The ‘Hoy No Circula’ program

This program, that translates to ‘today (these vehicles) don’t circulate’ was originally introduced as means to reduce the number of cars circulating on roads in the Mexico City area. The restriction zone also encompasses 18 municipalities in the State of Mexico which are adjacent to the capital.

Restriction zone: View an illustrated map of the restriction zone

The restrictions are determined by three factors:

• the level of emissions generated by a vehicle, determined by a code on a holographic sticker on the vehicle; and/or
• the last number on the vehicle’s license plate; and
• environmental contingencies — enacted when air quality levels deteriorate in the Hoy No Circula zone.

‘Hoy No Circula’ Restriction Zone

The Hoy No Circula program is in force in all 16 Delegations of Mexico City (Google Map) as well as 18 Municipalities in State of Mexico (Google Map).

Restriction zone: View an illustrated map of the restriction zone

Mexican-plated vehicles not registered in these states and foreign-plated vehicles traveling in the restricted zone are not exempt from the rules.

Foreign (plated) vehicles

Any vehicle that does not have plates issued in an area where Hoy No Circula applies, whether the car is Mexican-plated or foreign-plated, is considered ‘foreign’ according to the rules.

‘Foreign’ vehicles cannot circulate:

• at least one day of the week, Monday through Friday —from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.— determined by
• a combination of the last number on the vehicle’s license plate and the code on its holographic vehicle emissions sticker.
• See the section below about ‘holographic sticker codes’ for more details

Furthermore:

• if your Mexican-plated vehicle does not have a holographic emissions sticker, or if your vehicle has non-Mexican plates: in addition to the above restrictions, you cannot drive in the Hoy No Circula zone every weekday morning between 5 AM. and 11 AM

Emissions test and holographic stickers

If you live in and/or intend to drive regularly in or through the Hoy No Circula zone, you will need to get your vehicle ‘verified’—an annual process that requires you to take your vehicle to an approved testing center.

After the test, you’ll be issued with a holographic sticker to place on your windshield; the number on that sticker will depend on the level of emissions the vehicle generates, and that will determine how often, and when, your vehicle can circulate in the Hoy No Circula zone.

Holographic sticker categories

There are five holographic sticker categories: 00, 0, 1, 2, and Exempt:

• If your vehicle is issued with a 00, 0, or Exempt sticker, you can drive without restrictions inside the Hoy No Circula zone, although note that if there is an environmental contingency in place, 00 and 0 stickered vehicles become restricted too;
• If your vehicle is issued with a holographic sticker bearing number 1, your vehicle is restricted one day a week depending on the last number of the license plate and two Saturdays a month—from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.;
• If your vehicle is issued with a holographic sticker bearing number 2, your vehicle is restricted one day a week depending on the last number of the license plate and every Saturday—from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.;
• If your vehicle is issued with an ‘Exempt’ sticker, there are no restrictions on when the vehicle can be drive in the Hoy No Circula zone;
• Use the online calendar tool to determine what days you can and cannot drive if your vehicle is not exempt.

Vehicles exempted from Hoy No Circula

Certain vehicles are exempt from the restrictions.  If your vehicle meets one of these criteria, it is exempt, and can circulate without restrictions inside the Hoy No Circula zone.

Important: Note that some of these exemptions may be withdrawn in the event of an environmental contingency in the restricted zone.

Exemptions include:

• the vehicle has been tested and ‘verified’ (see above), and has a holographic sticker displaying the number 00 or 0 on the windshield;
• the vehicle has a Tourist Pass (see next section);
• the car is solar/electric powered;
• the vehicle has Mexican-issued plates with disabled or ‘antique/classic car’ emblems on them;
• the vehicle has an ‘Exempt’ holographic sticker.
• Other exempt vehicles include: funeral hearses, federal transport vehicles, school buses, emergency vehicles, and vehicles displaying ‘trade plates’ (used by car dealerships).

Hoy No Circula ‘Tourist Pass’

If you intend to visit the Hoy No Circula zone for a defined period (or drive through it) you can apply for a ‘tourist pass’ for your vehicle.

A vehicle tourist pass:

• Exempts the vehicle from restrictions for a defined period;
• Can be requested only once every six months for 14 days each time; or twice every six months for 7 days each time
• Can be requested for 3 days during Mexico’s long-weekend holidays
• Foreign-plated vehicles can apply for the tourist pass, provided that the car was manufactured from 1993 onwards
• You apply for the tourist pass online. You’ll need to print out the two permits the system will send to you (one for Mexico City and the other for the State of Mexico) and display these prominently in your windshield when you are driving in the Hoy No Circula zone.

