How does a city define order? In Mexico, a debate about uniformity vs. culture.
| Mexico City
Almost overnight, the color started to disappear.
Bright red, hand-painted apples and watermelons on the juice stand; the torta, drawn to show each vibrant ingredient so realistically that the picture itself could make mouths water; and the grinning pink pig basking in a pot 鈥� one by one these paintings were cloaked in white.
In the Cuauht茅moc borough of Mexico City, a new initiative from local officials aims to create more order. Food and drink vendors are required to whitewash their stalls and allow the city to label them with the official crest and catchphrase 鈥淐uauht茅moc is your home.鈥� They also face fines for messy workspaces, and are required to keep boxes of ingredients or trash cans inside their small structures.
Why We Wrote This
Differing views of what makes a place orderly are playing out in a neighborhood in Mexico City 鈥� where street vendors have been told to whitewash their colorful stalls. How should a city balance order and tradition?
The government has declined to engage directly with a growing group of unhappy businesses and neighbors on the topic. But the decree has generated conversations in the tourist-heavy, gentrifying borough about history, art, and the effects of globalization: How should a city balance the need for a general sense of cleanliness and order with calls to preserve tradition and culture?
The new policy 鈥渋s part of a much longer history of officials and elites feeling anxious about what a modern city should look like,鈥� says Tiana Baki膰 Hayden, an assistant professor of urban studies at El Colegio de M茅xico who is researching similar campaigns across the city to modernize public fruit and vegetable markets. 鈥淚t entails a large degree of aesthetic homogenization because of this idea that informality is, visually, a blight on the orderly, modern city that some aspire [to]听for Mexico.鈥�听
At face value, tidy sidewalks and businesses sound like a recipe for community improvement. But for vendors and rotulistas, the tradesmen who hand paint signage, the focus on 鈥渙rder and discipline鈥� by the borough, also called a delegation, has meant a loss in business 鈥� and, in some cases, identity.听What鈥檚 becoming apparent is that order can mean different things to different people.
鈥淣o power to speak up鈥�
On a recent morning, Daniel Mart铆nez Cari帽o slices juicy squares of watermelon off the rind, organizing them in a shallow bowl alongside jars of prepared guavas, nopal, and leafy purslane. The teenager started helping his dad sell fresh-cut fruit, juices, and frothy听liquados听during the pandemic, but the stall has been a family business for nearly 35 years.
The new uniformity of the neighborhood鈥檚 street stalls is an improvement, Daniel says. But it鈥檚 not the physical look he approves of: 鈥淣ow that we have this municipal crest stamped on our stand, the delegation doesn鈥檛 bother us as much. Before we were constantly asked for our papers and permits,鈥� he says.
Joaqu铆n Mart铆nez S谩nchez, Daniel鈥檚 father, says his stand used to be set up across the street. The city came and moved it 鈥� without warning 鈥撎齩vernight about a decade ago, due to the construction of a new apartment building on his former corner. The delegation 鈥渃an do what it likes, but I have no power to speak up, ask questions, or disagree,鈥� he says.
A few blocks away, at La Esquina de Sabor听(The Delicious Corner), Salvador Alexis Hern谩ndez is still reeling from what he sees as an injustice. He was blown away when he got word he would be given one week to comply with the new regulations. Only a month prior they鈥檇 hired a rotulista to paint a jungle scene on the back side of their food stall, because the chef (his mother) loves plants.
After he repainted it white, someone pasted a printed poster on the stall decrying the disappearance of the neighborhood鈥檚听谤贸迟耻濒辞s, or hand-painted signs. It was a position he agreed with, but the flyer wasn鈥檛 his doing. He was told he鈥檇 have to paint over it.
鈥淭hey aren鈥檛 attacking the Coca Colas, the Batmans, or the Apples,鈥� says Aldo Solano Rojas, an art historian, referring to corporate advertisements still present across the city. 鈥淚f they鈥檇 taken everything down at once, maybe it would feel like a different tone. But instead, they only attacked the most vulnerable.鈥�
Public spaces in constant flux
This idea of order as an aspirational value for cities dates back to the Industrial Revolution, says urban anthropologist Jos茅 Ignacio Lanzagorta. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an old trope, this idea of a perfect and ordered city with wide, straight streets, a layout where water and air circulate easily, and where buildings are uniform,鈥� he says. Mexico doubled down on this idea at the end of the 18th听century, taking over largely indigenous neighborhoods on the outskirts of Mexico City and implementing a gridded street system to improve and modernize them.
