Actors Offer 'Safari' Tour Through One of Mexico City's Roughest Neighborhoods Encarni Pindado and Rafa Fernandez de Castro - Fusion
go to original April 12, 2015

Actors and locals recreate a typical Tepito family scene. (Encarni Pindado/Fusion)

Mexico City’s newest attraction is a neighborhood that tourists have been told to avoid for years.

Tepito, a Mexico City slum nicknamed “Barrio Bravo” (the fierce neighborhood), is one of the capital’s oldest and most dangerous hoods, located near the city’s center. It’s home to a sprawling street market that’s famous for moving large amounts of contraband - everything from pirated video games and soon-to-be released movies, to exotic animals, firearms, and drugs. Mexicans say that if something gets stolen, there’s a good chance you’ll find it for sale in Tepito’s market.

The market is just one of the sights on a new urban “safari” tour created by Dutch artist Adelheid Roosen, who says she wants to end the stigma of this part of town.

Take a Walk Through One of Mexico's Most Notorious Black Markets (CCTV America)

Another popular site on the tour are the shrines to the Santa Muerte sect, which has a big following in Tepito.

A few years ago Roosen created a pilot program for her tour in the Muslim neighborhood of Slotermeer in Amsterdam  -  a project, she says, that helped raise awareness and fight prejudice. Now she has teamed up with renowned Mexican actor Daniel Gimenez Cacho and Mexico City’s ministry of culture to bring a similar slum-tourism experiment to Mexico.

Roosen and Cacho had eight Mexican actors live in Tepito for 15 days to immerse themselves fully in neighborhood life. Now those actors, with the help of a local supporting cast of actual residents, offer a $30 tour of Tepito complete with sightseeing, poverty role playing, and reenactments of scenes inspired by the real life world around them. Roosen calls it “participatory theater.”

Read the rest at Fusion

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