My Mexico City Is Everyone’s Now

I have send some time in Mexico city and I can not make up my mind as if I is one of the most beautiful, sophisticated cities I have been to or really the third world country most think it is. I know its not. But it certainly has a lot of everything and in between. In some areas it feels regal. In others you see the poverty and struggle. Personally I did not find it as friendly as people say it is. It is a very cultural city with I read more museums than any other city in the world except London. I enjoyed watching the old architecture and its different styles. The art, Siqueiros, Orozco, Tamayo. I did not feel it unsafe. It is a gem of a city close to the US where you can enjoy and expose your family to deep culture, history and art. Mexico is the country in The Americas with the most UNESCO sites. It does not seem as dangerous as people think it is. Just like NYC or Chicago you just have to use common sense but the good areas are heavily guarded and you can walk around even late at night. Police seem to do the rounds all night. I would highly recommend Mexico City to see and visit. I would also recommend it for seeing a doctor. Private doctors are just as good as in the US and much cheaper they work in nice modern facilities also. Medicines are also much cheaper. From Houston is only a two hour flight.

Despite a week of 'funny stomach' and influenza in Mexico City, I have developed an indelible soft spot for it. Our family (with 2 kids) was one of the few non-Spanish speaking tourist families I saw, most looked to be from Latin countries.

The eclectic sounds and the richly pungent smells of the city can be offsetting, yet leaving an alluring appeal. People are incredibly gentle exuding in warmth. I was at first cautious fearing possible facade for garnering business. But I realized my apprehension was mired by the distant and blight narratives of Mexico - drug war and repugnant Trumpisms. When rationally detaching prosaic narratives to the daily human interaction, I found that people were more than helpful and never overtly aggressive.

For North Americans, Mexico City is a great destination for accessible culture, especially now, a great place to start breaking down stereotypes.

Two practical points I want to share are: 1) Take the MetroBus, not the Metro. Taxis are difficult to negotiate and most travel books discourage hiring cabs from the street (hotel hires are fine), the Metro can be dangerous. We found the MetroBus to be spacious, convenient, clean, and safe, by far the best option. 2) The first couple days, be prepared for the capricious temperature drops worsened by physiological discomforts due to high altitude and smog. Temperatures can go from 26C to 14C in 2 hours, we found our bodies weakened , making us prone to viral illnesses.

It is possible to enjoy mexico city as a traveler without feeling like the kind of tourist ny times travel articles are written for; ergo those who think $300 a night is a deal...p.s. el D.F. IS fantastic, and the museo de la ciudad is well worth a visit for a panorama of mexican art from the colonial period to the present. you can have fantastic juppieized comida mexicano, sure, but you can also have fantastic inexpensive street food, like tacos el greco in condessa, which serves a pork version of turkish gyros i imagine brought to the city by someone greek? get the torta version...really good. the altitude adjustment is quite mild...

Nice article but same-sex marriage is not so rare in Latin America, as stated. Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia had passed laws approving it. That represents a large percentage of the region's population.

I liked the article but would like to say that the gay marriage was legal but became illegal little ago. Just because the some families protested against gay marriage. Its stupid, now Peña Nieto wants to make it legal again!. They are just putting the people to fight.

I visited the DF last year over Christmas break and this article brought back great memories of our trip. We were charmed and fascinated by the city. We came across many lovely people, had great food (without going to recherché/trendy restaurants), enjoyed the mercados, the absolutely fantastic weather and light quality, the architecture and vegetation, the history of the city. It was also a shock for the senses- polluted, loud, smelly, bursting with energy, full of cars that don't stop for pedestrians who have to navigate uneven sidewalks and scary six or eight-way intersections. Nothing bad happened to us aside from slight altitude sickness and funny stomachs but Mexico City does give off kind of a "danger" vibe which is part of its allure in my opinion. It's wild, beautiful, enormous and mesmerizing.

I truly enjoyed your fine literary work. I too grew up in Mexico City, and as much as I have been fortune to travel throughout the world...there still exist those special places which are simply only found in there. From that special restaurant with that special meal...to that unique boutique where you can only find that rare gem...to the people...who although crowded into a city of millions maintain a unique charm and pride which defines the true Mexican. You managed to capture that uniqueness that makes it such special city. To those who have never visited...I recommend you to put it on your short list as without experiencing it...you truly do not know what you are missing. Saludos

We had a wonderful family vacation in CDMX at Christmas 3 years ago, and liked it so well we booked another trip there last spring. We stayed in the La Condesa area and had a fascinating time exploring the art museums, parks and restaurants there. One day we were there my daughter discovered she had accidentally left her wallet in a cab while we were in line to see Frieda Kahlo's Casa Azul, but miraculously she got it back. We retraced our steps to the corner taxi stand near our B&B and described the driver to the dispatcher as a nice man with a plaid scarf and a Bible on the dashboard. He said, "Oh, that's Anthony who just went off duty, but I'll call him." Five minutes later Anthony was at our corner with the wallet, and wouldn't even accept any reward from us. Certainly, not every cab driver may be that honest, but we were impressed by the courtesy of the ones we met, and enjoyed stories from nearly all of them. did help having one person in our group (me) who was able to speak Spanish pretty well.

