Play for Protest, Protest for Play: Artisan and Vendors’ Resistance to Displacement in Mexico City

Play for Protest, Protest for Play:Artisan and Vendors’ Resistance to

Displacement in Mexico City

Veronica CrossaSchool of Geography, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin,

Dublin 4, Ireland;[email protected]

Abstract: Play, laughter and theatrical forms of activism have been recentlydocumented by scholars interested in the politics and spatiality of resistance. This articlefocuses on the playful techniques of resistance deployed by street vendors and artisansin Mexico City as a result of the displacement generated by a recently implementedpolicy popularly called Plazas Limpias (clean plazas). Through a case study Coyoacan, atourist-oriented neighbourhood known for its historical richness and aesthetic qualities,I show how street vendors and artisans who were removed from plazas in the areaengaged in a number of playful resistance strategies which drew on the symbolic andmaterial importance of place. I argue the street vendors and artisans deployed playfultechniques of resistance for two reasons. First, play helped develop emotions that werecrucial for the sustainability of the movement. Second, playful strategies of resistance werepracticed because of the symbolic importance of Coyoacan as a place of creativity, play,performance, and art.

Keywords: play, resistance, emotions, Mexico City, street vendors, artisans

IntroductionPlay, laughter, and fun are important elements in any process of resistance. Currentexamples of how laughter and playfulness have become strategically incorporatedinto activists’ resistance movements include the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel ClownArmy, a group of activists who engage in alternative forms of political activismthat draw from clowning techniques to mobilize people, ideas, and raise awareness(Klepto 2004; Routledge 2012); Uruguayan Murgas, theatrical groups whose voices,lyrics and costumes are designed to mock existing power structures (Pineyrua 2007);and Art and Revolution, a group of organizations that bring people together todevelop new and creative ways of resisting and undermining corporate domination.These are some of the many illustrations of individuals or groups who not only haveused play and laughter as mobilization tactics, but who also see them as an integralway of acting out politics of resistance. As Routledge (2012) argues, then, playfulresistance is “concerned with addressing the social, psychological and emotionalimpacts of war, injustice, environmental crisis, and the exploitations associated withcapitalism” (Routledge 2012:431). These resistance spectacles are what Duncombe(2007) has called “ethical spectacles”, understood as spaces in which to reworkand create alternative routes to deal with and fight against issues of social injustice.Carnivalesque and theatrical forms of activism are based on the notion that the

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means—or strategies used to convey messages of resistance and opposition—arejust as important as the ends.

These playful techniques of resistance were deployed by street vendors andartisans in Coyoacan, a neighbourhood in Mexico City, as a result of the exclusionand displacement generated by a recently implemented policy called Recuperacionde Espacios Publicos (Recovery of public spaces), popularly renamed Plazas Limpias(Clean Plazas). In March, 2008 two of the most visited public spaces in Mexico City—Plazas Centenario and Hidalgo located in the Historic Center of Coyoacan (a districtwithin Mexico City)—were fenced off by local authorities, making them inaccessiblefor entry to visitors, residents, tourists, dwellers, and street vendors. The area wassubsequently “renovated”: historical buildings were refurbished, infrastructure wasupgraded, and safety and security for its users was “improved” by an increasingpolice presence. Plazas Limpias has also included the removal of hundreds of streetvendors and artisans from Coyoacan’s public spaces. As I will outline in this paper, theremoval of street vendors and artisans from Plazas Hidalgo and Centenario initiateda resistance movement to oppose Plazas Limpias.

My objective in this paper is to broaden our understanding of the geographies ofresistance in cities by examining the relationship between play, space, and protest.Most examples of performative and playful tactics of resistance documented in theliterature are typically associated with spaces of consumption (such as supermarketsand chain stores) or spaces of decision (such as government buildings or as theOccupy movements have attempted, financial districts). Drawing from conceptsof play established by developmental psychologists (Sutton-Smith 2008; Winnicott1971) and analyses by geographers to spatialize these understandings (Aitken 2001;Katz 2004), I argue that spaces of production can also house and trigger the sorts ofplayful ethical spectacles discussed above.

Coyoacan’s street vendors and artisans deployed playful techniques of resistancefor two main reasons. First, as discussed by much of the geographic literature onemotions, play forged emotions that helped them sustain the movement, despiteincreasing difficulties with the police and authorities. Second, playful strategies ofresistance were practiced by vendors and artisans because of the symbolic andmaterial importance of Coyoacan as a place of creativity, play, performance, art,and work. Coyoacan, as a place of creative production, shaped the particularities ofresistance. Whereas labour struggles or peasant uprisings, practiced through actionssuch as strikes and picket lines, are forms of resistance we might tend to imagineoccurring in spaces of production, I demonstrate that the material and symbolicimportance of the public plazas mattered to the ways in which resistance operated.With this, I contribute to literature on the spatialities of resistance by showing howpractices of resistance produce and are produced by enduring bonds with the placein which resistance is enacted.