However:

• Vehicles less than eight years old with Mexican plates from: Mexico City, the State of Mexico, Querétaro, Puebla, Hidalgo, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Morelos, or Tlaxcala cannot apply for this pass as they can verify their vehicles in those states and obtain a holographic sticker with a 0 or 00.
• Tourist passes are suspended if there is an environmental contingency;
• Mexican- and foreign-plated vehicles manufactured before 1993 cannot apply for this pass.

Penalties for non-compliance

Traffic police in Mexico City and the State of Mexico are especially vigilant regarding this matter and are quick to pull drivers over for non-compliance.

If you drive your vehicle through the Hoy No Circula zone and you don’t have the prescribed permit or exemption, your car will be stopped, towed, and impounded (at your expense), and you’ll have to pay:

• a fine, that is determined between 20 and 30 days of UMA; plus
• towing and impoundment release fees that will add about an additional $2,000-$3,000 Mexican pesos; thus
• a violation will cost several thousand Mexican pesos (a few hundred US dollars) plus at least half a day of your life that you won’t get back—and significant hassle.

Further information

Here are some online resources about Hoy No Circula for further reference:

• Hoy No Circula information and online calendar
• Latest updates from CA Megalopolis, an integrated multi-state agency that keeps the public updated about Hoy No Circula
• Apply for a Tourist Pass online
• Tourist Pass FAQs
• Environmental contingency (air quality) news
• Vehicle verification info and testing centers

Learn more about driving in Mexico

Mexperience offers articles with insights to help you prepare for your road trip and drive confidently in Mexico.

• Insuring your vehicle for driving in Mexico
• Importing a foreign car or other vehicle to Mexico
• Getting a Temporary Import Permit (TIP) for your vehicle
• Your Mexico road trip checklist
• Latest articles about driving in Mexico
• Guide to auto insurance in Mexico

But on one particular kind of Friday in Mexico —viernes quincena— when pay day coincides with the last day of the week, the congestion is even greater.  Not just the traffic thickens. As the working people have money to spend, this day you can find yourself in long lines for restaurant tables, cinema tickets, or at the supermarket checkout.

People mill around at malls, and finding a parking spot can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. (Navigating the narrow underground parking lots is a particularly useful skill to develop in busy cities.)

The advent of direct deposit for wages did away with much of the lining-up at banks to cash checks, which in years past was about as daunting a prospect as can be imagined. But people in Mexico still often prefer to use cash so lines at ATMs have replaced many of the lines at bank branches.

What the British call a fortnight the Mexicans call the quincena—a 15-day period between pay days. And as most wages are paid bi-weekly, the pay day is also referred to as la quincena.

The noticeable buzz of commercial activity illustrates the fact that much of the working and middle classes, here as elsewhere, live from one paycheck to the next. Sales numbers from the retailers association Antad, and from its biggest member Walmart reflect this. Months that have an extra Saturday —a typical shopping day— tend to see bigger increases in sales, and the effect is even greater when the weekends coincide with payment of la quincena.

Officially, pay days are on the 15th and 30th of each month, or the nearest prior working day. So if the 15th or 30th falls on a weekend, wages should be paid on the Friday before. Pay days that fall on the Monday can be devastating for weekend plans.

And as there are 24 pay day quincenas per year (52 weeks), inevitably there are a number of quincenas largas, or long quincenas. These are usually following months with 31 days, and they can become even longer if the preceding pay was deposited ahead of a weekend.

Social media provides many examples of the anxiety surrounding the timing of deposits and the efficiency of HR and payroll departments. The X account @MundoGodinez addresses with considerable humor the daily life of the typical Mexican office worker, and la quincena looms large as a subject at the front of most minds.

See also: El Aguinaldo

The birds living in the capital —of which there are a considerably large number for such a vast expanse of concrete and bitumen— find their dawn-welcoming choruses competing for ears with the continuous rush of tires on tar, the roar of diesel combustion, and piercing shrieks from the whistles of policemen trying to keep it all moving along.

Perhaps not surprisingly, noise is something of a status symbol for the chilangos as they struggle to be noticed among 20 million others.

