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| Mark Weins/ Youtube |
“What Happened to Mexico City’s Food Scene?” The New York Times’ Priya Krishna asked on Monday.
Krishna visited Mexico City where she spent “four days reporting and eating … about eight tacos a day.” Locals complained about less spicy condiments, different ethnic cuisines, and expensive coffee shops.
The culprits?
“Americans,” Krishna emphatically declares.
And she’s not wrong.
As Krishna reported, the “number of temporary residents and renewals of temporary-resident cards from the United States nearly doubled, to about 24,000.”
The results are undeniable: “whole swaths of Mexico City’s food scene … have been remade in the American image.” Locals complain about New York style pizzerias, wine bars, natural wines, the list goes on.
“At some point it doesn’t matter if you are in New York or Mexico City,” Rocio Landeta, who runs a food-tour company in Mexico City, told Krishna.
Other residents called it a “form of colonization,” because “foreigners come in with these different types of foods and then Mexicans have a tendency to adopt them as well.”
Krishna goes on to suggest this change is “gentrification.” --->READ MORE HERE
Frustration with the realities of immigration runs both ways across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Here we speak Spanish!” “Gringos, go back to your country!” “Mexico for Mexicans!” read the signs of angry demonstrators on the streets of Mexico City earlier this month. Discontent with rising housing costs in the city and the ever-increasing presence of American expatriates led to an outbreak of violent protests in the tony neighborhoods of La Condesa and La Roma, where fashionable restaurants and digital nomads have become ubiquitous.
Mexicans have long resented the intrusion of their northern neighbors into the capital, but the expansion of remote work after the Covid-19 pandemic and the increasing number of retirees have put significantly more pressure on Mexico City’s real estate market, which combines the attractions and amenities of high urban life with a low cost of living—at least when your paycheck or bank account is denominated in dollars. The influx has infuriated locals, who have suffered the cost in increasing rents and cost of living.
Lower-class Mexicans have suffered the most. Areas of Mexico City that were traditionally home to working-class Mexicans have been bought up by investors and foreigners and turned into tourist shops, bars, expensive restaurants, and—most hated of all—Airbnbs. Between 2020 and 2024, the number of Airbnbs in Mexico city has exploded by over 170 percent, the vast majority of which are regular homes and apartments that have been converted into tourist accommodations. Housing expansion in the city has been nowhere close to keeping up, and as a result the median rent has skyrocketed 45.7 percent since 2020. Many locals have had to pack up and head to the outskirts of the city to find affordable housing, a circumstance which has naturally led to disdain for tourists and foreigners among the native population. Many feel like they are being colonized by American interlopers (a common theme in Mexican politics).
Things came to a head over the weekend of July 4, when planned protests against gentrification and tourism turned into a riot as some participants began smashing the facades of tourist-oriented businesses and restaurants. Others vandalized upscale neighborhoods with graffiti or stickers telling tourists and foreigners to “get out of Mexico.”
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum expressed sympathy towards the frustrations of the protestors, but condemned the outburst for its xenophobia. “There cannot be a call, however legitimate its cause—which in this case is gentrification—a call to ‘Leave!’ for whatever nationality in our country.” --->READ MORE HEREFollow link below to a relevant story:
+++++'Gringo go home.' Mexico City protests target Americans, gentrification+++++
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