The paper is divided as follows. In the next section I begin by highlighting someof the existing connections between literature on resistance, emotions, and playfulactivism. This section provides the framework within which I situate the empiricalresearch on Coyoacan. I then introduce the case of Plazas Limpias and position itrelative to the local context of the neighbourhood of Coyoacan. Next, I used myfield research in Mexico City to unravel some of the ways in which street vendors

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and artisans drew from their connections to place to engage in a playful and creativemovement to fight against their displacement.

Play for Protest, Protest for PlayResistance is broadly understood as the practices carried out to oppose, challengeand undermine constraining forces and power structures. These practices can becarried out through collective forms of organization, as in a mass protest in publicspaces, or can be exercised at an individual level through practices in everydaylife. Resistance can be overt, then, but it also can be characterized by what Bayat(2000) calls “quiet encroachment”; that is, a spontaneous, unplanned, informaland sometimes unarticulated way of fighting for redistribution while remainingautonomous from the forces of the state and the market. Resistance from thisperspective is silent, atomized, ordinary, and practiced through everyday life andhas the potential for strengthening ties among individuals who at a particular time–space share similar concerns and aid in the construction of new resistance strategies(Scott 1990). Resistance here is theorized not only in the classic sense of peopleopposing new structures of constraints, but on how they survive, and in some casesthrive despite these constraints; and how in the process they reconstitute their socialnetworks and relations. Similarly, Katz (2004) suggests that responses to injusticesproduced by global economic restructuring are not always about resisting newpower structures. Responses can entail survival strategies that enable marginalizedgroups to get by in their daily life. Katz contrasts this type of everyday life “resilience”with practices of “reworking” that “attempt to recalibrate power relations and/orredistribute resources” (Katz 2004:247). Resilience and reworking involve a form ofpower which enables survival without necessarily altering fundamental structuresof constraint. Contrary to resilience or reworking, resistance is about fighting foremancipatory change.

For geographers, resistance is fundamentally a spatial process (Pile and Keith1997; Routledge 1992, 1993, 1997). Recognizing the mutually constitutive natureof space and social relations, geographers have explored many of the ways inwhich resistance produces and is produced by relations across a wide range ofspatial scales. Work shows how scalar geographic tactics can have positive effects indeveloping successful mobilizations (Miller 2000). For instance, the Seattle anti-WTOprotests generated discussion among geographers about how the manipulationof micro-spaces can facilitate strategic practices but which can also underminethe success of mass mobilizations (Wainwright 2007). Similarly, the connectionsmade across space by social movements such as the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo(Bosco 2006) or the networks established through the use of technology by theZapatista movement (Froehling1997) indicate how geography matters to the natureof resistance. The spatiality of resistance requires thinking through how spatialrelations influence the character, strategies and effectiveness of resistance and whichin turn affects spatial relations. As Routledge (1992) states, different places canshape “the political identity, political activity and the social context of movementagency and the territorial and cultural settings within which it occurs” (Routledge1992:590). Places are articulations of social relations which might be local relations


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within the place but also relations that stretch beyond it (Massey 1999). Places arethus not bounded by one unique and fixed characteristic, but are rather nodes ina network of social relations. The specific constellation of social relations located ina place can help reveal not only why certain resistance movements emerge, butthe character and nature of the movement and its strategies. It is what Routledge(1993) calls the “terrains of resistance”, the particular political, economic, culturaland ecological context which provides the characteristics for understanding theagency of a movement.

In understanding these terrains of resistance, some recent work on thegeographies of resistance has drawn upon the “emotional turn” (Bondi 2005),with a view to highlighting how emotions shape and affect collective action andsocial movements (Goodwin, Jasper and Polletta 2001). For Routledge (2012:3)“emotions have always been an important element of the practice and performanceof politics through the engineering or channelling of fear, anger, aggression, etc”(Routledge 2012:430). This literature has shown the multiplicity of ways in whichemotions are deployed in the formation, sustenance, and mobilization of collectiveaction. Emotions, for instance, are central for understanding why individuals decideto join or withdraw from social movements. As Ettlinger (2004) argues, “feelingsare more than a part of life: they constitute a pivotal component of individualbehaviour and performance as well as of social relations” (Ettlinger 2004:41). ForJasper (1998:398), emotions are “part of our responses to events, but they also—inthe form of deep affective attachments—shape the goals of our actions”. Hence,and as Brown and Pickerill (2009) argue, emotions cannot be ignored; rather, theyshould be taken seriously not only among academics interested in the geographiesof resistance, but also by activists interested in strengthening long-term resistancemovements. For example, when thinking about the emotional geographies ofresistance, Bosco (2007) argues that emotions help create and sustain networks ofcollective action across time and space. In the case of the Madres de Plaza de Mayoand HIJOS, he shows how emotions generated physical and symbolic proximitythat was necessary for creating and cementing existing bonds between individualswithin these movements, despite socio-spatial separation. Shared emotions canbring people from faraway places together, and influence the duration of differentforms of collective action. Thus, emotions matter because they have geographieswhich shape and are shaped by the dynamics of activism and resistance.