Mexico City is collapsing in on itself, literally and figuratively.

The water system is antiquated and broken and they are draining the aquifer beneath the city, causing the city to sink a couple of feet per year. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2004/may/06/thisweekssciencequestions

20+ million people crammed into a space far too small. THEN add on the "drug cartels, kidnappings, killings and corruption," and you have a megacity teetering on the edge of collapse.

The city’s secretary of culture, Eduardo Vázquez Marín, put it this way: “This is a city of refugees, a city of immigrants, a city of great cultural diversity.”

Since Mexico City is a city of immigrants and, according to to the author, is “relatively secure”, I do not understand why the Central Americans who are fleeing both the lack of opportunity and the violence in their home countries, are not settling in Mexico City. Mexico has been offering offering asylum to these Central Americans, yet even the ones who have applied for and have received asylum, have been continuing on to the United States. Why are they coming here instead of settling in Mexico City or in other relatively safe regions of Mexico such as the Yucatan?

I've been there a few times for work, most recently this fall. On that trip, I convinced my wife to come along and we extended our stay over the weekend. I have traveled a lot in East and SE Asia and somewhat in Europe and Mexico City was one of my favorite destinations of the last few years. The food is indeed amazing, the people are warm and patient with my lamentable Spanish, and there's a richness of history that is harder to find here on the US West Coast. I will go back in a heartbeat.

My hometown too although I get back too infrequently since graduating Colegio Americano and coming to the States for college in 1970. But it was just as extraordinary a place then as you find it now. I would not stereotype it with the effusive "foodie" and mezcaleria language that you pour on. Do you only know this place with your stomach? The culture and attraction of the Capital has been evident for centuries along with its pleasant climate and its shaking ground. And those 700,000 "ex-pats" are more accurately immigrants going the other way because CDMX, like many other places in Mexico, is a safe and peaceful place to live well. But I am appreciative of the positive tone of your piece because Mexico does get awful press (though maybe more press on Ayotzinapa would be better), and wretched commentary by pols. Next time let your inner Chilango out a bit more and recognize that it is not your Mexico City - you belong to it! And no burro rides. The big thing in Chapultepec was the train.

It may on steroids (but what, good or evil, isn't on steroids these days?) but this is the Mexico City that I spent my 1970s adolescence in. Big, sophisticated, cosmopolitan, suffused with great art, and a foodie culture second to none.

Grilled corn on the cob - plus some crema fresca! Mmmm! At Tres Marias, half way to Cuernavaca, the many taco stands with their amazing quesadillas of huitlacoche (better than a Big Mac). Honestly, most taco stands have the best fast food around. Growing up on this food certainly improved my resistance to Mr. M's revenge. Traditional Mexican cuisine (in Mexico) is still the best, followed by French cuisine, etc.

I am glad the Palacio de Bellas Artes is still "afloat" - it may not look as tall now, as it sinks, from what I remember as a kid going to many wonderful classical concerts that convinced me to start learning to play the violin. A few blocks away is a pair of churches that are no longer LEVEL - their entire base and floor tilted slightly during the 1985 earthquake. Disorienting to walk inside with gravity pulling you not quite straight down as your vision adapts to what appears to be vertical walls.

I miss the Mexico City of my youth - less than 10 million inhabitants - it seemed more manageable and less crowded with crystal clear breathable air that allowed one to see the snow capped Popocatepetl Volcano and the sleeping lady Iztaccíhuatl year round. I guess the electric buses and trolleys powered from wires above helped keep a check on air pollution.

That was back in the day of 12.50 old pesos to a dollar and the beautiful countryside was very safe to travel.

My wife and I went to Mexico City this past August, and found it to be a wondrous place. We were only there four days before going on to Guadalajara, and it clearly wasn't long enough to really discover the city. We stayed in the Zona Rosa, ate at incredible restaurants like Biko, Pujol and Quintonil, climbed the pyramids at Teotihuacan, visited the Museo Nacional de Antropología... and didn't have the time to even hit Centro Historico or Castillo de Chapultepec in our immediate area, let alone the many other zones of the city. More visits will be forthcoming.

Mexico City is a very dangerous place to visit. Americans should not go there until their former president agrees to pay for the Trump wall with the money he has earned personally through NAFTA and all our factories moving to Mexico. Regrettably Mexico takes our jobs and sends their poor people back to us thus lightening their social problems.

Talk about fond memories. Thanks for those!

