Jul 23, 2025 3 min read blog

MD-14

candelabra with cholula and habanero sauce bottles

A couple of extra days of rest to accommodate the bug. It feels like a bit of a drag, but these things are what they are. It has a beginning, middle and end, and this too shall pass. I made it out to the Fabrica La Aurora, which is in the neighbourhood, and to a tienda, a tortilleria and a chicken shack to stock up on some supplies.

The Art Market

The Fabrica La Aurora is a converted industrial space - an old textile mill, reconfigured to house a multiplicity of small galleries and shops for house furnishings and antiques, and a few restaurants and cafes. Primarily galleries, some representing local artists, some look like personal gallery spaces, and others catering to collectors. I am sure it has changed a lot over time and that it was once a productive hands-on creative space.

I enjoyed meandering through it's vastness, some decorative work, some intriguing work, some captivating work – a big mix. It's a market, not unlike other markets here, except it's upscale and caters to those with means, houses to furnish, things to acquire, things to collect, and with disposable income. A few random things caught my wandering eye...

An antique box of boxes, for collecting smaller stuff

And a well-framed series of prints by M.C. Escher

Mestiz. A kind of Memphis-like design studio, I was curious about. Maybe they'll allow me to visit. I did ask for an appointment.

There was a lot more, but what I am really struck by is – the gap.

The Gap.

It feels very evident here. The presence of absence. Fabrica La Aurora is in Mexiquito, where we are staying. From the little of it I have seen, it does not seem a particularly well-off neighbourhood, and the Fabrica aims to attract and cater to those with means.

There were more protests this weekend in CDMX against relentless genrification, and consequent displacement of local economies and means in places like Condesa and Roma Norte. There was a noticeable difference from the where we were staying in the adjacent down-to-earth colonia of Escandón, and Condesa and Roma Norte. They seem like places that have been co-opted into a global pool of Instagram Zones. A strange colonization of the real by the virtual, fueled by an insatiable desiresfor an extra dose of hip-ness online... $ocial ¢urrency.

Colonialism may keep changing its shape but it seems to remain remarkably intact. An inherent, and resilient, means for ongoing capital expansion, with the collateral damage of displacement and impoverishment. The gap itself seems to have an inherent cognitive bias – its easy to see the gap between less and more and it's hard to see the gap between more and less. Is this due to un-enlightened self-interest? While I felt the 'weight' of the gap more here – I guess I could also attribute that to being under the weather, and to sparse explorations.

A post this morning by Seth Godin speaks to the embedded nature of the lottery on our lives and how it's hidden in plain sight, thoughtful and pointy...

If you win the lottery, remind yourself you won the lottery.
from Seeing the Lottery Seth Godin, July 23, 2025

As always, thanks for reading and indulging!
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