Space and place are central for understanding the (re)production, deployment,consolidation, or transformation of emotions within resistance movements.Geographical interest in the connections between emotions and social movementshas stimulated discussions around the success of different resistance strategiesin fostering emotions which help convey a desired message. For Brown andPickerill (2009), certain settings are more prone to produce particular emotionsthan others. For example, samba bands at anti-war movements in politicalspaces like government buildings can help transform “official parliamentary politicsand organised marches . . . to one of new rhythms, dance, joy, and alternatives”(Brown and Pickerill 2009:29). Drawing from cultural activism, recent literature incritical geography has begun to explore the interconnections between emotions,performance and resistance, particularly with respect to how playful resistance can



engender emotions which are mobilized strategically. Exploring the performative,playful and affective dimensions of activism, Juris (2008:63) argues that “emotionsare particularly important within fluid, networked based movements that rely onnon-traditional modes of identification and commitment”. In referring to non-traditional modes of resistance, Juris is drawing from recent counter-summit protestsand other “imagineered resistance” (Routledge 1997) in which, play, humour, andlaughter are deployed not only as temporary resistance tactics, but also as an integralway of thinking about and acting out politics.

The concept of play has been examined at length by psychologists concernedwith the emotional and developmental life of children. For Sutton-Smith (2008),a play theorist interested in children’s education, play is a form of escape, atype of transcendence which helps children “overcome the stuffy and bossy adultworld they encounter” (Sutton-Smith 2008:96). Play is thus seen as a form oftemporary emotional move into happier spaces and places. Furthermore, thismobility facilitates children’s involvement and development in their “real” andperhaps more boring and painful world, by refreshing or fructifying it (Sutton-Smith2008:97). The dichotomy between the imaginary world of play and the real worldof non-play identified by Sutton-Smith (2008) is based on the analysis of actionsperformed by individuals irrespective of their spatial and temporal context. Play inthis case is a “genetically based technique” (Sutton-Smith 2008:97), which fulfilsthe evolutionary task of survival by allowing individuals to imagine different ways(and spaces) of being. This individualized analysis of play contrasts with analysesthat incorporate the social-spatial context within which play develops. Winnicott(1971) defines play as a third area, a potential space between the individual andtheir environment. Through the term “transitional space”, Winnicott distinguishesbetween the spaces of the self (me) and that of others (not-me). Transitionalspace is the space in between the “inner or personal psychic reality and the actualworld in which the individual lives, which can be objectively perceived” (Winnicott1971:103). Play represents a developmental process which allows the individual(child) to grow emotionally and evolve from a stage of biologically determined self-hood to a socially aware sense of self. Play is thus transformative in that it facilitatesan individual’s transition into the experience of creative living.

Children’s geographies have drawn from and contributed to work on play byexploring the spatiality of play and the potential of play in bringing about socialchange (Aitken 2001; Katz 2004). Rather than thinking about the transformativepotential of play in the individual development of children, geographers haveshown interest in exploring its transformative possibilities with respect to sociallyconstructed relations of production and reproduction. Katz (2004) uses play toexplore how children in rural Sudan make sense of the world and how, in theprocess, children construct a different and better world, challenging existing powerrelations. She argues that in playing children are not only (re)actors in the passivesense of mimicking the world around them; they can also be actors creating a worldwith different social relations. Drawing from the work of Walter Benjamin, she statesthat the “fugitive and fleeting nature of playing at something may spark a realizationthat the original is also made up: not a fiction, but a performance, or more dryly, asocial construction, that might also be made different” (Benjamin 1978:333, cited


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in Katz 2004:98). Hence, playing is about inventing and fantasizing, but also aboutchanging. In everyday play, children draw from their identity, use it creatively,facilitating the development of new meanings of themselves and their social world.Play is thus perceived as a potential avenue for transforming existing social relations.For some, the transformation is explored through the emotional development ofindividuals (mostly children). For others, the emotional transformative potential ofplay is seen as the starting point for raising consciousness of the relations thatindividuals engage in almost mechanically (Katz 2004:98).

