Paola Evangelista ’26 Photographs Gentrification in Mexico City
This past summer junior Paola Evangelista spent two weeks documenting and researching gentrification in Mexico City. During her summer research she took photos across the city capturing images of the changing built environment and cultural conflicts over gentrification. As a human rights and studio arts double major, this research combined both disciplines into a compelling investigation of gentrification in Mexico City.
“I’m very interested in how arts or visual media can enrich theory or can enrich research” Evangelista said. The format of a photo essay combined traditional research methods with the arts, allowing Paola to explore different dimensions of gentrification in Mexico City.
Her summer research was inspired by observing changes back home in El Salvador as well as posts on social media about anti-gentrification activism. This guided the focus of her research to the cultural conflicts over gentrification and the visual manifestation of these conflicts on city streets.
The neighborhoods of Polanco and La Condesa are at the heart of the conflict over gentrification in Mexico City. Evangelista states, “people that come from the outside or people that want to move into Mexico City are most focused there,” changing the demographics and cultures of the neighborhoods. Because of the change in these neighborhoods, these areas became a focus of Evangelista’s research. Before going out into the field to take photos Evangelista researched these two neighborhoods, among others in the city, to inform her photography. She describes the various sources she used to learn about gentrification in Mexico City as “part research, part of what I’ve seen on social media, and part of what I’ve heard from the person that I interviewed.” The various forms of research gave her an in-depth understanding of the conflict over gentrification so that she was able to capture the phenomenon with her camera.
Many of the photos Evangelista included in the project depict protests of gentrification to document the cultural conflicts taking place in the city. In her research project, the discussion of cultural conflicts extends beyond just the photos including a discussion of the term afresamiento. “The word ‘afresamiento’ which means something that is snob, so people say like, this thing is getting afresado, this is so afresa.” Evangelista likes this term because she feels it captures the visual aspect to gentrification while also acknowledging the economic and social components of gentrification.
The project included one photo that Evangelista feels encapsulated her entire summer research experience. Evangelista describes the photo by saying, “I just saw a Starbucks cup on the floor and then in the background there was graffiti that says ‘one day this will all be a memory’ and then on the top there’s a sign on the road that says take alternative routes”. This was striking to her because it posed the question of what alternative routes one can take when addressing the effects of gentrification as well as the infiltration of American corporations into Mexico City.
One challenge Evangelista faced while conducting research was the time constraints of only being in Mexico City for two weeks. In future projects she would like to spend more time exploring the city and get more people involved in the project. Evangelista said she would “take more time, talk with more people, and be more strategic about what I’m taking photos of.” She hopes to take the lessons learned from this project and apply it to a further study of gentrification in El Salvador, like including people’s voices in addition to photos.
As Evangelista reflected on her research, she felt that “theorizing is really important, but more than that to me is hearing what people are doing”. She was most impacted by the personal stories of those affected by gentrification and wants to continue to explore this dimension in future projects.
