Zona Rosa
Encyclopedia
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
which is known for its shopping, nightlife, gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
community, and its recently established Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
n community. The neighborhood is officially part of the Colonia Juárez
Colonia Juárez (Mexico City)
Colonia Juarez is one of the better–known neighborhoods or colonias in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City. Its boundaries are: the corner of Paseo de la Reforma and Eje Bucareli to the north, Avenida Chapultepec to the south, Eje 1 Poniente to the east and Circuito Interior José Vasconcelos to...
colonia or official neighborhood
Colonia (Mexico)
In general, colonias are neighborhoods in Mexican cities, which have no jurisdictional autonomy or representation. It is plausible that the name, which literally means colony, arose in the late 19th, early 20th centuries, when one of the first urban developments outside Mexico City's core was...
, located just west of the historic center of Mexico City
Historic center of Mexico City
The historic center of Mexico City is also known as the "Centro" or "Centro Histórico." This neighborhood is focused on the Zócalo or main plaza in Mexico City and extends in all directions for a number of blocks with its farthest extent being west to the Alameda Central The Zocalo is the largest...
.
The area’s history as a community began when it was developed as a residential district for wealthy foreigners and Mexico City residents looking to move from the city center. The development of the area stalled during and after the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
, but the streets named after European capitals and remaining European style mansions are a testament to the area’s aristocratic origins. The next phase in the area’s history was from the 1950s to 1980s, when it was revitalized by artists, intellectuals and the city’s elite who repopulated the area, gave it a bohemian reputation and attracted exclusive restaurants and clubs for visiting politicians and other notables. It was during this time that the area received the name of Zona Rosa, from José Luis Cuevas
Jose Luis Cuevas
José Luis Cuevas is a modernist painter and sculptor from Mexico. Born in 1934, Cuevas derived most of his training outside of the academies. He is considered to be one of the artists from the 1950s in the Rupture Generation that was departing from the politicized and stylized mural school of...
, who commented that it was too timid to be red but too frivolous to be white. The era ended in the 1980s, when many of the upscale businesses moved out and tourism, men’s clubs, prostitution and other crime moved in.
Although the area has declined since the 1980s, it is still a major shopping and entertainment district and has also become a major tourist attraction for the city, one that the city has worked to preserve and rehabilitate since the 2000s, with mixed success. From the 1990s, the area has also become home to Mexico City’s gay community, which is prominent around Amberes Street and sponsors an annual pride parade on Paseo de la Reforma
Paseo de la Reforma
Paseo de la Reforma is a wide avenue that runs in a straight line, cutting diagonally across Mexico City. It was designed by Ferdinand von Rosenzweig in the 1860s and modeled after the great boulevards of Europe, such as Vienna's Ringstrasse or the Champs-Élysées in Paris...
.
Description
Zona Rosa is a portion of the official neighborhood of Colonia Juárez, comprising 24 of the colonia’s 99 city blocks. The borders of the area are formed by Paseo de la Reforma to the north, Varsovia Street to the west, Avenida Insurgentes to the east, and Chapultepec Avenue and Metro InsurgentesMetro Insurgentes
Insurgentes is a station on the Mexico City Metro.It is located at the crossing of Avenida Insurgentes and Avenida Chapultepec in Mexico City's Cuauhtémoc borough, close to the Zona Rosa shopping and entertainment district....
to the south. Most of the streets in the area are named after European cities. A number of these streets are made of cobblestone, with two pedestrian-only. About 40 sculptures — 17 created by young artists from the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas of UNAM
National School of Arts (UNAM)
The Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas is a college of art in Xochimilco, Mexico City. The school is part the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and is responsible for teaching art - painting, sculpture and graphic design, with undergraduate and graduate studies in San Carlos...
— have been installed on various streets, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Zona Rosa.
