Viva la Mami - Latina Motherhood, Modern Parenting, Latina Well-Being

141. Living in Mexico: Let's Talk About Gentrification (And Why It's Complicated)

• Jessica Cuevas • Season 5 • Episode 141

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In this episode of the "Living in Mexico" series, I'm sitting down with my husband to tackle one of the most controversial topics we've faced since moving to México: gentrification.

As second-generation Mexican Americans living in León, Guanajuato, we're getting real about whether we're part of the problem, what gentrification actually means, and how our experience differs from what's happening in other places across Mexico. This conversation isn't easy, but it's one we need to have.

For detailed show notes, visit vivalamami.com/episode141

What You'll Hear

  • The definition of gentrification and whether we actually fit it
  • Our Chicago roots and how witnessing gentrification shaped our perspective
  • The generational wealth gap we've noticed and what it means for our family's story

Resources Mentioned

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we have been battling a lot with this and I think that it's an important topic that we felt that we needed to to speak about because we understand. The level of privilege that we have in terms of us just making the decision to move our family to Mexico. But it's also a heavy topic for the people that are living here, that are from Mexico, that have been living here for many years. And it also puts us in a weird position, right? Because we are second generation, you know, we're not too removed from Mexico. We're only one generation behind, if you will. And so it makes it just kinda of a complicated subject. Ola, welcome to another episode of the Viva La Mommy Podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Cuevas, and on this week's episode, we are going to tell you more about life in Mexico as part of the Living in Mexico series. And of course, because y'all like the cheese may, I brought my husband, Alex. And the reason why I have him on the show is because he is also a part of the process in us, uh, living in Mexico and why we decided to move to Mexico and what life is really like. So I am really excited to have you again, Alex. How have you been? Thank you. Uh, been okay fighting off a little bit of a, whatever it is, but, but doing good. Yeah. I hope he doesn't, contaminate us, especially the kids considering that they're in school. But yes. So if you haven't yet heard last week's episode, we talked a lot about housing and how we found specifically long term, uh, housing in Mexico, and so. This week is kind of tied in with that subject in terms of us having a home in Mexico and what it's like. And it is specific to a very hot topic right now that if you haven't yet heard, uh, on the internet and social media, it's about the big G word. Gentrification. Yes, gentrification. And we have been battling a lot with this and I think that it's an important topic that we felt that we needed to to speak about because we understand. The level of privilege that we have in terms of us just making the decision to move our family to Mexico. But it's also a heavy topic for the people that are living here, that are from Mexico, that have been living here for many years. And it also puts us in a weird position, right? Because we are second generation, you know, we're not too removed from Mexico. We're only one generation behind, if you will. And so it makes it just kinda of a complicated subject. Okay, Alex? So when you think about gentrification, what comes to mind? Our white counterparts. Hmm. That's what comes to my mind. So before we, or before it just brought up the subject about gentrification, I had to, you know, not to sound too dumb or anything, but I had to look up the definition as to what it meant, right? So by definition, we are not. Gentrifying this area because in order for us to be gentrifying, we would have to have moved into a lower super low income area. And where we're at right now, I'm pretty sure people make more money than we do. So, so by definition we are not gentrifying this area. Yeah. But in the, the general concept of gentrification, like Yeah. How does that make you feel? Um, you know, that's a good question. I don't really know. I mean, I know. When I think about gentrification, I feel bad for the people that it affects, right? Mm-hmm. Um, because I mean, we know how it is to be living paycheck to paycheck and not, how should I say, be able to do a lot of stuff that we wanted to do. Right? And that's what gentrification does to a lot of people that are in way worse conditions than we are. Yeah. Yeah. And for me, gentrification, definitely, I guess I think of it as Chicagoans and how we've seen it really before our eyes and we grew up in neighborhoods where they were lower socioeconomic, you know, working class families, a lot of immigrants, not just coming from Latin America and Mexico, but also like Poland. Middle Eastern families as well. Mm-hmm. And so, you know, we grew up in Yes, in a predominantly Latino community, but it was also a mix of other ethnicities. And so knowing that our community was affected by gentrification and other areas within Chicago, like Pilsen, Logan Square. We have seen it before our eyes and we understood the, the struggle that many communities that really have been impacted by this notion of privilege, affluent, uh, people kind of taking, removing them from housing. Mm-hmm. And so with us now coming to Mexico, I've definitely thought about this and, and I've wondered myself like, are we the problem? Are we the ones gentrifying? Um, Mexico, and, and there's a lot of, you know, noise in, in La Mexico where a lot of the locals are like, we don't want you here, we don't want gentrification. Where, and there have been a lot of, um, protests about that. But considering that we moved to Leon, uh, Leon, which I'm honestly surprised it's not a. Multicultural city, like we are seeing that. Mm. But there are small pockets of people that are coming from different countries and so yeah, like I, I don't think that right now Leon is impacted as much on gentrification because I think, and in my opinion, based on what I've witnessed and what I know. Leon is a pretty affluent city. Mm-hmm. It really is. Yeah. And I don't think that a lot of people are highly impacted than other parts of like Mexico. What are your thoughts about that? I agree. Um, yeah, I mean, you definitely don't hear about people protesting like I just mentioned here in Leon, like how they do in the city. Right. Um, and gentrification here, I don't, I mean, we've only been here, what, two months? Mm-hmm. Two, two and a half months. Mm-hmm. So we really don't have, or we really haven't seen a lot of that stuff going on here. Right. Um, like how you do in Mexico City, Oaxaca, like this other Oaxaca maybe. Yeah. What's that other one? Yeah, like, uh, maybe the, yeah, a lot of, and, and for the most part, like a lot of indigenous. Places, and that's because, you know, there's true beauty in it. Mm-hmm. Like if you think about the, uh, cultural aspect and the ecosystems that are in place there, uh, yeah. Like people do wanna take advantage of that. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, getting back to what I was saying, yeah, we haven't really experienced that much. Mm-hmm. I mean, I haven't felt, or we haven't felt like the sense that we not want, that we're not wanted here. Mm-hmm. Except for the government workers. And that's what, that's for another, that's for another episode. Yes. But as far as like the people, the community, like the locals here, we've always been receipt with open arms. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I think because we have that leverage. We are second generation Mexican Americans, right? Like we were born in the US ro our parents were born in Mexico. And even though we didn't frequent as much growing up, coming back to Mexico, and we didn't stay long term like a lot of families do, uh, we still felt the sense of connection, uh, through the language obviously, but also just, you know, through the connection that we have, uh, with the culture, Ian, you know, just like. The, the type of manners that we have, the values. And so that has helped us to kind of fit in, you know, into, uh, the, the community here. But at least like deep down though, I have been thinking a lot about, well, are we causing gentrification? Like where we are at, like you said, Alex, even though. We have neighbors that are pretty affluent and you know, we have, we moved into a Acia where it's, um, where we're not technically gentrifying. Mm-hmm. But I wonder in this whole scope of us moving to Mexico on a broader scale mm-hmm. Like, are we gentrifying? Are we gonna make Mexico expensive? Are we gonna make the economy. Look different here than if we were to stay in the United States. And that's something that I've been thinking about. And that's a good question. I mean, and who knows? Probably, probably not. But I mean, we're on a minuscule level, right? Minuscule scale, if you will. It's just two of us. I mean, we are contributing to the economy. Mm-hmm. Right? I mean, we're not bringing in, I mean, we, we rent, right? So we're paying somebody else. It's not like if we're. Investing our money into real estate and making extravagant renovations to the point where it's gonna affect the whole area. You know, that's not us. So. Yeah. Yeah. And isn't that interesting that we're living in an area where there's a lot of educated mm-hmm. People, a lot of like affluent people, and then here we are, the, the second generation, you know, couple trying to raise their family in this area. Uh, where our family knew the struggle. Mm-hmm. Like our dads both have worked in factories, you know, they were truce labor workers. Uh, your mom was a stay at home mom. My mom kind of navigated, uh, the US where she did have office job, but it was a very low paying job and that was it. You know, and so it just makes it so interesting how there's like generations and generations of like money here. And then here we come. Yeah. Kind of like, I don't know, we're, I don't know if we're intercepting or, I don't know, but it, it does make it a very complex like experience. Mm-hmm. When you really think about like, our notion of like living here and. Why we decided to move here and all of that. Yeah. And now that you mentioned about like the, how you said that there's like generational money here, right? I mean yesterday we went, we took the kids to, yeah. And that area is just like wow. Right? So when you said that you wonder if we're causing some type of harm here to the economy? Yeah. I mean obviously no matter where you go, there's always gonna be you're poor, you're rich, you're middle class. But as far as like us. I don't think so.'cause I mean, when you look at it and some of the people that are around here that live here, we're nothing compared to them. Right. I wish I had that type of money. But yeah, I mean, I don't know. I don't think we, to get back to what I was trying to say, I don't think we're having any type of negative impact here. Yeah. Yeah. If anything, we're. Doing like a big FU to the United States because we're gaining the US dollars, but we're not giving anything back to the US economy. But that may be another topic. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Something we would have to research a lot more into. Yeah. Yeah. But as far as with, you know, I'm kind of tying last week's episode on housing to this week. I think that Leon is somewhat gatekeeping. Mm-hmm. Um, many folks from gentrification or from making it even more expensive as far as like housing costs, we. Couldn't just sign a lease. Like we had to get, uh, my grandpa to co-sign basically for us. Uh, he had to be the val, which is a clause that essentially gives us permission to You co-sign it almost. Yeah. Like to, to rent this home and. And he had to have property in Mexico. He had to own property and be a Mexican citizen, even though we both are like, we don't have anything established here. Uh, although we do wanna do that eventually in the future, but it'll, at least for us, trying to look for housing, it did limit us in terms of securing mm-hmm. Um, housing because they kind of wanna keep their own people. If that makes sense. Yeah, it makes sense. Even though we're part of them too, so yeah, it does make things a little complicated. But yeah, as far as the gentrification, I think that it was, it's very important for us to talk about that and, and being aware about like, oh, are