Urbanistas, ambulantes and mendigos: the dispute for urban space in Mexico City, 1890-1930

Our views of Porfirian Mexico City are heavily influenced by the grandeur of the buildings and avenues and the elegance of colonias built during that period. It is easy to share the nostalgia for los tiempos de don Porfirio, when Mexican society seemed as peaceful and well-organized as the walkways under the shady trees of the Paseo de la Reforma and the Alameda. This essay, however, contends that such images of civilization were only the precarious result of a negotiation between the regime's projects of urban modernization and the everyday practices of the majority of the urban population. As the Porfirian and post-revolutionary elites tried to shape the city according to their desires and economic interests, they turned to the police to punish the lower-class public behaviors which did not mold to those projects. The urban poor, on the other hand, developed a sceptical view of justice and order. They used the city in different ways, walking across the social boundaries between rich and marginal areas, challenging the authority of the police, and even subverting the "official" dictates about Street nomenclature

Communities and Crime in Mexico City

In Mexico’s capital, understanding the city means understanding crime, and vice versa. More specifically, it means taking some distance from prevailing policy-oriented criminological perspectives and reintegrating the problem of crime into urban history. Asking question to crime from a historical perspective requires a critical use of views of Mexico City as a chaotic, dangerous, dirty city. More useful is asking how is it that people continue to come and stay and build communities in the largest city of the hemisphere in spite of great obstacles. The answer involves a complex picture, where the small detail is as important as the broader landscape

A Historical Perspective on Crime in Twentieth-Century Mexico City

This paper is an overview of perceptions of crime in Mexico City during the twentieth century. After a brief review of quantitative evidence and the main sources on crime, the paper surveys police and judicial corruption as the common denominator of public perceptions of crime, punishment, and the judiciary. The paper then discusses gender violence and juvenile delinquency as two criminal practices that have characterized the impact of crime in everyday life. Based on a review of evidence about areas of the city commonly associated with crime, the paper concludes with a discussion of the reactions of urban communities and civil society against crime

El significado político del homicidio en México en el siglo XX

El homicidio ha sido un punto de referencia central en la esfera pública en el México posrevolucionario, al integrar diversas voces críticas a la discusión sobre la capacidad del Estado. Este artículo examina cartas a los presidentes, la nota policial y otras fuentes para mostrar cómo el homicidio permitió a sus víctimas indirectas invocar las posibles implicaciones políticas de la impunidad

El saber sobre el crimen: rudos contra expertos en la ciudad

Los dos libros que aquí se reseñan vienen a complicar de una manera saludable esta imagen del saber sobre el crimen como pancracio.Tanto Enrique Desmond Arias, al estudiar el narcotráfico en Río de Janeiro, como Daniel M. Goldstein, al examinar linchamientos en un barrio de Cochabamba, identifican la complejidad de actores e intereses reunidos por el problema del crimen. El Estado es un actor entre otros, generalmente más notable por su ausencia o su colaboración con los criminales que por su papel punitivo o preventivo. En este articulo, Pablo analiza los libros de Enrique y Goldstein para entrar la discusión sobre el tema del crimen en sudamerica. Pablo concluye que el crimen es difícil de definir pero lo que es cierto es que está hecho de relaciones que generalmente son públicas, a veces conflictivas y, aunque cueste admitirlo, productivas

The knowledge of crime: hoodlums versus experts in the city

Reseña los libros: "Drugs & Democracy in Rio de Janeiro: Trafficking, Social Networks, & Public Security" y "The Spectacular City Violence and Perfomance in Urban Bolivia. In Latinoamerica otherwise.