The area is one of Mexico City’s primary shopping districts and nightclub areas. Streets are filled with bars and nightclubs, which fill on weekends. Among these clubs, men’s clubs with table dances and gay bar
Gay bar
A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender clientele; the term gay is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT and queer communities...
s stand out. In total, there are 714 businesses in the area, 137 of which are restaurants, which cater to foreign and Mexican visitors as well as businessmen who work on nearby Paseo de la Reforma. From its bohemian and intellectual heritage, there are also art galleries, bookstores and the like. El Péndulo is a café/bookstore located on Hamburgo Street, which also serves breakfast with tables available in the indoor dining room and on a terrace. Many of its dishes are named after famous writers. The menu includes international items such as eggs in various styles and French toast
French toast
French toast or Eggy Bread, is a food made with bread and eggs. It is a Christmas time dessert in Portugal and Brazil.Where French toast is served as a sweet dish, milk, sugar, or cinnamon are also commonly added before frying, and it may be then topped with sugar, butter, fruit, syrup, or other...
as well as Mexican staples such as chilaquiles
Chilaquiles
Chilaquiles is a traditional Mexican dish. Typically, corn tortillas cut in quarters and lightly fried are the basis of the dish. Green, red salsa or mole, is poured over the crisp tortilla triangles, called totopos. The mixture is simmered until the tortilla starts softening. Eggs and pulled...
. Patrons are permitted to read selections from the bookstore as they dine.
One echo from the area’s past are a number of early 20th-century mansions built when the area was an exclusive residential area for Mexico City’s wealthy. These homes were designed to look European, especially French. Some of these still remain, such as the one at 115 Hamburgo Street, but most are abandoned.
Despite the installation of tourist police and other efforts, crime is still a problem in the area. The streets with the most problems are Londres, Hamburgo, Florencia, Liverpool, Niza, Amberes and Genova.
Economy and tourism
Most of the business conducted in Zona Rosa is through retail establishments. The area is home to 714 businesses, which include 137 restaurants and 37 parking garages. It is still one of the city’s primary entertainment and shopping districts. It contains stores (especially clothing stores), cafes, hotels, chain stores, fast-food places, restaurants, major hotels, airline offices, banks, clubs and more. There is an antiques mall on Londres Street, and a large handicrafts and souvenir market called Mercado Insurgentes between Liverpool and Londres street, where a number of shopkeepers speak English and some take U.S. dollars. Approximiately 100,000 people pass through the area each day, and an estimated 12,000,000 pesoPeso
The word peso was the name of a coin that originated in Spain and became of immense importance internationally...
s is spent here each day.
Another prominent retail segment includes businesses that cater to Mexico City’s gay community. Since they were established in the 1990s, these businesses have grown in size and number and include sex shops, bookstores, movie theaters and exclusive hotels, as well as bars and nightclubs. These total over 200 businesses spread over 16 blocks, which is now considered to be the community business center. Most customers in Zona Rosa’s businesses are visitors from other parts of the city, foreign tourists, and businessmen who come from nearby office buildings concentrated on or near Paseo de la Reforma. The area that connects Metro Insurgentes with Zona Rosa tends to get crowded with street peddlers selling tamale
Tamale
A tamale — or more correctly tamal — is a traditional Latin American dish made of masa , which is steamed or boiled in a leaf wrapper. The wrapping is discarded before eating...
s, perfume
Perfume
Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils and/or aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used to give the human body, animals, objects, and living spaces "a pleasant scent"...
s, handicrafts, pirated CDs/DVDs and more to passersby.
The attractions of the area for tourists, especially foreign ones, are the shopping, the cafes, and the nightclubs. However, these nightclubs, especially the men’s clubs, have a reputation for attracting prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
, underage drinking
Legal drinking age
Laws about the legal drinking age cover a wide range of issues and behaviours, addressing when and where alcohol can be consumed. The minimum age alcohol can be legally consumed can be different to the age when it can be purchased. These laws vary among different countries and many laws have...
, illegal gambling
Gaming law
Gaming law can be described as the set of rules and regulations that apply to the gaming or gambling industry. Gaming law is not a branch of law in the traditional sense but rather is a collection of several areas of law that include criminal law, regulatory law, constitutional law, administrative...
, and other crime, which has a detrimental effect on tourism. The general deterioration of the area, both in physical infrastructure, crime, and types of businesses, has been problematic for the area as well. Although the area is still heavily promoted by the city, its secretary of tourism has admitted that it has lost much of its international prestige and can no longer be assured of its status as a tourist attraction.
