MegaCity - Sophie Gerrard

MegaCity A commission looking at the middle classes of Mexico City. In 2006 the UN announced that more than half of the world’s population currently live in cities. Further more, more than a billion people now live in slums. With a population of 19 million people, Mexico City i...

Mexico City

Tlatelolco, Mexico City, 2007

MegaCity

A commission looking at the middle classes of Mexico City.

In 2006 the UN announced that more than half of the world’s population currently live in cities. Further more, more than a billion people now live in slums.

With a population of 19 million people, Mexico City is considered a Megacity. The city was once considered the ultimate urban disaster; an overpopulated megalopolis with nothing to show for itself other than pollution, corruption, crime congestion and horrendous poverty. For many, this stereotype holds true today.

However political and economic reform during the 1990s has transformed Mexico City and given rise to a new generation of chilangos who are embracing individualism, cultural diversity and consumerism.

With increased access to credit, the middle classes are the fastest growing social group, separated into lower-middle, middle-middle, and upper-middle class.

Historically known as a city consisting only of poverty, smog and high levels of pollution, this project takes a slightly less familiar look at the landscape and booming middle classes in the worlds’ second largest city.

“Communication is far more advanced than it has ever been and values have shifted as a result. In order to understand why we see people living in fairly squalid conditions paying for boxing, or guitar lessons, we need to broaden our understanding of the word poverty.” – Jose Castillo, Architect, La Condessa, Mexico City, Mexico, October 2007

Neza, Mexico City

Iztacalco, Mexico City, 2007

Neza, Mexico City

Neza, Mexico City "At the beginning the people who came to Neza had very poorly paid jobs, as seamstresses or in factories. They had little education. As time went by they were able to make enough money to support their children’s education. So now we find a lot of lawyers, doctors and professionals living here in Neza."

Xtapaluca, Mexico City, 2007

Iztacalco, Mexico City, 2007

Neza, Mexico City

MegaCity15

Xochimilco, Mexico City, 2007

Ixtapaluca, Mexico City

Tlatelolco, Mexico City, 2007

Neza, Mexico City

MegaCity24

Padre Arnulfo Contreras Padilla, 35, Nesa, Mexico City, October 2007 Padre Arnulfo Contreras Padilla, 35, Nesa, Mexico City, October 2007 "Every Sunday I give mobile multitudinal masses from my car to 700 people and the host to around 300. With the progress of globalisation there appears to have been a process of desacrilisation in Mexico City. But if you search deep in peoples’ hearts, you find that religion is ...

Tlatelolco, Mexico City, 2007

Ixtapaluca, Mexico City

Jose Castillo, Architect, La Condessa, Mexico City, Mexico, October 2007 Jose Castillo, Architect, La Condessa, Mexico City, Mexico, October 2007 "Communication is far more advanced than it has ever been and values have shifted as a result. In order to understand why we see people living in fairly squalid conditions paying for boxing, or guitar lessons, we need to broaden our understanding of the word poverty." © COP...

Ixtapaluca, Mexico City

Bank Security Guard, Ixtapaluca, Mexico City, 2007

Santa Fe, Mexico City

Valentina, 36, Santa Fe, Mexico City, October 2007. Valentina, 36, Santa Fe, Mexico City, October 2007. Valentina lives in Bosques de las Lomas. Divorced children – 17, 13 and 8. The eldest is in Denver, Colorado. Others live with her. "Entertaining children in Mexico City can be hard, because you end up doing the same stuff. You go the movies, to the mall, you have lunch, and then you just go ...

The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)

La Condessa, Mexico City, October 2007

Mexico City

Anapola Mushkadiz, 24, owner of Kaya: Reggae Revolution bar, La Condessa, Mexico City, October 2007 Anapola Mushkadiz, 24, owner of Kaya: Reggae Revolution bar, La Condessa, Mexico City, October 2007 "There’s not the same level of mixing among young Mexicans that you get in Europe. We call someone who wears Ralf Lauren polo shirts and Armani jeans and so on a fresa, or strawberry. And if you go to a fresa nightclub everyone dresses the same