Timid quick-fixes paved the road to hell in Mexico

Genuine progress requires bold action, not piecemeal policy.

Mexican artist Tomás Filsinger was already quite ill when he spoke to The Mexico Political Economist years ago. He died recently but his work lives on stronger than ever. Never one to let earthly limitations hold him back, he embarked on an ambitious project to recreate the city of Tenochtitlán—on which Mexico City sits atop today—using digital tools and historical records.

Despite not being an academic, his bold depictions of the Aztec capital became the point of reference to many people’s imagining of this long gone city. They also illustrate what Mexico City lost through the lack of creativity of its rulers.

Tenochtitlán, as depicted by Filsinger (whose work you can check out here), is the image of paradise. Its gleaming white housing and monumental temples stand out against the bluegreen backdrop of the lake the city was built on.

How in tune with nature the pre-Hispanic peoples of Mexico were is up for debate. What isn’t is how bad Mexico’s recent and current custodians have been. Years of poor fixes for floods and pollution turned Mexico City from a lush green valley to the dry grey heat sink it is today—without managing to fix the flooding and the pollution.

And it’s not only environmental issues. Economic, social, and political questions are being left unresolved, addressed by a patchwork of ineffective half-measures. Today, many Mexican administrations at every level of government have the tools and the political capital to deal with these perennial problems. Small thinking is why they remain unresolved.