Latinx Files periodically features guest writers. This week, we asked De Los columnist Alex Zaragoza to write for us. If you haven’t already, you can subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
Recently, a white friend of mine headed to Mexico City for vacation and met up with another friend who’s been living there for a month as one of the “digital nomads” taking the city by storm. I told her to have fun, but to be aware that there is a fierce and, frankly, understandable backlash against American tourists in the country’s capital.
Over the years, gentrification has created untenable conditions for locals to be pushed out of their neighborhoods, on top of the many other problems that have long existed in the country: corruption, police brutality, organized crime, gender-based violence, femicide, etc. While tourists happily wander around and rave about the Michelin-starred restaurants, designer stores, and trendy coffee shops, people are struggling.
In Mexico, tourism is increasingly seen as a scourge and harbinger of problems for locals, and that sentiment is mirrored elsewhere: This month, protesters in Barcelona pelted travelers with water guns to protest the impact of mass tourism on the city, a main one of which has been soaring housing costs.
Comments on the news article included “shameful”, “you should not bite the hand that feeds you”, and “you should not abuse and harass innocent people”. While locals are demanding their right to live a dignified life in their city, tapas must not get wet.
As I was telling my friend about this, I realized I was basically reminding myself of the same thing as my partner, so we planned a trip to Oaxaca de Juarez, another destination plagued by the same issues facing Mexico City.
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The fragrant bakeries, bustling calendars and brightly coloured walls of post-colonial buildings bore messages from some of the most frustrated, forgotten and marginalised people who call this picturesque city home. “Mexican culture and people stand with RESPETA,” read one wall sign. Other tags were more to the point, reading “Odio al Gringo.” One called for gringos to “go away.”
Oaxaca is one of Mexico’s most visited cities, with domestic and international tourism increasing by 77% since 2020, according to the Oaxaca-based research institute Center for Sociology and Public Opinion. The post-pandemic lockdown travel boom has hit the city hard, with the institute reporting that rents in the city center have more than doubled in the past five years. Many people who have lived in these neighborhoods for generations have been pushed out to areas without proper infrastructure, affecting their livelihoods.
In January, local activists in Oaxaca organized protests that accused over-tourism of burying local culture and leading to a kind of gentrification that drives up prices, with Airbnb rentals being a major issue.
I nodded in agreement as I read the tags on the pink-and-orange painted walls, an act of cognitive dissonance I’d been unravelling for days, even as I walked the streets with my gringo boyfriend. We acted respectfully while acknowledging these issues, but our presence could constitute an act of complicity in the critical resistance I subscribe to. After all, I grew up in Tijuana, a city influenced by tourism on a cultural and institutional level.
Leon Lory Langle creates experiences for tourists in Oaxaca. Langle, 45, was born in Mexico City but moved with his family when he was nine. He worked as a bartender for years before the COVID-19 pandemic brought him to his current job. We met Langle on a day-long mezcal tour, and his enthusiasm was infectious, inspired by his love of the region, his deep knowledge of agave-based spirits, and his deep-rooted personal connection. He’s obsessed with the agave plant.
For Langle, Oaxaca has always been a tourist destination, so blaming tourists doesn’t make sense because he claims it’s locals who are driving up prices.
“It’s a complex issue,” he said after a long whoosh. “At the end of the day, it’s the tourists who pay the price. Yes, these issues and topics are not just about tourists. Many different factors create movements.”
Langle argues that local residents are choosing to pay higher rents or rent out their city centre homes to businesses that charge higher rents. Everyone is making money, he says.
“It’s easier to blame foreigners than Mexicans,” he says. “In a small town, that’s natural. Almost everyone knows each other. Most of them are families. You don’t want to fight with a family. It’s easier to blame the tourists.”
Peck, a transgender tattoo artist who was born and raised in Oaxaca, doesn’t think locals should shoulder all the blame.
“This is not an increase [in cost] “What cafes and other businesses are doing will actually change the influx of gentrification,” they say. “In reality, it’s up to the government to make regulations. Gentrification responds to a structural system. It’s not just raising prices. It’s a capitalist system.”
Peck points to the upcoming Guelaguetza festival, an annual event showcasing local indigenous cuisine and culture, as one source of frustration.
“The money is there,” they say. “They say tourism brings in a lot of money, so the party goes on for a month, but it’s not money the public sees.”
Peck said the event was full of hypocrisy, arguing that Indigenous people are routinely forced from their lands, murdered, imprisoned and victimized by state violence, and that it’s infuriating to see their culture being offered for sale at unaffordable prices.
“It makes me sad,” they say, “but it also makes me angry to see the place I grew up in change so rapidly with commercialization.”