The owners and operators of the ubiquitous micros —shuttle buses— may well skimp when it comes to seating arrangements, faulty light bulbs, or sticky doors, but spare no expense when rigging up sound systems for the apparent entertainment of the driver alone. From the intricate set-up of tweeters and woofers, no one is spared the blast of música tropical, corridas, or rock en español.

In case this isn’t enough, some replace the standard horn with a series of trumpets pumping out Yankee Doodle or La Cucaracha, both proclaiming “make way for the raucous.”

The penchant for forcibly sharing dissonant tastes extends to the owners of cars, many of whom roll down their windows to let fellow motorists and pedestrians appreciate the finer points of disco, rap, or hip-hop—at full volume.  Pathos comes to mind as the driver tries to shout “look at me” through the speakers, but actually insists, “listen to this awful din.” None of the loudies seem to like Simon & Garfunkel.

And, as elsewhere, even in the best of homes decibels rather than premises, inference, and deduction are the main currency for settling differences in points of view.  Here, the more the merrier combines with the louder the better to produce some ear-splitting enforcement of opinion, making the expression, el que calla otorga, (whoever says nothing, consents) somewhat redundant.

But because it’s so impossibly huge and challenging to navigate, it’s intimidating for many visitors. David Lida —whose book First Stop in the New World is considered by many the definitive text on Mexico City— can take you inside in ways it would be impossible to find on your own.

David Lida knows the capital intimately and offers small group walking tours that will give you exceptional insights and glimpses into this magnificent and historical capital city.  His knowledge and personal approach to creating tours for between one and six people offer unique perspectives and value that commonly offered public tours cannot touch.

Delve into Mexico City’s charms on a tour formed around your interests

Mexico City has many attractions to offer, and visitors are often faced with a bewildering choice of options.  To get the most of your limited time, it’s helpful to have someone who understands your interests and offers you a tour that’s formed around them.

David’s tours focus on one or two neighborhoods or areas of interest per day, and give you and your party an intimate glimpse into the capital’s history and contemporary character.

David will meet you at your accommodations (or other agreed starting point) and you will travel together using Uber or Didi cabs to arrive at the start of your walking tour. Unless you want to end the tour elsewhere, he will also accompany you back to where you’re staying. Tours typically last between five to six hours.

Mexico City Tours by area

David offers unique insights into several areas of Mexico City.  The tours described below can be arranged on their own, or can be combined.  If you want something fully-customized, David that can help with that—use the request form below to indicate your choices and share further information about your interests.

Trendy neighborhoods of La Condesa and La Roma

These are Mexico City’s hippest neighborhoods, and have been gentrifying quickly. Sometimes you hear more English (or French) spoken on the streets than Spanish. Yet there are still echoes of the traditional atmosphere if you know where to look. David can help you explore the contrasts between the trendy and the traditional on a tour that reveals how the capital’s neighborhoods move through cycles influenced by time and fashion.

Discover new surprises in the Centro Histórico

David’s walking tour of the capital’s historic downtown will introduce you to the most famous sights in Mexico City’s most energetic neighborhood including the Zócalo, Bellas Artes, and the Plaza Santo Domingo.  The tour will also take you to fascinating places often overlooked by most visitors, such as a sexually ambiguous monument to bullfighters, a stained-glass ceiling you’d swear was Parisian, and the biggest bag of cheese doodles you will ever see in your life.

Quaint colonial enclaves of Coyoacán and San Angel

Once an enchanting village on the outskirts of the capital, today San Ángel is one of the most prestigious neighborhoods in the city, known for its colonial architecture, outdoor art markets, and dining within the walls of 17th-century mansions converted into fine restaurants.

Nearby Coyoacán is the de facto bohemian quarter of the capital, underpinned by Frida & Diego’s former home and Trotsky’s residence in exile.  These colonial enclaves offer visitors a distinctive shift away from the capital’s sprawl and a glimpse back to an era of quiet cobblestoned streets, unspoiled colonial architecture, vibrant traditional markets (and an ample selection of places to enjoy a delicious meal).

Mexico City markets and street food

Since ancient times, Mexico City has been a hotbed of trade and commerce and this is reflected in its diverse and atmospheric markets which continue to thrive and surprise. The profusion of stalls selling food along the streetscape are among the most alluring and varied you’ll find anywhere.