I was born in Los Angeles, but moved to Mexico City with my parents in 1952, living, yes, in the Zona Rosa, until 1954. During those years I did everything you have mentioned including all those things in Chapultepec Park, Xochimilco, at the pyramids, pre-school days and much more.

Chapultepec park was an especially great place — I think of it as the Golden Gate Park of Mexico. Both are very large, very exciting, and represent their respective cities in the best ways. Street vendors in colorful outfits hawk alongside children playing, citizens on their way to the great museums, artists painting pictures.

As for those donkeys, it's true that the ones I rode may well have been very small, odd looking horses — but they sure were fun! And maybe things were more tightly regulated by the donkey police in later years? Then again, Mexico has always had a wild spirit about it, often in the best possible way!

Unless I missed it the author does not say when he lived there.

I lived there for a short while in 1987/88. I had an apartment in Colonia Polanco. I remember walking down to the Nikko Hotel, I understand it is now the Hyatt Regency, for Sunday Brunch.

I have very fond memories of my time there. The people were great and would always have time for you.

I recently viewed my street where I lived, Presidente Masaryk. I understand that it the Mexico equivalent of Rodeo Drive.

Wow has it has changed!

My husband and I are on the last day of our 11-day stay in Mexico City. It is indeed one of the great cities of the world. I am a bit surprised this article didn't spend more time describing the impressive array of museums here that focus on topics ranging from art to history to tolerance. The Carlos Slim Foundation funded Museo Soumayo is a work of art - stunningly beautiful architecture with an interesting collection, particularly the floor dedicated to the Era of Rodin. But our favorite museum was the profoundly important Museo de Memorias y Tolerancia. It not only documents the world's modern genocides (from Armenia to Darfur), but it explores antecedents as well as consequences. On the day we we visited there was a special exhibit with a video of Trump saying Mexico is sending us rapists and drug dealers and another video showing a guy picking up Mexican workers and transporting them to Immigration authorities instead of to his house to fix his deck. The message of this exhibit was "Work is not a crime, it is dignity." Here is more about it: http://bit.ly/2hVDHcp. We love this beautiful and vibrant city and its people and hope to visit again and again.

Here in DF now, my third time but the first time in 20 years. The city is transformed. Very bougie as my millennial daughter would say. So much to do. So very, very friendly. Food is wonderful; markets are delightful. Very reasonably priced. Drivers no longer try to kill you for having the temerity of trying to cross the street. The air is so much cleaner than it used to be. And any city that loves its dogs the way that Mexico City does can't be all bad.

"Today, against all odds — drug cartels, kidnappings, killings, corruption — Mexico City is a world-class luxury getaway..."

Nice article. But until those four little problems outlined above are under control, I hope you don't mind if I wait to visit. Exactly when will that be?

¡Qué maravilloso artículo! Tanto que en sus últimas líneas me quedé con muchas ganas de seguir leyendo. Gracias por compartir tu experiencia con el mundo y por con tus palabras invitar a que la gente conozca el verdadero México, como mexicano y de corazón, muchas gracias. <3

That is a violent city. Did you have an armed guard while visiting?

I stayed in Mexico from Christmas to New Year’s Eve. I made three day trips to Teotihuacan, Puebla, and Taxco, and spent two days in the city. I am not fond of restaurants and bars, out of necessity more than virtue, and stayed in a nice budget hotel.

I loved the city for three reasons. First, it is rich in history. Take the constitutional plaza, where you will find a majestic cathedral, a beautiful place, and an amazing Tenotichitla ruin and museum.

Second, this is people’s city. If you are not in tourist areas, you will be among Mexicans. I bought a pair of slipper at La Merced, the largest market I have ever seen. The old man cracked his melon seeds, while I compared different types. It cost 27 pesos, and he offered me for 25 pesos. People are nice and warm, although they may act differently. Here a metro ride costs 5 pesos, so does most WC. The metro is expansive, but can become very crowded. The connection tends to require a long walk.

Finally, this place is reasonably prized. I have been to many places whose living standards are much lower than Mexican. Nowhere in the world had I enjoyed more bang for the buck. The exchange rate was about $1 for 20 pesos. Should we thank Donald Trump? I enjoyed food. Take tacos. I ate four from a lady’s cart for 15 pesos each near the anthropology museum, and I ate them while watching pole flying. The night before my departure, I had two for 25 pesos each at a stand near my hotel Reforma Ave.

In sum, it is a wonderful city.

I posted one already, and forgive me for my excitement. Here is more I want to say.

Mexico City is immensely underrated, and I would rank it among the top ten in the world. It is a shame that fewer Americans visited here. It is shorter from NYC to Mexico City than to San Francisco. The weather at the end of the year is very comfortable. I recalled my sitting on a long solid iron bench with back on the street, and I googled about the temperature later. It was 65 degrees.