To counter its decline, the city has worked to rehabilitate the area, linking it with the more popular historic center through the Reforma-Centro Historico tourism corridor in 2005. There have been efforts to improve the area through the 2000s, which are projected to continued at least until 2012. This area was designated as a "Barrio Mágico"
Barrios Mágicos of Mexico City
The “Barrios Mágicos” of Mexico City is a list of twenty one areas in the Federal District, which have been named “magical neighborhoods” in order to attract tourism to them. The program is sponsored by the city government but is patterned after the “Pueblos Mágicos” program of the Mexican...
by the city in 2011.
Luxury hotels in the area include Maria Isabel Sheraton, Galeria Plaza, Plaza Florencia, Cristal Rosa, Geneve, Marquis, Aristos, Royal and Marco Polo. Despite the area’s problems, the 24 hotels in the area report an average occupancy rate of 80%, mostly from foreign tourists, year-round.
While the 38 bars and 10 men’s clubs known to police — including Crazy Bodies, Keop’s, Men’s Club, Foxy’s, and Solid Gold — report good business, they also create problems for the area. Many are linked to illicit activities such as prostitution, both male and female, which noticeable on the streets after 10 pm seven days a week. Another problem is “tarjeteros”, who crowd the area’s streets day and night (especially Genova Street), handing out cards and flyers to passersby advertising bars, clubs and other businesses. While this activity is legal, these tarjeteros have been accused of bothering area visitors and being associated with small-scale drug trafficking.
History
Zona Rosa began to be developed along with the rest of Colonia Juárez in the mid-19th century; however, it has always had an independent identity. Originally the area was called “La Teja”, then “La Zona Americana” or “Colonia Americana”, as presidents from Benito JuárezBenito Juárez
Benito Juárez born Benito Pablo Juárez García, was a Mexican lawyer and politician of Zapotec origin from Oaxaca who served five terms as president of Mexico: 1858–1861 as interim, 1861–1865, 1865–1867, 1867–1871 and 1871–1872...
to Porfirio Díaz
Porfirio Díaz
José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori was a Mexican-American War volunteer and French intervention hero, an accomplished general and the President of Mexico continuously from 1876 to 1911, with the exception of a brief term in 1876 when he left Juan N...
promoted it for foreign investment and residency up until the early 20th century. The area also attracted Mexico City’s elite who were looking to escape the city center. During this time, the area was filled with cafes, pastry shops, and a number of green areas designed to create a European atmosphere. For this reason the streets were named after European cities such as Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
(Hamburgo), London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
(Londres), Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
(Copenhague), Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
(Niza), and Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
. The Mexican Revolution put an end to the building here and the initial mansions remained, but many were abandoned.
Nevertheless, the area remained one of the more glamorous zones for most of the 20th century. Expensive cafes and restaurants, art galleries, and jewelry stores continued to attract wealthy residents, although on a reduced scale.
Bohemian appeal
In the 1950s, the area was repopulated and reinvigorated by artists and intellectuals attracted to its location between the historic center and Chapultepec Park. This period saw the opening of trendy bars, clubs, restaurants, cafes, bookstores, and art galleries which gave the area a bohemian feel. By the 1960s, politicians such as Adolfo López MateosAdolfo López Mateos
Adolfo López Mateos was a Mexican politician affiliated to the Institutional Revolutionary Party who served as President of Mexico from 1958 to 1964...
, Adolfo Ruiz Cortines
Adolfo Ruiz Cortines
Adolfo Ruiz Cortines was President of Mexico from 1952 to 1958, representing the Institutional Revolutionary Party he was one of the oldest presidents of Mexico...
, and Miguel Alemán
Miguel Alemán Valdés
Miguel Alemán Valdés served as the President of Mexico from 1946 to 1952.-Life:Alemán was born in Sayula in the state of Veracruz as the son of General Miguel Alemán González and Tomasa Valdés Ledezma...
, as well as painters such as José Luis Cuevas
Jose Luis Cuevas
José Luis Cuevas is a modernist painter and sculptor from Mexico. Born in 1934, Cuevas derived most of his training outside of the academies. He is considered to be one of the artists from the 1950s in the Rupture Generation that was departing from the politicized and stylized mural school of...
and writers such as Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes Macías is a Mexican writer and one of the best-known living novelists and essayists in the Spanish-speaking world. He has influenced contemporary Latin American literature, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages.-Biography:Fuentes was born in...
and Carlos Monsivais
Carlos Monsiváis
Carlos Monsiváis Aceves was a Mexican writer, critic, political activist, and journalist. of French decent He also wrote political opinion columns in leading newspapers and was considered to be an opinion leader within the country's progressive sectors. His generation of writers includes Elena...