Growing up in Tijuana, I saw how much service was provided for tourists. There were many days when I would wake up to no running water and have to wipe myself down with baby wipes. Hotels in the area didn’t give me that kind of trouble. How much service we are expected to provide for foreigners breeds outrage, especially when it’s combined with ridicule, abuse, and a political system that targets us in dehumanizing ways — that is, dehumanizing accommodation.
As much as I like to blame everything on gringos (and they have a lot to blame), this is also a local class issue. Middle- and upper-class residents have this expectation of service, and the people providing it are exactly what you’d expect: the poor, indigenous people, darker-skinned people. Classism and racism are as prevalent in Mexico as the hoarse throats at a Luis Miguel concert or the breast-shaped mugs in a craft market teeming with Tevas.
Despite my upbringing and fluency in English, as a white Mexican with some (though not much) disposable income and social capital, I realized that I may also be contributing to this problem. I also believe that embracing other cultures and places will make me a better person. These two seemingly contradictory beliefs raise the following questions: How can I explore the world without hurting anyone? How can I behave ethically?
“We’re not against travel, but we are against tourism,” activist Andrea Bell Arti told Bloomberg after an anti-gentrification protest in Oaxaca earlier this year. “What we’re against is tourism as a capitalist economic system based on a colonial model that exploits people’s resources, knowledge, lifestyle and culture, and they are not people who deserve this model.”
Some places should probably be left alone, but Peck offered a simple suggestion to be mindful of where you spend your money while traveling and always listen to locals.
For me, taking a squirt of water from a water gun is the least I can do to support those most affected in fighting for their rights.
Alex Zaragoza
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(Jackie Rivera/For the Times, Martina Ibáñez-Baldor/Los Angeles Times)
Articles I read this week that I want you to read too
From the LA Times
Dame Arocena brings black female voices to Latin pop
After leaving Cuba, Daime Arocena needed to take some time away from jazz, the genre that helped her find her voice and launch her career. Earlier this year, she released “Alchemy,” a Latin pop album centered on her experience as a black woman. Arocena spoke to de Ros about how Beyoncé’s “Black Is King” and her unexpected move to Puerto Rico helped her shake off her blues and find her spark again.
If you’d like to see Arocena perform, he’ll be performing at a free concert in Downtown Los Angeles on Saturday. Co-hosted by De Los and Grand Performances, the show will be hosted by KCRW’s DJ Wyldeflower and will also feature live performances by special guests Pan Dulce and Alan Lightner. You can register for the event here.
Discover Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Rare Portraits at LACMA
For many years, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art dated a rare portrait of Frida Kahlo to 1939. But that perception was quietly changed recently when Times art critic Christopher Knight discovered an earlier photograph of the portrait from 1935 in the archives of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Given the context of the lives and relationships of the two Mexican artists, Knight writes, the earlier date gives the work new meaning.
Reparations for Chavez Ravine’s family? Some descendants say not so soon
In March, Assemblywoman Wendy Carillo (D-Los Angeles) introduced the Chavez Lavine Accountability Act in the state Assembly. If passed, the bill would require the city of Los Angeles to erect a monument honoring the families who were expelled from the area that would later become the home of Dodger Stadium. House Bill 1950 would also create a task force to explore the possibility of paying reparations to the descendants of those families. But not everyone wants reparations. In his latest column, Gustavo Arellano spoke to descendants who want their family’s stories told.
What I’m reading this month: “Afterlife of Mar Caldera” and other books by Latino authors
In the July issue of De Los Reads, contributor Roxie Lin spoke with Nadi Reed Pérez about her debut novel, “The Afterlife of Mal Cabrera,” which tells the story of Mal, a protagonist who travels between this world and the afterlife.
From elsewhere
Congressman Joaquin Castro calls for proposals for Latino films in the National Film Registry
Rep. Joaquin Castro’s (D-Texas) office is again accepting nominations for Latino films to be considered for inclusion in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry. As chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Castro was instrumental in getting films like “Selena” (1997), “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” (1982) and “Alambrista!” (1977) in the registry. Of the 875 films currently on the registry, only 5% have a Latino focus. Article from Variety.
Asada Fest Brings World’s Best Latino Chefs and Taqueros to Los Angeles
Over the weekend, Northgate’s Mercado Gonzales held its first Asada Fest, bringing together celebrity chefs from “Top Chef,” Netflix’s “Taco Chronicles” and Tijuana’s Culinary Arts School for the inaugural event. With tacos, lucha libre and live music, Costa Mesa Market continues to serve as a community hub for Latinos in Southern California. Article from Caló News.
Cerice Davis
