MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - JULY 4, 2025: Hundreds of protesters filled the streets of Mexico City on Friday in a landmark demonstration against gentrification and mass tourism, voicing growing discontent over the influx of foreign residents—particularly from the United States—and the resulting social and economic consequences for local communities. This was the first large-scale protest in Mexico’s capital specifically organized to highlight the negative impacts of gentrification, including the displacement of long-term residents, soaring rents, and the rising cost of basic goods and services. The influx of foreigners, many from the US, living in the city has caused accommodation costs for locals to increase significantly. Many held signs reading: “It’s not progress, it’s dispossession,” “Gentrification is urban colonialism,” “Gentrification = colonization, stop displacing locals,” and “It’s not tourism if it displaces us” while marching through the city. A small group of demonstrators smashed storefronts of several businesses on the protest route. Palestinian flags were also waved, and signs with messages such as “Death to Zionism” were displayed in solidarity with Palestinians facing ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza. Fernanda Torres, a publicist, expressed frustration over the changing cultural dynamics in neighborhoods popular among foreigners. “I feel angry because it seems like we have to adapt to them—the Americans who live in Mexico. Rents are sky high, we can no longer sit quietly in a café because English is spoken. Foreigners do not try to adapt and stay to live here, and that is causing everything to become more expensive, apart from displacing us.” She continued: “We are losing the most important thing, which is our customs, our roots, our language, and we are giving it away. We are letting them steal it and losing something so valuable to us because when you go to other countries, when you go to the United States, they ask you to adapt. Unfortunately, if you don't speak English, you can hardly communicate. However, there, it seems that all Mexicans have to adapt to them (the Americans), and we want them to make the effort to be in the country, to communicate with us." Jonathan Rivas, a teacher, commented on the issue: “We all have the right to migrate. This isn't up for discussion because this issue of gentrification can be seen as a kind of xenophobia. It's simply recognizing the power dynamics to which we are still subjected, due to historical processes in which nations have the power to reach out to others and benefit from the disadvantages of other peoples.” Sergio Juariqua, an activist from the 06600 organization—an anti-gentrification group based in central Mexico City—called for urgent structural changes. “The land disputes we are seeing now are about stripping away rights, stripping away roots, stripping away countless possibilities of power to prevail in a territory,” Juariqua said. “We are not disposable citizens.” He added: “As long as neighborhood roots are not a right, as long as there is no tenant law, no cap on rent, no restriction on new or remodeled apartments, and no regulation of platform imperialism like Airbnb, gentrification will continue to happen in this city of Mexico, along with the forced displacement of inhabitants who are disposable, or who are considered disposable by those who should protect us."