When Anthony Bourdain visited Mexico City, his team hired David to find the best street food stalls, holes-in-the-wall, and cantinas for his television show (and even put him on camera). David will introduce you to the glorious and lively markets, and the most reliable and delicious street food in the capital.

Discover the floating gardens of Xochimilco

About 500 years ago, most of the Valley of Mexico City was a vast system of lakes, canals, and islands. This bygone era can still be experienced in Xochimilco. David will take you to this southern enclave of the capital to spend an afternoon floating along these ancient canals in a barge, amidst a tranquil and pastoral setting that will make you wonder if you’re still within the limits of one of the world’s largest cities.

Tribute tour to Luis Barragán

Considered to be Mexico’s most important architect of the 20th century, and the country’s only Pritzker prizewinner, Luis Barragán’s spaces dramatically utilize light, shadow, and color to evoke an uncanny tranquility. This tour can include a visit to his former residence, a chapel he designed for Capuchin nuns, and various houses he conceived in the capital.

Explore Mexican Muralism in Mexico City

One of Mexico’s most important contributions to twentieth-century art was the muralist movement, led by its three most famous practitioners: Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros (as well as some lesser-known artists). This tour will reveal to you their stories, their rivalries, their contradictions, and their distinct techniques as you tour some of their most important murals, many of which are now timeless and iconic art statements.

Discover the unique personalities of Mexican cantinas

Mexico City’s cantinas have as much personality as London pubs, Paris cafés, or New York bars. At lunchtime most of them serve botanas—delicious food at no extra charge, for those who keep ordering drinks. David will take you on a tour of two, three (or more) hand-picked cantinas, depending on how much you and your party would like to drink around lunchtime.

Mexico City off the beaten path

Mexico City has so much to offer visitors with world-renowned sites, neighborhoods, and historical landmarks.  But if you want to discover some lovely neighborhoods where tourists seldom set foot, David will take you to three of them, all hand-picked near the center of the capital, all of which are gentrifying (although slowly and imperfectly).

Custom-designed tour

If you’re unsure of which places to visit first, or last, or together on the same tour day, David offers custom-designed tours that will be crafted around your party size, interests, and available time. The tours ensure you get the most from your visit to the capital without cramming so that you can truly experience and absorb what each place has to offer.  You can use the form below to request a custom-designed tour.

Custom-designed tour prices

Every tour is hand-crafted based on your interests, party size, and time available.  Tours typically last five to six hours.

• Custom tour prices typically range between US$165 and US$375 per person, based on a party of two to six people touring together.
• Single traveler tours can be arranged by request; however, party size cannot exceed six people in these purposely small, highly customized tours.
• Typical expenses for food, drinks and sundries are about US$30 per person, and will vary depending on the type of food establishment you choose to eat at, and how much you drink.

Your day tour price includes

The tour price includes:

• A personal consultation with David to create a carefully crafted walking tour of the capital, designed and formed around your party’s interests, party size, and available time;
• You will be met personally by David at your accommodations, or some other mutually-agreed meeting point;
• David will take you on the fully escorted and highly customized tour that is designed around your party’s interests and will accompany you back to where you are staying five to six hours later.

Your day tour price excludes

The following things are not included in your tour price

• Local transport and transfers (Uber/Didi)
• Entry fees to sites, museums, archaeology centers, etc.
• Food purchased at street stalls, markets, fondas, restaurants, etc.
• Drinks, including any alcoholic drinks, you may consume on the tour
• Tips for the waiting staff, drivers, and guide.

Make a request for your walking tour of Mexico City

Complete the tour info request form below and David will contact you to talk about the custom requirements for your party and create a custom quote based on your interests, party size and time available.

Apart from a veritable army of windshield cleaners and vendors of newspapers, loose cigarettes, phone cards, confectionery, toys, maps, balloons, and so on, also competing for space at the capital’s junctions are jugglers, spinning top whizzes, fire-eaters, acrobats, and clowns.

Many drivers have little time for windshield cleaners, and frantically wave them away as they approach the car armed with a plastic bottle filled with soapy water, a small cloth, and a rubber scraper. Some quickly wind-up the windows and turn on the car’s windshield wipers, and become particularly irate if the cleaner has disguised his intentions and hit the windshield with a jet of water from the bottle while appearing to look in the other direction, shrugging as if to say, “well I’ve started now so I may as well finish.”

Contributions to the cause are voluntary, and as people easily become bored, and necessity is the mother of invention, a fair deal of ingenuity is required for success in some of these thankless occupations.

