Modern Mexico
HI i was searching in internet and found you blog,is very nice that you give you point about our culture, i was to U.S.A in december and i really i cant understand why the people choise death in the desert,i think you pictures are goods, but i think like mexican that i would like if you want show our country,show place more prety and moderns, like Monterrey,Guadalajara, Veracruz,that show that in mexico Can have progress if you work a lot, not only the poor side,cause in U.S A. i Looked many poor people and not latin,is my point. thank you.
Lorena is exactly right. And eloquent. I responded in my inadequate Spanish to put our communication on an equal footing, asking her if she would allow me to quote her email in this post, a request to which she graciously consented.
Many poor people do live in the United States, but they represent only a part of the story. Fifth Avenue, Silicon Valley and Beverly Hills need to be included. Looking back through old posts, I see that my subjects often are poverty, people in traditional dress, cultural oddities deriving from inadequate education. Missing are observations about the progress this country has made, the emergence of a working democracy, the growing middle class of well-paid professionals.
I'm taking Lorena's observation to heart. In the future, I'll include more posts that deal with the accomplishments of modern Mexico, in addition to those topics that seem different and noteworthy to northern eyes.
I'll begin with a look at the work of helicopter pilot Oscar Ruiz, who has taken a wonderful series of Aerial Photographs of Mexico City. I've posted two below, but I encourage you to follow the link and look at this work: there's nothing like it anywhere else.
Oscar identifies these as more than three hundred low income homes in Ixtapaluca. He says the entire complex has more than 10,000!
It's hard to believe this is a real photograph, but it is. More importantly, it shows that Mexico is a mature country that is able to provide subsidized housing of high quality on a huge scale.
Mexico is home to some of the world's greatest architects and has a wealth of interesting structures, like this apartment building.
Clearly, this is not low income housing. But I suspect that apartments like this are affordable to professional and managerial workers, suggesting that the historical imbalance in wealth distribution, while still severe, is beginning to moderate.
Here in San Miguel de Allende, we have an apartment tower under construction. Several modern condominium projects have been completed. A huge Nick Faldo golf and residence complex is being built on the north edge of town. Hell, we now even have a Starbucks right on the Jardín. Not everyone is happy about all this, especially immigrants from the north who came here to see the charm of women washing clothes outdoors in concrete tubs at the lavendería pública. But maybe someone should ask those washerwomen if they wouldn't prefer to use a modern washer and dryer in a nice condo somewhere. We all know what their answer would be.