, lived, worked and visited the clubs here such as Café Kineret. Fine restaurants were established such as Focolare in 1953, La Gondola in 1958 and Passy, also in 1958. These three still exist to this day. Clubs and restaurants were exclusive, with dress codes. However, there were also several clubs known for chorus girl
Chorus Girl
A chorus girl is a female performer in a chorus or chorus line.It may also refer to:*Chorus Girl , a compilation from Atomic Records*Chorus Girls , a 1981 musical*"The Chorus Girl", a story by Anton Chekhov...
s. One of these was the Can-can, on the corner of Hamburgo and Genova Streets. This mix of bohemian and propriety prompted Cuevas to comment that the area "Es demasiado ingenua para ser roja, pero demasiado frívola para ser blanca, por eso es precisamente rosa (is too naive to be red, but too frivolous to be white, for this reason it is precisely pink)". This is the origin of the area’s current name.
In 1967, Cuevas created a mural on a rooftop in Zona Rosa only to destroy it seconds afterwards. This event was meant to rebel against the social and political content of most of Mexico’s post-Revoluction mural movement
Mexican Muralism
Mexican muralism is a Mexican art movement. The most important period of this movement took place primarily from the 1920s to the 1960s, though it exerted an influence on later generations of Mexican artists...
. In 2003, a reproduction of Cuevas’ “ephemeral mural” was placed on the same rooftop on which the artist created and destroyed the original. This era of Zona Rosa’s development continued until the 1980s. During this time many galleries, bohemian bars and restaurants opened. The area was considered to be tolerant, intellectual and cosmopolitan. It even had its own literary magazine called Zona Rosa.
Decline
Problems in the area began as early as 1968, when the construction of the Mexico City MetroMexico City Metro
The Mexico City Metro , officially called Sistema de Transporte Colectivo, is a metro system that serves the metropolitan area of Mexico City...
caused the area to lose its exclusiveness and crime increased. Real deterioration began when the older, finer businesses such as boutiques and galleries moved out, mostly due to the economic crisis of the 1980s and the 1985 Mexico City earthquake
1985 Mexico City earthquake
The 1985 Mexico City earthquake, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake that struck Mexico City on the early morning of 19 September 1985 at around 7:19 AM , caused the deaths of at least 10,000 people and serious damage to the greater Mexico City Area. The complete seismic event...
, which substantially damaged the area. Many of the more exclusive businesses were replaced by men’s clubs, gay bars, and massage parlor
Massage parlor
A massage parlor is a business where customers can receive a massage. Sometimes the term is synonymous with brothel as the term "massage" may be used as a euphemism for paid sexual favours....
s, which has made Zona Rosa more “red” than “pink”. As the area was promoted for tourism, fast-food places, nightclubs, and bars sprung up, which have engendered problems with underage drinking and prostitution.
La Ronda was an establishment visited by intellectuals such as Guadalupe Amor and Manuel Felgueres, but today it is a men’s club named Foxy’s. Other establishments, such as a bar named Tirol once located in one of the area’s old mansions, have simply shut down and their buildings remain deserted. Many of the stores selling jewelry, arts and other fine merchandise have been converted into stores with more mass-produced items and souvenirs. Another change occurred in the vicinity of Amberes Street, where bars, clubs and other businesses catering to the gay community have appeared. These are distinguished by the use of rainbow colors on their facades.
Most of the decline of the area occurred in the 1980s and 1990s, when the city was governed by appointees of the federal government. In the late 1990s, the city government began to be elected by residents and in 1997, the ruling PRI lost power in the city to the PRD. The new city government was more interested in promoting and restoring the neighborhood. Tourist police were implemented, and efforts to better regulate businesses, control prostitutions, repair infrastructure and promote tourism were undertaken at various times during the 2000s.
These efforts have had mixed success. The city has conducted some high-profile raids of clubs such as the Bar Continental DJ Club, searching for drugs and minors. This operation eventually led to the expropriation of the property on Florencia Street as well as another club on Berna Street. They mayor stated it was part of ongoing operations and meant to be a warning to other club owners in the area. The expropriated building on Florence Street now houses a contingent of the Mexico City police. There have also been other raids in response to complaints about underage drinking and illegal gambling.