A fine example came recently on Reforma avenue: a mime with painted face, flower-pot hat, and white gloves went through the motions of cleaning a windshield. First the invisible jet of water, then the circular motion of scrubbing the glass clean, then the scraping off the water, first vertically then horizontally. The gimmick seemed to work, as the driver handed over a coin, so did the driver behind who watched it. After all, what better if people don’t want their windshields cleaned than not to clean them.

Book corner in Mexico City

In the south of Mexico City, where Miguel Angel de Quevedo avenue crosses Avenida Universidad —about five minutes from the Bohemian hangout of Coyoacán— is a mini paradise for bookworms.

Three major bookstores, Gandhi, El Sotano, and Fondo de Cultura Economica, and a dozen or so smaller ones, line both sides of the street. Outside are wooden trays with books and CDs at throw-away prices, and inside you’ll find special offers on those less likely to be thrown away.

Mexico City remains the place where the widest selection of books and bookshops can be found, and some well-known chains have most of their branches in the capital.

Bookshops are still popular in Mexico

But while in many developed countries bookshops have been closing, Mexican chains have been opening new stores.  Like bookshops everywhere, they have also added DVDs, toys, puzzles and other paraphernalia to their offerings to make the business work.  This may annoy some purists, but somehow it’s hard to get worked up about a model that means the book business can continue going.

• Cafebrería El Péndulo – coffee shop-bookstore – now boasts seven branches in Mexico City, including in trendy neighborhoods such as Polanco, Condesa, Roma and San Angel.
• Librerías Gandhi has expanded with a number of new stores in Mexico City, and also has branches in a few other cities.
• El Sótano and Casa del Libro have more than a dozen branches.
• Gonvill Librerías is the biggest chain in Guadalajara, Mexico’s second most populated city which is also host to a major international book fair each year.

These chains tend to stock the best selection of books, often beyond the capacity of the shelves so that many are neatly piled up on the floor.  You can find most books in Spanish at these stores.

And while many, especially Gandhi and El Péndulo, have one or two shelves of books in English and French, here it tends to be hit and miss.  You might find occasional books of interest, but you are less likely to find a specific title. (For some you can check availability online.)

Alternative options to the chain bookstores

When you are looking for a particular book —such as a new release— the options are to stock-up on a trip abroad, or order it from a book seller online, most of which will ship books to Mexico with no problems—but not necessarily that quickly.  If you want a particular book right now, eBooks are the way to go.

Department stores and big box stores have book sections, but these vary widely in selection and quality. There are several hundred Sanborns stores which have ample book and magazine sections, but not much in English beyond bestsellers.

Often even the most bourgeois of us like to dig around for books in a bohemian atmosphere, and for that there are plenty of elegant bookshops—although that isn’t where most Mexicans go to buy reading material.  This collection of independent bookshops lists a selection of niche bookstores in the capital, curated by a local expat blogger.

Tolerance of one’s fellow commuter tends to be inversely proportionate to the number of people aboard the train, and the pushing and shoving in packed carriages around rush-hour can sour the mood of the most ardent philanthropist.

Types of traveler on Mexico City’s metro trains

For those who do or plan to travel on the capital’s Metro — which is still often the fastest, cheapest, and easiest way to get from one end of the the city to the other —  here are are some brief descriptions of the more obvious types of traveler you may encounter.

The Window Slammer

This passenger storms on to the nearly empty train on cold mornings and walks briskly through the carriage slamming the windows shut, then sits down assertively and proceeds to sniffle, discouraging his fellows from invading this space.

The Door Blocker

Stands by the doors for the whole duration of the journey, and is testy about other people pushing-by to get on or off. A door blocker will board a crowded train just as the buzzer is sounding, and stop right by the entrance, causing those behind to have to push to get on, or miss the train. Door blockers usually wear a bulging backpack.

The Seat Reliever

This (usually female) passenger uses a sort of moral blackmail to show the comfortably seated that they probably shouldn’t be. She will stand right in front of the seated person (usually male), and inadvertently press a bag into his knees. One way out of this for those who embarrass easily is to pretend you were getting off, and vacate the spot.

The Worrier

Keeps asking people between him or her and the door if they’re getting off at the next stop. ¿Va a bajar? The question implies, “and if not, could you move aside so that I may?” This would be fine if the train wasn’t still waiting at the previous station.

