Those who live in the south of Mexico City remember how, for a long time, their neighborhoods were called “the province” of the then Federal District.
Some citizens even thought that this area It was not even officially part of the Mexican capital.
It was in that southeast of the city that the city’s subway collapsed last Monday. 26 people died in their wake on a structure that almost serves as a border between Iztapalapa and Tláhuac, two of the municipalities with the highest levels of poverty and where together more than 2.2 million people.
Although this is the reality of hundreds and hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of Mexico City, nothing in these peripheral places ever appears on tourist circuits or in movies like “Rome”, which showed the world the beauty of the buildings of this historic colony.
Both sides of the same city are seen very far away, and literally. Getting from Rome to Tláhuac can take between an hour and an hour and a half by car, depending on the infernal traffic in the capital that no longer respects the pandemic recommendation of “stay home”.
That The reverse trip is the one that a large part of the humble and working class neighbors of the south make daily to go to their posts in downtown or more affluent areas. Therefore, the opening of the line 12 of the subway less than a decade ago was a real revolution for them when connecting them, fast and cheap way, with the rest of the capital.
Now, its indefinite closure after the accident once again deepens the enormous inequality of this great city. “ Running out of metro is as if we had regressed 30 years”, tells BBC Mundo José Manuel Cruz, president of the Movement of Neighbors and Condominal Renovation (Moverec) of Tláhuac.
Those affected say they feel “marginalized” again while juggling to get to your work by other means. Many even fear that they will not be able to maintain it for a long time without another transportation option.
Epicenter of migrant workers
Tláhuac avenue, where the accident between the Olivos and Tezonco stations was registered, is one of the main arteries in the area.
Days after the accident, work is still going on to remove the remains of the structure, which makes the transit of cars, taxis and buses even more difficult. With the metro closed, many people wait in line to be able to take public transport.
Traffic, noise and the dozens of food and street vendors that dot the sidewalks make it difficult to walk on this street. In the surrounding areas you can see houses built without apparent order, sometimes gray and sometimes painted with gaudy colors.
This area, which one day had a mainly rural dedication, began a strong stage of urbanization in the years 80, when a large mass of workers settled here from other states who wanted to seek employment in the capital and improve their living conditions.
Leonardo García is one of them. He left his native Veracruz in 1977 and then moved to Iztapalapa. Until today.
“I arrived after the earthquake of 85. I did not choose the area, I needed a home and at that time it was only available in these areas. In others it was very expensive or there was none ”, says.
García tells his story in detail to BBC Mundo at the food stand that He has been running with his family for 20 years, right in front of Olivos station and with a large sign that reads: “Meals and refreshments at 40 pesos ”(US $ 2).
“Of course we noticed that fewer customers are coming due to the closure of the subway. It already happened to us when it stopped at 2014. Now it will surely decline again ”, he predicts resigned without losing his smile.
Those who do lose it sometimes are the neighbors who these days try to find a way out of the area.
Officer Alarcón, one of the police officers who is part of the wide array of agents who treat to regulate traffic in the area, he says that just after the accident “he could not cope” with the number of people there were.
“This is affecting the transport of people. If they took an hour by subway, now they are traveling up to three hours . But they have already put more trucks (buses) that make the same route as before the subway, it is starting “, he explains to BBC Mundo.
The connection with the rest of the city
Patricia Pérez comes from a shopping center and waits for her transport to get to her home in Iztapalapa. He says that they already miss the subway, but he does not hide his fear after the accident.
“When they reopen it, I would be afraid to use it. I would not get on with so much confidence. Those malfunctions were almost from the beginning and it would seem that the government ignored it, “he tells BBC Mundo.
According to Lizeth González, another neighbor of the same delegation, “if people use it again it will unfortunately be out of necessity, not because they have trust… but it is cheaper and faster than a truck ”(the subway ticket costs $ 0. 25 Dollars).
The young woman from 23 years he waits with his daughter for the taxi he has just ordered from an app. “I prefer not to use public transport because it is unsafe, there is a lot of theft”, says. But he knows that not all his neighbors can afford to pay for a taxi and they have no other option, despite the risk.
“If it had been a prestigious area, (the accident) would not have happened. Where there is money, they do things well. But here it was not. It sounds ugly, but they classify people according to the area where you live ”, criticizes before getting into the car.
The Moverec association highlights that the majority of the inhabitants of Tláhuac are engaged in small businesses, construction, carpentry or masonry. According to the municipal government, the 90% of the businesses of this mayor’s office are considered “micro”.
“At a medium-higher or professional level, few people work here. Most of them go to work in distant places. The importance of Tláhuac for the functioning of other areas of the city is essential ”, highlights the president of the organization.
For this reason, Cruz believes that the loss of the subway represents “a great setback” for what Tláhuac had achieved.
