Mexicans protest tourists and improvement

The timing of the first of many recent protests to combat improvement in Mexico City coincidentally – July 4, was not the American Independence Day.

The demonstrators gathered in Barkik Mexico in the Condisa Province – the improvement center in the Mexican capital – to protest against a group of grievances.

Most of them were angry at the heavy rental, allowing unorganized holidays, and an endless flow to Americans and Europeans in the modern city neighborhoods such as Condisa, Rome, and not Khwariz, forcing the population in the long run.

In Condisa alone, it is estimated that up to one in five houses is now allowed short -term or tourist housing.

Others are also martyred with more technical changes, such as restaurant lists in English, or the most moderate hot sauces in Taco to meet sensitive foreign tastes.

But as it moves in the reasonable streets, the peaceful protest initially turned ugly.

Radical demonstrators attacked the boutique cafes and shops aimed at tourists, destroying windows, intimidating clients, writing workshops on the walls and chanting “Fuera Gringo!” And this means “Gringos out!”

At its next daily press conference, President Claudia Shinbom condemned the violence as “fearful foreigners.”

“No matter how legitimate the cause is, as with improvement, the demand cannot be just saying” the exit! “People of other nationalities within our country,” she said.

Nevertheless, the convincing and existing roots were the motive for most people who turned on July 4 were stories like Erika Aguilar.

After more than 45 years of her family, who rents the apartment of Mexico itself, the beginning of the end came with a blow to the door in 2017.

Officials visit the evacuation papers.

Erika, the old daughter, remembers the shocking news: “They came to every apartment in the building and told us that until the end of the month we had to evacuate the building, because they will not renew our rental contracts.

“You can imagine the face of my mother,” she added, Erika, her voice hesitates moments. “You have lived here since 1977.”

Malcon was selling to a real estate company. But they gave the population a final offer, albeit unreal.

“If we can collect 53 million peso (2.9 million dollars; 2.1 million pounds) within two weeks, we can maintain the building.”

“It’s a fortune! The new apartments were available for about one to 1.5 million peso ($ 50,000 to $ 80,000) at the time.”

Today, her old house is covered by Tapaulin and SCAFOLDING, where the construction team turns into “one apartment, two and thirties of secrets designed for short and medium rental”, the company’s website is proud of.

“It is not a construction of people like me,” Irka – newspaper planning designer – comments with caution. “It is dedicated in the short term in dollars. In fact, before we are forced to go out, we have already started to see the rents that are collected in dollars in some buildings here.”

Erika and her family now live away from the city center, and they are officially in the neighboring state, almost two hours by public transport. This is what activist Sergio Gonzalez refers to “the loss of the right of centralization, with everything that requires.”

His group has registered more than 4000 cases of “forced displacement of the roots” from the La JUárez area over the past decade. It was one of them.

“We face what we call an urban war,” says in one of the subsequent protests to combat the protests held after July 4.

“What is in the conflict is the land itself – who does and who does not have rights on this land.” He says that most of the residents who were forced to get out of his neighborhood were unable to stay in the city. “They have lost protected rights under the city’s constitution.

“The first rented apartment here cost about 4000 peso per month in 2007,” explains Sergio. “Today, this apartment itself costs more than 10 times. It is anger. It is pure speculation.”

In the face of increased anger, the Mayor of Mexico City, Clara Borujada, revealed a 14 -point plan aimed at organizing rental prices and protecting the population in the long term and building new social housing at reasonable prices.

But for Sergio, and thousands like him, the mayor’s plan came too late. He believes that the administration needs to do more to treat improvement in Mexico in its essence.

“We have a local and federal government that continues to strengthen a new liberal economic model, which has not changed,” says Sergio.

“Because as much as it increased the social security safety network for people, which I think is very good, which has not changed the economic model they rule.”

He described the mayor’s standards as “stained”, and the condition of “closing the barn door after the horse withdrew.”

Claudia Shinbom’s critics say she failed to address the issue useful when she was the mayor of the capital, and in fact, foreigners actively assassinated her resettlement in Mexico by signing a partnership agreement with Airbnb to enhance tourism and digital Ram and digital in 2022.

Erika refers to blame a group of people for turmoil in the revolution of her family – the owners of the former building for their sale to a real estate development company, the city’s government for not protecting residents in the long term, and even tenants for themselves for their failure to act soon due to the crawling improvement around them.

However, it does not blame the foreigners who flocked to Mexico in large numbers, especially around the Korona virus. “If I have ways to live better elsewhere, I may also do it,” reasons “, and tourism is good for Mexico, it’s an income source.”

However, many others, including many in the recent marches, blame American and European existing expatriates – at least. They accuse them of being a deaf tone for Mexican customs, and their failure to learn Spanish, or in many cases, until taxes are paid.

The wave of Americans with good heels, especially the south, feels that they are expressed when they are placed in contrast to the Trump administration’s harsh treatment for the Mexican and other immigrants in the United States. Immigration is a problem when traveling from south to north, but it seems good in the opposite direction, as activists argue.

Returning to the July 4 protest site, which is a wide scheme in Parque México, calling for writing on the walls to “Yankees out!” It was eggs, and boxing lessons and Salsa lasted early in the morning, and often in English instead of Spanish.

Given the cost of living and the polarized policy in the United States, the lush street lottery in Condisa is clear.

“It is quiet, it can be walking, it is clear that the garden is a great lot for people. It is peaceful. We really enjoyed it,” said Richard Alecoprix during a short trip to Mexico City with his wife, from Portland, Oregon.

While they walk in the Mexican capital, they admit that there is half a mind to resettle it here one day. Alexis says, “We are clearly not wanting to contribute to improvement,” acknowledged the extent of the problem.

“But you have to have a good job in the United States, and it is clear that the dollar goes far further. So, I can understand the call – especially for those who can work remotely.”

“The cost of living in America is very high,” says Richard, who works for a major American sportswear company, and is often based on the idea of ​​working until the seventies.

Both believe, though, it is possible to move in the right way. “If you deal with those around you with respect and try to be part of society, this goes beyond a lot of trying to make your own place,” says Richard.

Exactly, Alexis agrees. “Learn the language. Pay your tax!”

However, the speed of change in the city of Mexico over the past decade has left victims.

Erika’s family life was woven on her axis within months, and her mother was struggling with depression. While we walk around the streets of their previous neighborhood in La Guyuraz, memories go back.

“This was a great tape called La Algría, and there was Tortillería (Tortilla Shop), Tlapaleería (hardware store), I used to buy dessert in that place when I was young,” says Erika, noting to another store.

“Most of all, I miss people, society. There are no longer any families or children here anymore.”

Most of these small companies disappeared, and it was replaced by hip cafes and expensive restaurants.

“I think that the spirit of no Khwariz has died a little,” it is affected. “It seems as if you were living in a forest, and trees are gradually uprooted and then suddenly realized that you live in a desert.”