The Loud Talker

Thinks everyone is interested in hearing about his or her weekend, or day at the office, or heated exchange with a teacher, usually accompanied by a friend or co-worker who limit their responses to the occasional, “ah-ha,” or nod of agreement. A lot of “and so I said,” and “and so he said.”

The Earphone Hummer

Mumbles along to music being played loud enough through an earphone to be audible, but not discernible, to others nearby, often accompanying this with foot tapping, body swaying, and the occasional outburst of “yeah baby!” or “all right!”, oblivious to eyes being rolled in the immediate vicinity.

The Traveling Texter

Gets on everybody’s nerves, using both hands to type away furiously with two thumbs instead of holding on, often leans on the poles taking up the space of two (or at least one and a half) people, and pays no attention to others who need to push past to get off.

Virtual tour of a ride on the metro

These and other videos on YouTube illustrate visually typical rides on Mexico City’s metro.

Veritable armies of vendedores ambulantes make up a fairly large part of what is known as Mexico’s “informal economy.” Chambers of commerce don’t like them, because they get in the way of established business, while the government is somewhat in two minds.

It might be a nuisance, but this informal commerce provides work and keeps the unemployment rate from reaching what would otherwise be uncomfortable levels. Every few years or so, the city government takes some measures to alleviate the problem —mostly through programs to relocate the vendors to established market spaces— but the vendors always come back, like a relentless tide.

This informal commerce is extremely adaptable: at the first drop of rain, umbrellas appear on sale as you leave the Metro; at the first cold snap of winter, coats, gloves and scarves; agendas and calendars in January; flags and banners before Independence Day.

“This city has many plazas, where there are continuous markets and dealings in buying and selling. It has another plaza twice the size of the city of Salamanca, walled around with great porches, where daily there are more than sixty thousand souls buying and selling; where there is every kind of merchandise that can be found in any land.”

This description might not sound strange to the modern-day visitor who takes a stroll downtown in the country’s capital. The letter, written in October 1520 by the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés to Emperor Carlos V, dedicates the next several pages to describing the goods —those he could remember— on sale in Tenochtitlán, as the city was then called. Summarized for blogs, there was “everything from food and jewelry, to live animals, herbal medicine and earthenware.”

The point is, perhaps, that it will take more than a desire for modernity to do away with five hundred years of tradition.

“Rush hour” is actually a bit of an understatement. It starts at about six in the morning and runs through to 10, then it resumes from one to three in the afternoon during school terms, and closes out the day from six to 10 at night.

A cursory glance at a long stream of cars advancing slowly but inexorably into town each weekday morning, and out of town again in the evening, suggests that the average number of travelers per car is one point something.

People who are otherwise quite passive can become very annoyed when the prospects of reaching their destination on time are threatened by the refusal of others to let them through. Everybody knows that some days it can be impossible, but many places — schools, for example — no longer accept it as an excuse for arriving late.

It’s been said that if you can drive in Mexico City, you can drive anywhere in the world. The newcomer to driving in the capital will discover that the horn can be a more useful accessory than indicators to turn or change lanes. A signal to change lanes can actually cause someone coming up behind to speed up and keep you from doing so.

According to the Mexico City government, over 21 million trips a day are made in the capital and the adjacent parts of the Estado de Mexico.  In Mexico City alone, there are over 3 million vehicles registered, of which more than ninety percent are private cars. Numbers vary from year to year, but the city government once cited a study showing private cars accounted for 16% of trips, slightly more than the Metro but much less than micros.

Not surprisingly, since it takes up so much of people’s time, traffic congestion is a frequent topic of fill-in conversation, beating even the weather or sports. It’s not unusual to hear people wonder why we can’t be like other major cities around the world, where commuters leave their cars at home and take public transport. For some the question is mostly rhetorical, since they already have the answer. They wouldn’t be seen dead on the Metro. The question should be rephrased as why can’t other people leave their cars at home so I can drive more comfortably to work?

Chilango is the name given to inhabitants of Mexico City, who are notorious in the provinces for being obnoxious when they venture out of town. The expression chilango initially referred to people from the provinces who migrated to Mexico City, although it later came to be applied to those born and bred in the capital, and that is now the commonly and universally accepted usage. The opposite of chilango could be provinciano.

