IDENTITY AND STORYTELLING
Mexico City
Stories shape our interpretation of the world, but how do we balance the digital onslaught of content with a multi-layered understanding of culture? Our immersion came at a time when North American border politics were front and center of the 24-hour news cycle. We met with producers at the largest media company in Latin America, Televisa, in startling contrast to a theater performance by Mexican prison inmates.
To garner an understanding of the economic landscape, we visited with the young entrepreneurs behind Mexico’s first crowdfunding and car sharing platforms, Fondeadora and Carrot, connected with the city’s top venture capitalists, and had lunch with the founder of the pizza parlor creating jobs for homeless youth, Pixza.
When they are engaged in the theater, they are no longer in shackles. They’re not prisoners, they’re actors and therefore they can be whatever they want. And that is the freedom we can offer them. Through culture.
Jose Carlos Balaguer Paredes, director Foro Shakespeare
We believe we need to go toward a more open city if we want to challenge the democratic crisis we’re living and the threats of authoritarianism gaining ground again.
A lot of public innovation labs are focused more on collaborative ecosystems and on building trust between people in and out of government.
Diego Emilio Cuesy Edgar, urban planner LabCDMX
CREDITS
LUIS ARNAL & ROBERTO HOLGUIN
Insitum (now Fjord LatAm)
TELEVISA
CHEF FRANCISCO OCAÑA
Laboratorio Culinario de Mexico
LABCDMX
ALEJANDRO SOUZA
Pixza
JOSE CARLOS BALAGUER
Teatro Penitencario
IIT INSTITUTE OF DESIGN
NORMAN MÜLLER & FANNY VILLIERS
Fondeadora
DIEGO SOLORZANO CERVANTES
Carrot
VIRTUAL MARKET
NUMA
ALAN GOMEZ
UNAM
FEDERICO ANTONI & FERNANDO LELO DE LARREA
ALLVP
CARLOS LOPEZ-MONTEZUMA
BBVA
VICENTE FENOLL
Kubo
PETTER RINGBOM
Opendox Film