Introduction
The world has never known…
Prologue: From the Center Outwards
The idea to do this…
1. San Francisco Tecoxpa: Day of the Dead
Apparently the world becomes hard…
2. Valle de Chalco: Urban Indigenous Migrants
Wandering along the flat, swampy,…
3. Dogs: Bitten in the Pasture of the Moon
It was just a nip…
4. The navel of the moon: Valle de Xico
On the edge of Valle…
5. Witchcraft and spirits: Cocotitlán
I had passed Iztapalapa and…
6. The village that travels: Hornos de San Francisco
The semi-detached rural village of…
7. The leader of the pack: Iztapaluca
That night in Izcalli I…
8. Graveyards: Los Reyes
The edge of the city…
9. Politics and music: Chimalhuacán
The Chimalhuachi Volcano, encircled by…
10. Territories – Chimalhuacán
I left the hotel with…
11. Foundations: Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl
I woke up in the…
12. Mexico City International Airport: the whale in the belly of the lake
The whale in the lake…
13. Illegal in the Treasure Knife: Venustiano Carranza
I left the airport in…
14. The Urban Spiral: Ecatepec
In the north of Ecatepec…
15. The ballad of Cornelio Cruces: Atenco
I walked among the willow…
16. Ghosts and memories: Tepetlaoxtoc
I continued my ascent from…
17. Songs and Flowers: Santa Catarina del Monte
That morning I continued up…
18. The Mexican Polder: Tecámac
Leaving from Tecámac that morning…
19. The low-key jazz of illicit assignation: Ecatepec
Walking around the edge of…
20. Santa Muerte: Tultitlán
The Sierra de Guadalupe loomed…
21. Sunday Mass: Ecatepec
Walking with a shoulder incapacitated…
22. Art and Life: Ecatepec
The second morning at the…
23. Pain and danger: South of the Sierra de Guadalupe
From the Cerro Gordo I…
24. Cuautitlán: A medical visit
When I finally limped into…
25. Playing with fire: Tultepec
Before entering Cuautitlán I was…
26. The alphabet city: Tepotzotlán
I wandered through the village…
27. Burning torch: Nicolás Romero
I rounded the long fingers…
28. Horseshoe and burning cross: Nicolás Romero
Villa Nicolás Romero in the…
29. The way of the rooster: Naucalpan
The rooster is resentful, said…
30. Nightfall: Naucalpan
At the beginning of my…
31. That’s modernity: Huixquilucan
There is nothing so uncomfortable…
32. Chance encounters: Magdalena Contreras
I descended from the Cerro…
33. The Garden of Rock: Ajusco
I descended along the freeway…
34. Destination: San Francisco Tecoxpa
I passed over the hills…
1. Religion
Mexicans are a deeply spiritual people. Religious images are everywhere, in car parks, gas stations,…
2. Building styles
Building styles on the edge of the city tend to be either very old or…
3. Economy
The Greater Mexico City Area is the 15th largest urban economy in the world. Though…
4. Entertainment
Entertainment is scarce on the edge of the city. There is little money to support…
5. Iconography
Many styles of symbols and pictorial systems clash on the edge of the city. One…
6. Music
Music as the most accessible expression of immaterial culture is naturally geographically fluid. All kinds…
7. Obstacles
Mexico City has continued to expand through the Valley of Mexico until it reaches places…
8. Pores
Practically everything in Mexico City came from somewhere else. The only resource really produced locally…
9. Communities
Community is hard to define. Generally it requires many different kinds of relation tp really…
10. Dynamics of power
The dynamics of power on the edge of the city generally have to do with…
11. History
Mexico city was founded on an island in a lake in 1325. This means that…
12. Nature
The Valley of Mexico is a biodiversity hotspot. Due to its varied climates and geographical…