The chilangos’ disdain for the provincianos’ lack of sophistication has earned them a reputation for being both pedantic and manipulating. It’s not only their sacred CDMX (Mexico City) license plates that supposedly exempt them from red lights and no-parking signs in one-horse towns, they’re also the ones who talk about nothing but money and YouTube, and between sips of piña colada loudly and condescendingly proclaim that they could stay here forever—knowing full well that they couldn’t.

The charm of the colonial towns, the relaxing atmosphere of the holiday resorts, are only good for the chilangos when they need to rest from the daily rush of the capital, the pushing and the shoving, the traffic snarls, horn-blowing and general stress that ultimately make them important.

They’ll pay outrageous sums of money for specific brands of clothes, shoes, and electronic goods at their local mall, but will haggle down the most reasonable price asked by the local artisan at a handicrafts market.

There’s a saying in certain parts of Mexico, particularly the north and the west, that goes: haz patria, mata un Chilango – “do something for your country, kill a Chilango.” This is a bit misleading. Despite their negative idiosyncrasies, particularly seen from the provinces, the chilangos make up a great deal of the domestic tourism in Mexico—and some tourist towns and villages situated within a short drive of the capital absolutely depend on chilangos taking weekend sojourns. (The capital accounts for a fifth of gross domestic product, and Mexico City, which engulfs parts of the adjacent Mexico State, is home to one sixth of the country’s population.)

The chilangos’ bad name is a generalization which often turns out not to be the case. In that sense, people from Monterrey are said to be stingy; people from Puebla not very bright; people from Jalisco and its capital Guadalajara are said to be  particularly priggish. The chilangos just happen to have more negative traits than anyone else.

What mostly came along, it seems looking back—were pets. Granted, pets aren’t a common window on a country: but they’re still a window, if you’re a kid.  Give a ten year-old a choice between a new video game and a live iguana – I say he’ll take the iguana, or regret it for the rest of his life.

And iguanas in Mexico are barely entry-level mascots; there was a pet shop near me in Mexico City that had a lion one day. It had squirrel monkeys, spider monkeys, and ocelots. It sometimes had a raccoon. Some leopard cubs once appeared. A panther. A Bengal tiger. It was better than the zoo, and you could take the animals home. Coming from my old white-underwear culture, where dogs and cats are the apex of pethood, where a ferret is exotic, this was a Tarzan movie. You didn’t even have to go to a pet shop—songbirds, salamanders, snakes, and turtles sold on street corners.

Then this place near me had a lion one day. And a raccoon. Our nearest Gigante supermarket had piranha. Piranha.

I don’t have to tell you the visions all this can inspire in the young. Me with my lion. My leopard at the supermarket – excuse me could you hold the leopard. I’ll just park the panther. The same equation was playing out in domestic animals as in food, I’d come from a meat and potatoes kind of place to an enchilada and mole kind of place; and consistent with this, dogs and cats were upgraded to lions and tigers. In fact everything was upgraded to something bigger, and freer, when I reached Mexico.

Understand, I hadn’t yet embarked on the lesson of why animals or people should be free. My instinct, surrounded by birds and lions and monkeys in cages, was to free them by bringing them home. And so this was the period when that lesson played out—because I brought home all the creatures I could find.

Now: I never got a lion. And I knew I didn’t have a hope in hell of convincing my father that I’d look after a tiger. Nor a panther, leopard, or monkey. No way, once the maids ended up with the canary. But after climbing the pet ladder through lizards and snakes, through salamanders, rabbits, parrots and hamsters, after moving up into creatures of field and stream —like ducks and exotic chickens— I thought I should have a shot at the raccoon. Well, you could almost pass it off as a kind of guinea pig.  A ring-tailed, flamboyant kind of guinea pig.

I mounted a campaign on my father for the raccoon. I tended my menagerie, did my chores, and worked on him. The raccoon would be my true friend from the wild, the real wild. I admit I was slightly in awe of the challenge because it really was the wild. And the lesson of freedom was already starting to bite, it began when I asked the man in the pet shop how you could keep any of these pets —especially the lions and tigers— without dying horribly. He said their claws had been removed, but I wasn’t convinced they’d feel more kindly towards us after that little procedure.  Plus, looking at three meter-lengths of Bengal tiger, I wasn’t sure it mattered. Anyway what was the point of having a creature you had to disarm in order to even survive? Compared to a raccoon, anyway.