“The subway revolutionized our lives by facilitating our mobility. But it is also that came to give us a greater identity as part of Mexico City, united us with the rest and many people who did not know us began to visit us thanks to the subway ”, account.
Dirt streets and precarious houses
But transportation is not by far the only concern of Tláhuac.
According to Cruz, some areas of the mayor’s office are lagging behind in services such as drainage, hydraulic infrastructure and lighting. He also criticizes the lack of green areas and the increase in insecurity in recent years.
It is enough to move away towards the south of the Tláhuac avenue where the subway circulated to discover part of this reality in the mayor’s office. The asphalt of the road looks more and more neglected and with cracks until it reaches areas of dirt roads and irregular settlements.
In one of these neighborhoods lived Brandon Giovanny Hernández , the child of 12 years who became the youngest fatality in the subway accident. In other places you can see self-construction houses built by that stream of national migrants who arrived decades ago.
In the so-called Draga camp, for example, live some 70 families in substandard housing. Its architects were evicted from a nearby property that they had occupied eight years ago and decided to locate in this street as a protest, where each one was in charge of building their own module.
Today, the camp has become a kind of small town in which more than 200 current neighbors are known and they say hello friendly whenever they cross a street that fills with puddles and mud when it rains.
Each module has a drinking water connection and electricity from a nearby transformer.
“Yes, we literally stole it, but we also have a right for the taxes we paid at the time. We just want the government to solve our problem and the issue with that property “, Alfredo Oliver, one of the camp coordinators, tells BBC Mundo.
Former taxi driver, Oliver is one of those who lives in the camp almost since its inception, together with his wife and two children paying a small “voluntary contribution”.
“We are poor, we have to put up with it”
Others move to the camp when someone leaves their home free. Clemente Figueroa, from 72 years is one of them.
Sitting at the door of the first house at the entrance to the camp, he is suspicious at first and prefers not to give his name. When he relaxes, he tells how he came to Mexico City from Chiapas ago 50 years “looking for opportunities that were lacking in the town” and he has been in La Draga for more than four years “because there is no rent to pay.”
He lives there with his wife, his daughter and two granddaughters. “Thus, among the poor, but we are happy, thank God” , smile.
The camp faces challenges to guarantee a dignified life for all its members. Sometimes, for example, you can breathe a foul odor because not all houses have drains.
“Do you notice it? It is because we use a pure septic tank. It comes at times, but when you are sleeping and you have the smell in the same room… We are poor, because we have to put up with it ”, says Isabel García, a neighbor of 57 years.
The woman proudly shows BBC Mundo the new module that her son-in-law has just built for her, who lives with her daughter right across the street. In the small room made with concrete blocks, he stacks his clothes, a small piece of furniture and a washing machine that they have loaned him.
In one corner, there is the toilet that cleans with buckets of water. Opposite he plans to locate his bed, and in another corner, a small kitchen.
“But this is something provisional. Over time, the mayor’s office gives you a piece of land or an apartment elsewhere. Who knows where, but they do give it ”, says hopefully without further details.
The camp also does not stop talking about the recent tragedy in the subway, as far as the neighbors used to get by motorcycle taxi.
Isabel’s son, for example, used it every day to help him get to Tecamachalco, an upper-class neighborhood in the State of Mexico where he works as a bricklayer. The current alternative of several bus transfers makes you need up to eight daily hours of transport between there and back.
“Before it was two hours to get there, and now it takes up to four hours. Leaves at 7: 00 in the morning and does not come home until after 11: 00 of the night. And if before I went and returned with 18 pesos, now spend as 38 or 50. Of course we miss him ”, he says.
Jobs at risk
The day is ending and the residents of Tláhuac and Iztapalapa return to their homes. Tláhuac Avenue becomes a veritable anthill of buses and minibuses, full to bursting with passengers, who can barely advance due to the heavy traffic.
Daniel Rueda waits patiently at his motorcycle taxi base in front of the Olivos metro station. Despite what one might think, the closure of the subway has not helped it to get more customers, but quite the opposite.
“From where people come, trucks go direct to their neighborhoods, which used to be Neighbors did not drink because they preferred the speed of the subway. That’s why our business drops, because they no longer come down here at the station, ”he tells BBC Mundo.
“In addition, some are also afraid that the structure may continue to fall … that something else may still happen,” he says.
The president of the Moverec association believes that this new situation without a metro should force an increase in investment in Tláhuac.
“Our main lack is a source of work. The authorities have not allowed jobs to be created, they do not give businessmen facilities to settle here … and that is what we need to prevent so many people I should go daily to other municipalities, ”says Cruz.
“That is what worries us most now: we are afraid that people will lose their jobs. The distances they have to travel are impressive and many residents will not be able to do it every day without the subway due to the delay in time and the economic cost ”, he concludes.
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