can see a portrait of General Díaz, made by Federico Rodríguez in 1903; It is a full-body portrait, in which the then President shows off his presidential dress with the tricolor band on his chest and with the attitude of sending a message to the nation.
You can also discover what the voice of Porfirio Díaz is like outside the Phone Bar when raising the horn of an old telephone, where you can hear the voice of the president thanking Thomas Alva Edison for sending him one of the first phonographs in the world. This singular letter of thanks to the inventor, was engraved in a wax cylinder, where the voice of the old president was captured; It is perhaps the oldest recording in the history of Mexico and an invaluable testimony that shows a Diaz interested in the scientific advances that amazed the world.
You will also be able to appreciate a portrait in Barro of President Díaz made by the famous sculptor of indigenous origin Don Pantaleón Panduro; as well as a bronze and ivory bust on a column carved from alabaster.
Did you know that ... on November 20, 1910, the day the Mexican revolution broke out, General Díaz ate at the Geneve hotel in the company of his family to pretend that everything was in order in the country, proof of this is the check registered in one from the hotel's accounting books, displayed in one of the hotel's showcases.