But public spaces are, in many ways, living organisms. Urban improvement initiatives come and go, a natural result of the inherent tensions that emerge between government policies and the way communities actually use and tweak public spaces, he says.听听
鈥淭he government and planners come with the ideas of the ways things 鈥榮hould鈥� be so that they work better or are safer. This often includes global ideas of efficiency and order,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut then there鈥檚 the construction of the space by the people who actually use it. They adapt to it and if it doesn鈥檛 work, they will add something that gives it a local touch,鈥� Dr. Lanzagorta says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 how identities of a city are generated.鈥澨�
He suspects it won鈥檛 be long until the听谤贸迟耻濒辞s听return.听
For Jorge Trujillo, the unique design of each 谤贸迟耻濒辞 is actually the key to听order in a megacity like this one.
鈥淭he delegation鈥檚 idea of order and cleanliness was to paint everything the same,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut now, you see a stand and you don鈥檛 know what they sell. Is it tortas? Tacos? There鈥檚 no 谤贸迟耻濒辞 to tell you, no detail to help explain to a friend where it was you had that fantastic bite to eat,鈥� Mr. Trujillo says.
A sign painter by trade, he is keenly aware of how demand for hand-painted signs has fallen off in a computer age. That鈥檚 part of what angered so many with this policy 鈥� 谤贸迟耻濒辞s already felt at risk, without a campaign to erase them.听听
In the public markets where she鈥檚 conducting research, Dr. Baki膰 Hayden has seen similar policies unfold. Recently the Mercado San Pedro de Los Pinos underwent a 鈥減rocess of modernization,鈥� which included putting plywood on the stalls and requiring signage to be in a 鈥渂lack hipster font,鈥� as Dr. Baki膰 Hayden describes it. 鈥淭he vendors don鈥檛 love it, but the architects have this idea that鈥檚 reflective of larger trends you see in 鈥榤odernizing鈥� and 鈥榗leaning up鈥� cities as this processes of homogenization. Actors doing things differently are threatening to this 鈥榗lean city鈥� image.鈥澨�
In a video clip from the first day of the initiative in Cuauht茅moc, Mayor Sandra Cuevas explains, 鈥渇or us it鈥檚 very important that neighbors can walk freely down their ordered streets, clean streets.鈥� Behind her in the video, a group of more than 10 city officials in matching white hats and blue vests unroll white tablecloths and awnings to hand out to street vendors selling their food and drinks from folding tables or baskets on the back of their bikes. Mayor Cuevas and her team declined multiple requests for interviews.听
鈥淔or all the problems in this city 鈥� trees with plagues, trash collection, millions of electric cables tangled up 鈥� 谤贸迟耻濒辞s aren鈥檛 generally seen as one of them,鈥� says Mr. Solano Rojas, a member of the grassroots organization ReChida, which is trying to map and document images of erased 谤贸迟耻濒辞s, and advocate for the preservation of this part of Mexican culture.听
There are 16 boroughs in Mexico City, and the extent of their political power is quite limited, says Dr. Lanzagorta. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 have much political margin, so these policies [to paint over听谤贸迟耻濒辞s] are low-budget, visible ways to show people, 鈥楲ook! I brought order, I brought discipline.鈥欌��
Mr. Trujillo, the sign painter,听concedes not all 谤贸迟耻濒辞s are masterpieces, but they are works of art. Even a cockeyed painting of a taco or a crooked letter in a sign declaring a 鈥�Torta Gigante鈥� plays an important role in how people navigate and interact with their surroundings.
鈥淣ow everything is just standard. But we need something to differentiate what and who we are. If you take down a sign, you take down a history. It鈥檚 made everyone a little lost,鈥� he says.
鈥淲here鈥檚 the order in that?鈥澨�
