Mexicans protest tourists and Hetrification

The terms of the first of several recent anti -aggression protests in Mexico City were not accidental – July 4, US Independence Day.

The demonstrators gathered at the Mexico Parke in the Condees area, the epicenter of the Hentrification in the Mexican capital – protesting against a number of complaints.

Most were angry with excessive rental hikes, unregulated festive funds and endless influx of Americans and Europeans into the city’s fashion quarters such as Condesa, Roma and La Juárez, removing long -term inhabitants.

Only in Condesa, it is estimated that one of five houses is now a short -term resolution or tourist housing.

Others also referred to more prose changes, such as the restaurant menu in English, or softer hot sauces on Taco stands to satisfy sensitive foreign skies.

But when it was moving through the streets, the peaceful protest initially became ugly.

Radical demonstrators attacked the cafes and boutiques aimed at tourists, breaking the windows, intimidate customers, spraying graffiti and chanting “Fuer Grena!”

At the next daily press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum condemned the violence as “xenophobic”.

“No matter how legal the reason, as in the case of a heredification, the demand cannot simply say,” Get out! “People of other nationalities in our country,” she said.

In the masks of radicals and agitators, the motivation for most people, who were July 4, were such stories as Eric Agilla.

After more than 45 years of his family, the same apartment Mexico, the beginning came with a knock on the door in 2017.

The long-term residents of the Prim building, an architectural gem of the 1920s, located in the La Huarez area, was visited by officials who were pressed against the eviction.

Eric, the eldest daughter, recalls the cracking news: “They came to every apartment in the building and told us that we had to vacate the premises by the end of the month because they were not going to restore our lease contracts.

“You can imagine my mother’s face,” Eric adds, her voice fluctuates instantly. “She has lived here since 1977.”

The owners sold real estate companies. But they gave residents the last, though an unreal proposal.

“They told us that if we could collect 53 m. Peso ($ 2.9 million.

“It’s happiness! New apartments were available from about one to 1.5 million pesos (from $ 50,000 to $ 80,000).

Today, her old house is covered with tarpuralin and construction forests, when a construction group converts it into luxury “one, two and three -bedroom apartments designed for short and medium -term rent” can boast of the company.

“This is not a construction for such as I,” Erica – designer of the newspaper – comments with the bank. “This is for a short -term dollar issue. In fact, before we were forced, we have already begun to see how rental fees are paid in some buildings.”

Eric and her family now live so far beyond the city center, they are officially in the neighboring state, almost two hours in public transport. This is what Sergio Gonzalez activist calls “the loss of the right to centrality, with everything that entails.”

In the last decades, his group has recorded more than 4,000 cases of “forced moving residents” from the La -Huores area. He was one of them.

“We are confronted with what we call the city war,” he says at one of the following anti-generating protests that took place after July 4.

“What is the dispute is the land itself – who does and who has no rights to this land.” He says that most residents who forced the neighborhood could not stay in the city. “They have lost their rights within the city’s constitution.

“The first apartment I rented here costs about 4,000 pesos a month in 2007,” Sergio explains. “Today, the same apartment costs more than 10 times. It’s outrage. This is a pure assumption.”

In connection with the growing anger, the mayor of Mexico, Clara Bruga, presented a 14-point plan designed to regulate rental prices, long-term residents and building new social housing at affordable prices.

But for Sergio, and thousands like him, the mayor’s plan came too late. He believes that the administration needs to be done more to decide the hunting in Mexico.

“We have a local and federal government that continues to promote a non -allybral economic model that has not changed,” Sergio says.

“As far as they have increased the social security network for people, what I personally believe it is very good, it has not changed the economic paradigm from which they manage.”

He called the mayor “palliative”, and the case of “closing the barn door after the horse was screwed.”

Claudia Sheinbaum’s critics say she was unable to resolve this issue when she was the mayor of the capital and, in fact, encouraged foreigners to relocate to Mexico, signing a partnership agreement with Airbnb to enhance tourism and digital stone in 2022.

Eric points to the finger of guilt for a number of people for the shock of their family – the former owners of the building for the sale of real estate development, urban power for the protection of long -term residents, even the tenants themselves for the fact that they did not act before the creeping helling that occurred around them.

However, she does not particularly blame the foreigners who flocked into Mexico, especially around the Corovavirus pandemic. “If I had the means to live better elsewhere, I would probably do it too,” it leads to it, “and tourism was good for Mexico, it is a source of income.”

However, many others, including many in the last marches, accuse recent American and European arrival – at least in part. They accuse them of being deaf Mexican customs, did not study Spanish or in many cases even pay taxes.

A wave of virtuous Americans who are sent to the south feel particularly ascending to some when they are located as opposed to the cruel treatment of the Trump administration to Mexicans and other immigrants in the US. Immigration is a problem when traveling from the south to the north, but perhaps the opposite, the activists say.

Returning to the protest rally on July 4, a wide Esplane in Parke Mexico, graffiti call for “Yankees!” He was whitewashed, and the boxing and salsa classes continue invalid, often in English, not Spanish.

Given the cost of life and polarized policies in the US, the drawing of the leaf streets is obvious.

“It’s quiet, walking, the park is obviously a great draw for people. It’s peaceful. We really liked it,” says Richard Elsabrox during a short trip to Mexico with his wife Alexis from Portland, Oregon.

When they go through the Mexican capital, they admit that one day they cross one and a half. “Obviously, we do not want to contribute to the heredification,” says Alexis, acknowledging the degree of the problem.

“But you need to have a good job in the US, and obviously the dollar is going much further here. So, I can understand the return – especially for those who can work remotely.”

Richard, who works in a major US sportswear company, says “the cost of living in America is too high,” and is too often based on the idea of ​​70 years.

Both think, however, can be properly moved. “If you treat those around you with respect and try to become part of the community, it goes much further than trying to do your own,” says Richard.

“That’s right,” Alexis agrees. “Learn the language. Pay taxes!”

However, the speed of change in Mexico City in the last decade has left the victim.

The Eric’s family life was spinning on the axis for a few months, and her mother fought with depression. When we wander through its former neighborhood streets in La -Huarez, the memories are coming back.

“It was a great bar called La Alegría, there was Tortilería (Tortilla Shop), Tlapalería (Equipment Shop), I bought candy at this place when I was small,” Eric says, pointing to another store.

“Most of all, I miss people, community. Hardly there are families and children.”

Most of these small businesses have left, replaced by hips and expensive snacks.

“I think the La -Huores’ soul died a little,” she complains. “It’s like you lived in the woods, and the trees are gradually uprooted, and then you will suddenly realize that you live in the desert.”