In 2007, a public-private venture was started to connect and promote Zona Rosa along with the historic center as the Reforma-Centro Historico corridor. Crime has decreased, but residents and businesses continue to move out, while more “red” businesses move in. In 2004, two theaters were opened exclusively to show erotic movies under the name of Contempo Cinema. According to the owners, the movies shown are not pornography but rather films such as the Last Tango in Paris
Last Tango in Paris
Last Tango in Paris is a 1972 Italian romantic drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci which portrays a recent American widower who takes up an anonymous sexual relationship with a young, soon-to-be-married Parisian woman...
, Basic Instinct
Basic Instinct
Basic Instinct is a 1992 erotic thriller directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas, and starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone....
and Wild Orchid, which do not have explicit sex scenes meriting an XXX rating. The new venues have about 200 seats each with a bar, restaurants and film store.
Work on infrastructure has been completed, mostly on Genova and Hamburgo Streets, but residents complain that the work is too slow, hurting their businesses. There are fears that these interventions, along with those scheduled between 2010 and 2012, will not be enough to save the area.
Gay community
Another prominent area is Amberes Street, home to Mexico City’s gay community. This community was established in the 1990s due to the area’s overall tolerance and the fact that police here did not exhort members of the gay community. Today, homosexuality on Amberes Streets and the rest of Zona Rosa is fairly open with handholding and kissing among same-sex couples. This has led it to be compared to Barrio de ChuecaChueca
Chueca is a central neighborhood in Madrid named after Federico Chueca , composer of zarzuelas. It lies just to the north of the old city and is centered around the Plaza de Chueca, with its metro station "Chueca." The neighborhood has become a popular area for Madrid's gay community, which stages...
in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
and the Castro District in San Francisco. It is famous for being a gay encounter area, especially for young gay men, with some being minors. The gay community has its own set of looks, body language, phrases and other signals used to identify one another. Another important aspect of the gay culture is clothing, with clothing considered to be in “good taste” making one more successful in meeting potential partners. A number of gay men make money through prostitution, mostly younger men soliciting older men. In 2010, the city opened a consulting office for homosexuals wishing to take advantage of Mexico City’s law allowing them to marry.
Zona Rosa is one of three areas in Mexico City where gay bars and other businesses operate, along with Plaza Garibaldi
Plaza Garibaldi
Plaza Garibaldi is located in the historic center of Mexico City, on Eje Central between historic Calle República de Honduras and Calle República de Peru, a few blocks north of the Palacio de Bellas Artes. The original name of this plaza was Plaza Santa Cecilia, but in 1910 it was renamed in...
and an area on Avenida Insurgentes South. However, Zona Rosa is the largest of these and considered to be the gay community’s business center, with over 200 businesses spread over 16 blocks. The best-known businesses are bars such as Hibrido, Caberetito, El Ansia, Black Out, and B-Gay B-Proud (in English). These bars, clubs, and other entertainment places mostly cater to younger crowds and play reggaeton
Reggaeton
Reggaeton is a form of Puerto Rican and Latin American urban and Caribbean music. After its mainstream exposure in 2004, it spread to North American, European and Asian audiences. Reggaeton originated in Puerto Rico but is also has roots from Reggae en Español from Panama and Puerto Rico and...
, psycho-punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, etc., with lasers, strobe lights and other typical decor. However, these businesses are usually marked with rainbow colored flags or other decorations on the facade. Singles and couples dance sensually and sometimes a cloud of generated smoke covers the dance floor. Touching and kissing between couples of the same sex is highly tolerated in many of these clubs. Some also have “dark rooms” where patrons can find privacy for more intimate acts. A number also have unofficial dress codes.
Zona Rosa’s annual pride parade is officially called the Marcha del Orgullo Lésbico, Gay, Bisexual, Transgénero, Travesti, Transsexual e Intersexual (LGBTTTI) (March of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transvestite, Transsexual and Intersexual Pride). It was first held in 1978 with about 300 people participating. During this event, the nightclubs, discothèques and bars of Zona Rosa fill with members of the LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
community starting at midday. Many businesses, whether they cater to gays or not, are decorated with rainbow colored balloons, streamers and other items. Despite the crowds, police presence is not significantly heightened.