Probably, the city has room to improve. For example, in one day, I visited three museums: the revolutionary museum, the museum of national history, and the anthropology. The first two had minimal English translation. Surprisingly, fewer people speak English than expected.

"The park had been a favorite place growing up, where I learned to bike and ride donkeys."

I was born in Mexico City in 1962. I lived there until 1996. There is no way you could have learned to ride a donkey in Chapultepec Park because there were never donkeys to be ridden there. On Sundays, maybe a couple of photographers with a donkey, so parents could take a picture of their kids on top of one of them. At the zoo, there were pony rides for children, the horses always under the tight grip of a zoo employee. That is all. I think that after all these years, your fond memories of Mexico City are playing tricks on your mind.

I'm going back in a month. Will bookmark this article. What the author alluded, but what also make the city remarkable, are the ruins scattered around the city and a short ride out. I will try some of the restaurants mentioned too, tho some pricing would've been helpful. In the past, I've found Mexicans to be very friendly and helpful, not criminal as the US press likes to portray them.

A recent trip to Mexico City revealed an amazing, sophisticated metropolis, full of life, history, fun and exciting food - virtually everywhere. It is also incredibly clean, from the sidewalks to the subway stations, not just in fancy neighborhoods like Condessa or Zona Rosa, but everywhere. And, as an American who speaks no Spanish, everyone was helpful, friendly and welcoming, from taxis to restaurants. I am very glad to have experienced this art filled, historic city....every day there was fantastic.

I, too, lived in Mexico City for a few years as a child. For a variety of reasons, I had not visited until recently. In fact, we were there right after our recent Presidential election. What was meant to be a celebration of the victory of Hillary Clinton, instead turned into ten days of much needed respite from heartbreak and disappointment.

We visited many of the same places you mention. Charming, beautiful, nuanced …. the city did not disappoint. But the real gift was the reminder for me of the grace and humility of the Mexican people. I have traveled all over the world, but can say with certainty that they are some of the most welcoming people I've encountered. None of the ugliness that our Pres-elect has projected onto them, seeped into any of their dealings with us. They virtually took us into their arms and offered the warmest of condolences, along with some very interesting discussions about the Donald. There were even some hearty laughs concerning it all.

Go to Mexico City! It is wonderful.

Mexico City is a global city and has been since the turn of the twentieth century. Read Mauricio Tenorio's "I Speak the City" (University of Chicago Press) or Ruben Gallo's "The Mexico City Reader" (University of Wisconsin Press) to gain some understanding of this complex place.

The vibrancy and beauty of Mexico goes far beyond the center to the Roma, Condesa and Polanco boroughs. The South is an equally vibrant area to explore, feel, live and remember. The boroughs of Coyoacán, Copilco, San Angel and San Angel Inn offer a rich cultural heritage of arts, crafts, culture, exotic cuisine, music, and magnificent colonial buildings. Coyoacán is a rich pocket of art and culture with many museums like Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, the Vivero, an oasis of greenery, the church and ex-convent of San Juan Bautista, and many cafés, bookstores and markets. It has narrow cobblestone streets and small plazas. Copilco is the home of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the best university in Latin America with magnificent murals by Diego Rivera. It has vast green areas; museums, theaters, a stadium, and institutes. San Angel is peaceful and picturesque with gallerias, artisan markets, fine restaurants and beautiful churches. The Plaza San Jacinto, Bazaar del Sábado, Convento del Carmen and Parroquia de San Jacinto are worth to visit. San Angel Inn was an old hacienda with a monastery called Las Carmelitas, converted 50 years ago into the now famous San Angel Inn Restaurant where the Mexican aristocracy used to relax. It is a Colonial monument that offers rich interior decorations, spacious gardens and fountains, and fine international cuisine. If you visit Mexico City, start your Journey from the South and then go towards the historic center of the city.

A wonderful account of the modern Mexico, bringing back memories of my
extended stay at the corner of Reforma and Insurgentes years back - Thank you !

It is a beautiful modern city. Visited it twice and hope to return.

When in Polanco, make sure you stop by the bookstore/cafe El Pendulo, a short walk from one of the entries to the Chapultepec park. Wonderful place to browse books and newspapers and excellent coffee (they serve lunch and drinks too). In addition to the stunning Museum of Anthropology, the Museum of Modern Art, also in Chapultepec park, should be on everyone's list. Few cities are as rewarding as Mexico City!

"Then, in 1997, the city elected a liberal government that promoted social and economic reforms. Abortion was legalized in 2007 and same-sex marriage in 2010, defying Mexican traditions and the Catholic Church, pulling the city into the 21st century."

That's the exact opposite of the self-destructive path the U.S. is on. Mexico is modernizing while its belligerent neighbor to the north has chosen a retrograde path into a new dark age.