section_path: Nicknames and mottos
section_name: Nicknames and mottos
paragraph_text: Nicknames and mottos
  
  Mexico City was traditionally known as La Ciudad de los Palacios ("the City of the Palaces"), a nickname attributed to Baron Alexander von Humboldt when visiting the city in the 19th century, who, sending a letter back to Germany, said Mexico City could rival any major city in Europe. But it was English politician Charles Latrobe who really penned the following: "... look at their works: the moles, aqueducts, churches, roads—and the luxurious City of Palaces which has risen from the clay-built ruins of Tenochtitlan...", on page 84 of the Letter V of The Rambler in Mexico.
  
  During the colonial period, the city's motto was "Muy Noble e Insigne, Muy Leal e Imperial" (Very Noble and Distinguished, Very Loyal and Imperial). During Andrés Manuel López Obrador 's administration a political slogan was introduced: la Ciudad de la Esperanza (lit. ' The City of Hope '). This motto was quickly adopted as a city nickname but has faded since the new motto, Capital en Movimiento ("Capital in Movement"), was adopted by the administration headed by Marcelo Ebrard, though the latter is not treated as often as a nickname in media. Up until 2013, it was common to refer to the city by the initialism "DF" from "Distrito Federal de México". Since 2013, the abbreviation "CDMX" (Ciudad de México) has been more common, particularly in relation to government campaigns.
  
  The city is colloquially known as Chilangolandia after the locals' nickname chilangos. Chilango is used pejoratively by people living outside Mexico City to "connote a loud, arrogant, ill-mannered, loutish person". For their part those living in Mexico City designate insultingly those who live elsewhere as living in la provincia ('the provinces', 'the periphery') and many proudly embrace the term chilango. Residents of Mexico City are more recently called defeños (deriving from the postal abbreviation of the Federal District in Spanish: D.F., which is read "De-Efe"). They are formally called capitalinos (in reference to the city being the capital of the country), but "erhaps because capitalino is the more polite, specific, and correct word, it is almost never utilized".