The parade usually marches along Paseo de la Reforma from Puerta de los Leones to the Glorieta de la Palma, with the entire stretch completely closed to traffic for the event. The city has even participated, offering free AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
tests to attendees. In 2003, there were more than 20,000 participants. The 2010 march adopted the theme of "Marcha del Bicentenario, Marcha de las Libertades" (March of the Bicentennial, March of Liberties) and extended from the Angel of Independence to the Alameda Central
Mexico City Alameda Central
Alameda Central is a public municipal park in downtown Mexico City, adjacent to the Palacio de Bellas Artes, between Juarez Avenue and Hidalgo Avenue.-Description:...
. The march in Mexico City was paralleled in 25 other Mexican cities.
Despite its prominence, the existence of a large, open gay community in Zona Rosa still creates controversy. Some, such as the president of the Agrupacion de Comericantes de la Zona Rosa (Acozoro), Mariano Molina, state that the presence of an open gay community drives away visitors and customers who are not accustomed to seeing gay couples in public. Others state that the government will not work to save the area because of the gay bars and Mexico’s ethic of machismo
Machismo
Machismo, or machoism, is a word of Spanish and Portuguese origin that describes prominently exhibited or excessive masculinity. As an attitude, machismo ranges from a personal sense of virility to a more extreme male chauvinism...
.
While male and female prostitution exists in Zona Rosa, there have been complaints of the prostitution of minors in the gay community, despite efforts since the 1990s to eradicate it. Residents and business owners complain that this prostitution is very open and can be very aggressive, centered around the various gay bars that can be found on and around Ambares Street. However, business owners in the gay community state that the prostitution issue, including that of minors, is not the problem that neighbors say it is; rather it is that some have a problem with having an open gay community. These businesses state that gays have a high level of purchasing power and many own their own businesses that employ thousands in the city. They also state that the gay community attracts visitors from other parts of the city and even internationally. This is particularly true on Gay Pride Day, when the city holds a parade on Paseo de la Reforma and at Christmastime.
Korean community
Most of Mexico City’s Korean population of about 9,000 lives in and around Zona Rosa. According to the newspaper ReformaReforma
Reforma is a Mexican newspaper based in Mexico City. It has 276,700 readers in Mexico City. The paper shares content with other papers in parent newsgroup Grupo Reforma. The cumulative readership of the newsgroup is above 400,000...
, there are at least 1,000 Koreans living in Zona Rosa proper and about 3,000 total in Colonia Juárez. In Zona Rosa, especially west of Florencia Street, barber shops, restaurants, and Internet cafes with signs in Korean dot the area.
Many Korean residents do not speak Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and are relatively isolated from their Mexican neighbors. The area around Hamburgo, Praga, Berna and Biarritz streets has been converted into “Pequeño Seul” (Little Seoul), with Biarritz Street’s residents almost 90% Korean.
The number of Korean residents in the colonia continues to increase even as the number of younger people in general decreases. Most immigrated to Mexico in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century, as a result of commercial agreements signed by the Mexican government with Korea and Taiwan
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
, allowing companies such as Daewoo
Daewoo
Daewoo or the Daewoo Group was a major South Korean chaebol . It was founded on 22 March 1967 as Daewoo Industrial and was dismantled by the Korean government in 1999...
to bring workers over from Asia. However, according to some sources such as Alfredo Romero, professor of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at UNAM
Unam
UNAM or UNaM may refer to:* National University of Misiones, a National University in Posadas, Argentina*National Autonomous University of Mexico , the large public autonomous university based in Mexico City...
, a large percentage of Koreans living in Mexico have questionable immigration status. There have been conflicts between Korean-owned businesses and Mexican neighbors over noise and sanitation issues, with some Mexicans complaining that the Koreans do not want to adapt to Mexican society. Another issue has been legal problems, both with the status of merchandise and the status of employees. A store owned by Koreans was shut down by police for selling imported merchandise of questionable origin in 2002, with 33 workers detained.
External links
- Zona Rosa at the Mexico City Virtual Guide.
- Traveling in Mexico City's Zona Rosa at Mexico Connect