The Whitewashing of Mexico City’s Hand-Painted Signs

A Ban on Colorful Rótulos Is Making for a More Generic Streetscape

This April, the government of Mexico City’s central Cuauhtémoc alcaldía, or borough, mandated that all its rótulos—the hand-painted signs decorating street vendors’ kiosks—be erased. The colorful optical illusions, diverse typographies, and fantastical portraits of sandwiches, juices, and smoothies that have become an essential aspect of the city’s built environment had to be washed off or painted over, making the kiosks nothing more than a backdrop for the alcaldía’s sad, gray-and-white official seal.

The kiosks, which are ubiquitous on Mexico City’s sidewalks and public squares, are small metal stands with panels that …

How Latin America Built L.A.

Excavating the Century of Economic Domination Beneath the 2022 Summit of the Americas

Los Angeles is just the second U.S. city to host the Summit of the Americas, which brings together political leaders, civil society organizations, and business executives from North, South, and …

A Tale of Two Pride Marches | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

A Tale of Two Pride Marches

In the 1980s, Mexico’s Gay Rights Movement Was Fractured. Its Legacy Offers Lessons for Today

On June 25, 1983, two distinct marches set out from Mexico City’s Monumento a Los Niños Héroes. One was a traditional march, with a serious tone in line with the …

California-Baja Border | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Let Local Residents Govern the California–Baja Border

The People Living with the Mess the U.S. and Mexico Made Have the Best Chance of Cleaning It Up

To: Baja California Gov.-elect Marina del Pilar Ávila and California Gov. Gavin Newsom
Cc: Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero and San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria
Re: A Borderlands Assembly

All four of …

Feminist Foreign Policy Can Offer a ‘Modern Lens to a Modern World’ | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Feminist Foreign Policy Can Offer a ‘Modern Lens to a Modern World’

To Build a Better Tomorrow, a Small but Growing Number of Countries Are Bringing a Gender Lens to Today’s Biggest Issues

Sweden first introduced the term “feminist foreign policy” in 2014, and since then, a small but growing number of countries—most recently Mexico—have adopted or pledged to implement it.

But what exactly …