Mexico City is home to 24 million people from every corner of the globe. The city is a capital for art lovers, food lovers, musicians, and artists. Among the people raised in this wild and bustling city are Alfonso Cuaron, the filmmaker behind “Gravity” and “Children of Men,” and more recently, “Roma.” The movie is currently nominated for ten Oscars, including the first best actress nomination ever to be given to an indigenous woman. Cuaron’s film is named for the neighborhood of Mexico City where he was raised, at the time a quiet middle class enclave, and examines issues of domestic work through the life of a Mexican family not dissimilar to Cuaron’s own.
Roma is a bit different these days than it was during the director’s childhood in the 1970s, yet it maintains an undeniable charm and a quiet elegance that is a welcome break from the exciting but overwhelming Centro.
“Roma is obviously different now than it was then, but there are these moments in the movie that feel so real, that really happen every day. You can still see people sweeping the sidewalks in the mornings, and see airplanes flying overhead. The struggle they have to get their car into that narrow driveway—that’s still true. All the buildings here have those tiny driveways,” says writer and Roma resident Lydia Carey, whose guidebook to living and visiting Roma, Mexico City Streets: La Roma was published by Penguin.
Roma has gone through many iterations in the course of its history, reflecting the conflicts and tensions of Mexico. An investment group owned by a British circus owner founded the neighborhood in the early 20th century and imagined it as a well-heeled suburb and a hub for artists and politicians; it later became an immigrant district with a large Jewish and Arab populations. After the major earthquake that hit Mexico City in 1985, Roma became known largely for transient populations and higher crime rates. Today, Roma is a quirky, independent neighborhood with an artistic flair and a deeply rooted sense of place. Carey describes Roma as an “architectural laboratory,” with buildings in art nouveau, deco and many other styles. Its identity draws on its long and colorful history, and is definitely worth a visit.
Roma residents have maintained a fierce commitment to community even as the city has changed. “People are really conscientious about gentrification here. They are proud to be from Roma and they want to maintain it,” says Carey.
If you’re visiting, here is a list of spots that show how Roma has changed –and stayed just the same.
Goodbye Folk Boutique
This colorful vintage clothing store and handmade shoe shop illustrates the character of Roma today: aesthetic, independent and trend-bucking. It stocks unusual items, including beautiful leather shoes in bright jewel tones made in Mexico. Customers can even order custom shoes and design the color and style.
Mercado Roma
Mercado Roma is a modern reinvention of the classic Mexican market, with a rooftop beer garden and countertop food stalls selling plant-based Mexican classics, paella, tacos, and other treats. La Reina de La Brasa serves up mouthwatering pork tacos and the most famous Churreria in the city, Churreria el Moro, also has a stand in the market.
Plaza Rio de Genero and Plaza Luis Cabrera
These two plazas are a great place to people watch, and around them are many of the beautiful art deco buildings that are Roma’s calling card. A copy of Michelangelo’s David anchors the Plaza Rio de Genero while on the benches around its edges Roma residents chat, relax and play. Luis Cabrera is anchored by a bubbling fountain and often holds public art exhibits. The two plazas, often populated with abuelas and their toddling charges, remind visitors that even as Roma reinvents itself, it is still home to many ordinary Mexican families raising their children.
Cafebreria el Pendulo
This multi-level bookstore/café combo is an easy place to spend an afternoon—or the whole day. Come for the books, but stay for the cozy armchairs and the rooftop café. On a corner of the second floor a life size painting of Alice beckons visitors to wonderland through a storage hatch.
Street art
Roma has beautiful street art that ranges from political to whimsical and everything in between. Although they can be found all over the neighborhood, many are on the side streets near Avenida Alvaro Obregon.
Panaderia Rosetta
This tiny bakery often has lines out the door, but it is worth the wait. Order a rollo de guayaba (guava roll) or a honey croissant and a cafécito and enjoy mornings like the locals: relaxed and long.
Iglesia La Romita
White-washed adobe churches in cobblestone plazas are iconic of colonial Mexico. Even in modern Roma, this little plaza gives visitors the feel of a small-town parish. The plaza is often decorated with lights and paper flowers to mark the seasons.
Like many places in Mexico and around the world, Roma is many things to many people: it is home to artists and activists and hipsters, but also doctors and teachers and schoolchildren, newcomers and lifelong residents. There is no one way to define it, just as there is no one way to live in it. This list of sights is as varied as Roma itself. There is only one Colonia Roma, but there are many interpretations of it, and that is worth celebrating.
