If you're thinking into coming to the World Cup in México, and you find México City with very nice wall paintings, plant spots, the Suburban Train Stations decorated and the streets well maintained, with lamp posts working in every corner, let me tell you something: that's just all a façade.
You may think that's how we have the City taken care at all times, but that's not true. I don't know if that has also happened to other countries when they host the Olympic Games, World Cups or any other sort of international event, but at least in this case, all these nice things you're about to see in a month were all a last minute (couple of months, actually) restorations and additions.
Most Suburban Trains, their Stations and lines haven't been getting regular maintenance nor restoration as they should, and while now they're getting a new, "superb" and aesthetically pleasing look on the surface, real problems lie within. Most Trains are old and have serious engineering issues, some bridges and railways as well...
My school was inaugurated 30 years ago, and in 30 years haven't been repaired... until now, affecting severely our School Calendar and our activities.
The Government rarely installs lamp posts and if they stop working, they're not repaired immediately. It can last months until that happens.
And the bicycle roads, recently added in one of the most important avenues? Totally useless. Although the Government is doing the effort to promote exercise and a healthy life by bicycle riding, this is the worst place to promote it. This is a big, chaotic City, with disfuncional roads and unhealthy polluted air. It's not Paris, nor Amsterdam. This is a suicidal city for bike riders, since the accidents are hugely common and the bicycle roads don't do anything but steal primordial space for cars. Not to mention they're signaled by plant spots so small and with low deepness for soil that the plants are already dried.
The Mayor of the City has asked us to not be around the city when the World Cup comes, and there has been a lot of confusions about the decision of wether advance vacations for elementary schools or not.
I actually thank the restorations being done, but why wait for an important event such as this to make them? And knowing how some things are done by the Mexican Government, who can guarantee that are done well and not just superficially for the sake of looks, only?
And they're all done just now, at the same time. If going from some point to another wasn't chaotic enough, with the Suburban Stations being restored, some of them even being closed due to that, the trips are even worse and more inefficient. The City is all upside down. We're exhausted, done with all this. I'm on the top of my limit and I've been having trouble focusing on School, and I'm tired more than usual because getting anywhere by public transportation is a mess. But of course, as soon as the World Cup starts, is going to be nice and functional, but tailor-made for the tourists, not their civilians.
On top of that, most of the republic is immersed in violence. Guerrero was taken by the mafia and the people is being forced to abandon their homes out of threat of being killed. Several civilians disappear each day, and the criminals are being protected by politicians. But the News are not covering this, because they don't want to spread panic to anyone and that this ruins the event of the World Cup. The mafia don't do harm to foreigners tho, because that would mean entering into international conflict.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against the World Cup in its core, as a sports event, I don't despise foreigners coming to my city, I'm against the hypocrisy of our Government, their negligence and favor to tourists.
There's a term here, "Malinchismo" referring to a myth surrounding an Indian woman called, not named, "La Malinche" that is said she was Hernán Cortés' lover and was considered a traitor of her people. This term is used to describe the phenomenon of admiring foreign elements and despise our own. México as a nation has an issue on insecurity. It's believed we have to show our worth to the World, how great we are, but because of that, we tend to favor foreigners over us in order to get noticed. It seems we care more about their comfort rather about our necessities and well-being.
Don't get astounded nor get yourself deceived for what your eyes see. This is a beautiful City, worth to be explored and known, but most of the things you're going to come across, are just there to fool you into thinking we matter something to our authorities. We don't, we haven't, and I only pray to God that we do eventually in the future.
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