I eventually got the raccoon. He was great and smart, and had a detailed emotional and psychological life. He rode my shoulders to the supermarket. He stole cake from the kitchen but wasn’t an animal, compared to the animal I was. I was humbled by the so-called animals, and slowly tempered by the pain of their passing lives. That’s what pets were for. Still we lived a span, and it was rich because we were animals in Mexico.

The last time I was in Mexico City I went up to the pet shop, but it’s gone. It used to sit just over the corner from Bazar Del Sabado in San Angel. From the cobbled street outside you could see the creatures flash through the dark of the doorway.

But I looked on the internet and saw that things are the same in Mexico, still an Aztec parade with furs and pelts and plumes. Now you can get lemurs, meerkats and sugar-gliders on top of your lions and tigers. So today, although I write from a distant place famous for white underwear and meat and potatoes, from that grey, almost flavorless non-Mexican world where I have no pets – I know just where to go and get one.

I know it’s unfashionable, unliberal. But give a kid a choice between fashionable, liberal, and a live iguana – and he’ll take the iguana every time. Or regret it for the rest of his life.

Now that many old films are available in a number of digital formats, it’s relatively easy to get hold of them to watch on DVD player or, more commonly, via online streaming.  Films you remember having thoroughly enjoyed “back in the 70s” or whenever, turn out to be quite dull, or even ridiculous. Few films actually stand the test of time.

Mexicans love going to the movies

Movie-going in Mexico, along with live events, is as popular as ever, despite the country being among those where there is the most video piracy. Big box-office movies bring hoards to the theaters, and decent seats at the most convenient times are hard to come by for the first week or so after their release.

Like most of the films, most of the popular cinemas built in the middle of the 20th century have also been unable to stand the test of time. The multiplex cinema —with six or a dozen halls seating several hundred spectators— has replaced the grand theaters built to host several thousand people.

There are a handful of cinema brands in Mexico, although Cinemex and Cinepolis dominate the market with their extensive network of theater chains situated across the country.

Movie theaters present and past

Choosing where to go to see a film is now a combination of brand plus location. Many of the modern-day movie theaters are also located inside modern shopping malls, which emulates the popular and successful US model.

It wasn’t always so.

In decades past, Mexico City’s movie theaters were known by their name, and several were veritable landmarks—Cine Pedro Armendariz at Churubusco, Cine Manacar on Insurgentes, Cine Latino, Cine Diana, and El Roble on Reforma.

Moviegoers could choose a film and find out where it was playing, or choose a cinema they liked and find out what was on there. Quality and comfort varied considerably from one movie theater to another.

Films were often double-features, alternating so that you could watch first whichever one suited your timetable. These functions would include the concept of “permanencia voluntaria” where moviegoers could sit twice through the same film if they wished.  When a film was in particular demand, the ticket and advertisements would have to specify “no hay permanencia voluntaria” to let people know they would clear the theater when the credits went up.

Frequently, particularly popular films would be oversold and the last few stragglers could end up perched in the aisles, without anybody really minding or complaining. (Mexico still has a lot of people who aren’t particularly bothered about missing the start of a film.)

And in those pre-internet days, the place you went to find out what was playing was the cartelera, a full-page newspaper advertisement, or several full-page ads, sorted by films that were showing and where. The starting times were in very small print at the bottom. The film was usually in its original language with subtitles, or dubbed into Spanish if a children’s film. But there was no choice.

Some of the old cinemas were damaged in earthquakes; the buildings condemned, and later pulled down. Cine Regis, a small hall under a hotel on Juarez Avenue, was destroyed in the 1985 earthquake. Others, such as the Palacio Chino and Cine Diana, were converted into modern movie-theater complexes, and yet others just went out of business, and are either sitting derelict or have been demolished to make way for other buildings.

Dubbing and sub-titles at the movies in Mexico

In today’s modern Mexican cinemas, there are versions in English with subtitles, versions dubbed into Spanish, and even 3D and 4D in some places.

Specific seats can be booked online ahead of time. There’s an online cartelera, but it’s just not the same thing clicking “here” for the trailer. You can just go along and see one of any number of films. Popular films or new releases will often be showing in multiple halls, with various staggered starting times and other options.

On a practical note: If you want to see a film in English with Spanish subtitles, rather than the dubbed version, be careful that the time and hall you choose reads “sub” next to the film title. Where it reads “dob” the film will be dubbed into Spanish.

For those who take pleasure in (mis)remembering, this page has pictures of a number of Mexico City’s old cinemas with a brief history of each in Spanish.