Stories
These audio pieces recount the experiences of five neighbors in alcaldía Cuauhtémoc (from the Centro Histórico, Juárez, and Roma neighborhoods). In their own voices, they describe their experiences with noise in their neighborhoods. These pieces cannot capture the experiences of everyone in Mexico City. However, they document important dynamics common in noise conflicts: tensions around what it means to be a good neighbor, the conflict between the right to make noise and the right to not be impacted by others, and the difficulty of dealing with and addressing noise problems.
I recorded the audio material in these pieces during my research trips to Mexico City in 2019, 2020, and 2022.
Camila
Camila and her parents moved to the Roma neighborhood of Mexico City over 50 years ago when Camila was a child. In this piece, she speaks about her experience living in the area prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. She discusses the changes she observed, including a rise in rents, the arrival of more restaurants and bars, and noise that’s come along with those changes. In particular, she describes her experience in 2019 with sound from a new nightclub near her house, and her eventual decision to move out of the neighborhood.
Daniela + Manuel
In this piece, we hear from Daniela and Manuel, siblings who have lived in the same building in the Centro Histórico for their entire lives. They share about their experience living in the area over the decades, and reflect on the shifts not just in the Centro’s sounds but also in community ties.
Suzanne
Suzanne and her mom have lived in the same apartment building in colonia Juárez for the last 25 years. In this piece, they reflect on the changes they’ve observed, and in particular, their experience with sound from a business next to their building. The business, Merkado Cultural Hamburgo, uses recorded and live music to attract clients starting in the afternoon and lasting until late at night. Like other residents I met, Suzanne has filed complaints with the city environmental and territorial attorney general (PAOT). Some of these investigations have found that the business’ was violating permitted sound elvels, but Suzanne and her mom did not notice a major change until the pandemic forced the business to shutter for the better part of two years.
Patricia
Patricia has lived in the Juárez neighborhood with her family for the last decade. One night in April 2018, they heard loud music coming from the roof of a nearby building. Eventually, they discovered the source: a new business, ToledoRooftop. Located on the building’s eighth floor, the business part bar, part restaurant, and part nightclub. As Patricia describes in these audio clips, she and other neighbors have tried various strategies to combat the club’s noise and other impacts, using complaints to the city environmental and territorial attorney general (PAOT), and a legal case against the business for operating on an illegally constructed eighth floor. In August of 2020, an administrative court ruled that the building level where ToledoRooftop operates had to be the demolished. As of mid-2022, this legal sentence remained in effect but had not been carried out.
Street view in Centro Histórico, photo by author.
Street view in colonia Juárez, photo by author.