there any changes in in costs? Are there any changes in, you know, where people are coming from and why they decided to settle themselves in, in a community that isn't theirs really. And. And I think for us, like we're navigating this, but going back to your point, I don't think we are fully gentrifying because there's already pretty well established folks around here. Yep. Yeah. getting back to what Jess was saying about how she doesn't feel like we're, or even like how I said too, that we're not really, we don't really consider ourselves a part of the problem here. Again, like, I mean, I know we probably mentioned this already, how there's already money here. Just one quick example, right. When we go to the mall, that's like two minutes from here, right? You see people wearing their Gucci, their, I don't know all the fancy, uh, brands, right? But just brand named clothes. Yeah, the brand named clothes. Thank you. Um, and yeah, I mean, and when you look at the prices of some of the luxurious items, like for example, like Nike's right here, a pair of Nikes would probably run you about 200 to 150 to$200. And as opposed to like the United States. Like decent pair of Nikes is like 80, a hundred dollars maybe to 150. Yeah. And people are buying them like nothing. Right? Like cars even. Yeah. Even the cars. How much were you? How much you were looking at like the Volkswagen? Yeah, it was like the Volkswagen? No, the BMW. Yeah, the BMWX five. I think it was like 1.6 million peso. Which translates roughly into what? Like$90,000. And in the states, I mean, a brand new one will probably, base model will probably run you about 70, 75. I mean, you have people around here driving your Land Rovers, Mercedes, Porsches, like Deano. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And cost comparisons. I mean, you're probably looking at what, 10% more here than it is back in the States. So yeah. I mean, it's pretty hard for us to say that we are part of a, or that we're causing an issue here in terms of the economy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And again, it makes me just think about, oh my gosh, like did my parents miss out on an opportunity to make more money than they did in the United States? Mm-hmm. Have we lost that opportunity in not having that level of generational wealth? And I know we are only speaking about a specific packet in Leon. Mm-hmm. Because we've definitely seen, you know, poverty. We know that there are areas where. It, they're, they aren't affluent as much as where we are currently living. When, again, when you put into that perspective about our existence, right, and, and you know who we are as like second generation us, like Americans, and compare that to those that have been established here for generations in Mexico, it just, it almost makes you feel like, well. Dang, like fomo, right? Like I, I feel like I missed out on, on this opportunity. And now that we're trying to, we've been trying to like establish ourselves much more than our families, right? By owing real estate in the United States and now dual citizens, being dual citizens and, you know, trying to seek opportunities here in Mexico. Like it. Um, I under, like, I obviously know that it is a privilege, but it's also a really cool way to be in this situation and see how we can prosper differently than if we were to stay in the United States long term. So, mm-hmm. Yeah, it, it's definitely a complicated, um, experience to have, and gentrification alone is a very complicated issue and topic. And we are sensitive to that. We understand people's struggles because we've seen it before our eyes, like I said, living in Chicago and in for some reason Chicago's like trying to push us away. We lived there for the first couple of years of our marriage. We moved to the suburbs because it was affordable, and then we went back to Chicago and now we're here. So it's, it's almost like Chicago's just like saying, go away. Go away. Go away. And not just Chicago, right? Not just Chicago. I think like any. Suburban in the surrounding area. Right. I mean this is kind of irrelevant topic, right? But even Bolingbrook, where we were at, another reason why we left is'cause of property tax. Yeah. It went sky high and there's nothing out there. Yeah. No offense to people who live in Bolingbrook, but yeah, like it's, yeah, it just all brings perspective and our situation is not unique. Mm-hmm. Uh, I'm sure that many people, uh, know that as people that have been trying to fit in different, like communities or in different, um, areas of our social being like I, I can see how we are aware of gentrification, but it's also as a way of like combating that in different. Modalities. I guess, I don't know if I'm making this make sense, but Yeah. Yes. But if you have any thoughts about gentrification and life here in Mexico and whether if you think that we are gentrifying or not, let us know. Uh, you know, we're always up for having discussion And good dialogue. And good dialogue. Yeah. Because. Again, we have this kind of, it's not like it's a big elephant in the room, but we are cognizant of like our, of us living in Mexico now and whether if we are. Being gentrifier or not. And so, but you let us know, like, have you seen this in your community back in the United States? Or if you are from Mexico, have you seen this, um, with your own Uni Mexico? So let us know. You can either send me a DM on Instagram, have, or you can email me@podcastami.com. Or you can just comment here on YouTube as well. And for those of you who are curious about gaining dual citizenship, I will be hosting a live event. In the next month, I will be sharing more details about that, but be on the lookout on Instagram and also on my newsletter. If you haven't yet subscribed to my newsletter, uh, you can just go to viva la.com/newsletter and you would be the first to know about this free live workshop that I will be hosting on how you can get dual citizenship. But Alex, I don't know if you have anything else to say. Nope. I think we covered, uh, I think we covered the topic pretty well. I mean, again, we can continue this with any questions that might, people might have. Um, yeah. And we can continue it from there. Cool. All right. Well, thank you so much for listening or watching on YouTube. asima in the next episode.