As I have noted, play has begun to form part of resistance strategies of manysocial movements who see it as a fruitful avenue for raising consciousness withindifferent political, cultural, economic, and social spheres. Playful techniques ofresistance have been shown to successfully forge emotions that help sustainresistance movements and help achieve desired goals in ways that more traditionalmechanisms of resistance struggle to achieve. Rebel clowns, for example, havebecome a popular performance in large anti-summit protests. Using ancient andnon-violent clowning techniques, rebel clowns ridicule power and challenge powerstructures (Klepto 2004). As the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (CIRCA)argues, “nothing undermines authority like holding it up to ridicule and one of themost efficient techniques of ridicule is mocking by imitation” (Klepto 2004:404).Through playful mockery, they seek to transform and sustain an “inner emotionallife of the activists as well as [be] an effective technique for taking direct action”(Klepto 2004:407). For Harker (2005:56) play is integrally related to affect “becausein many (but not all) playing performance, it is the affective register that becomesheightened”. As he continues “Playing is not thoughtless as such, but rather in manyinstances, prioritizes non-cognitive (physical and emotional) processes” (Harker2005:56). Contrary to more traditional mechanisms of resistance on the street,which rely on confrontation and street violence, clowning techniques of resistanceare simultaneously a channel for “inner work of personal transformation andhealing” (Klepto 2004:407) and a creative way of practicing and performing politicson the streets (Routledge 2012). Furthermore, the laughter generated through theplayful performance of clowns is strategic in that it can potentially enlarge the bodyof political supporters. Playful techniques of resistance also provide moral authorityover more confrontational strategies of resistance (Duncombe 2007).

Cases of playful protest recently documented by scholars interested in resistanceare often based on experiences of organized counter-summit movements or onmore recent anti-capitalist movements across different cities. Playful and emotionalpolitics occupy the symbolic spaces of plazas, government buildings, embassies,and consumption spaces such as shopping malls and supermarkets. Just as play istypically thought about in opposition to work, these playful protests are consideredin exclusively symbolic terms, putting aside the material dimensions which gaverise to the protests. But as many children’s geographers have shown, play andwork, or the symbolic and material dimensions of socio-spatial relations are mutuallyconstitutive (Aitken 2001; Katz 2004; Punch 2000; Smith and Barker 2000). Katz(2004), drawing from her research in rural Sudan, illustrates how when childrenworked they often played, and when they played, they enacted many of theirwork-related responsibilities and activities. Hence, what constituted work—including



herding, fetching water, collecting fuel-wood, etc—was re-created and carried overto the space–time of play, which on many occasions overlapped. Similarly, butin an afterschool childcare setting, Smith and Barker (2000) show how childrennegotiate work (school) and play in the same location—the school premises—byrecreating the school environment in their own terms. During “out of school clubs”children’s spaces of work/education—library, computer room—are symbolically andtemporally altered to spaces of “pretend-work” and play.

Although playful protests do take place in symbolic spaces, playful politics canalso unfold in spaces of production, where individuals have been excluded fromtheir spaces of work, forced to stop producing and find new ways of making a livingor different ways of maintaining their work-practices under different conditions ofproduction. I argue that strategies of resistance in spaces of production are justas playful and emotional as those carried out in symbolic spaces. As I show inthe following section, playful resistance deployed in these exclusionary contexts isinformed by the interconnection of symbolic and material understandings of place.

The ContextThis paper draws on research I began in Mexico City in 2001 and which I havecontinued to this day, albeit in different areas of the city. Here, I draw primarilyon empirical research conducted in 2009 regarding the Plazas Limpias policy andits impact in Coyoacan. My work involved intensive fieldwork during the summerof 2009 and a follow-up process achieved during shorter visits to Mexico City.The fieldwork component entailed open-ended and semi-structured interviews with30 street vendors and artisans, as well as interviews with officials in the CoyoacanDelegacion (in English, borough), visitors to the area, and residents. In addition, Idraw upon participant observations in demonstrations and protests organized byCoyoacan’s vendors and artisans. Finally, the fieldwork has been supplemented withanalyses of newspaper reports as well as telephone conversations with vendors abouttheir struggle in the aftermath of the Plazas Limpias project.

Street vending is nothing new to Mexico City; indeed, selling wares on the streetdates back to pre-colonial times (Gonzalez, Medina and Jimenez 2008). But streetvending has experienced unprecedented levels of growth since the economic crisesof the mid 1980s which saw growing unemployment and poverty (Calderon 1998;Olivo 2010). The activity has provided many with a daily income in the contextof widespread under- and unemployment. Others have turned to the streets asan alternative to precarious working conditions in the so-called formal economy.Further, for many newcomers to the city, street vending has been their only option.For many years, therefore, street vending has acted as an economic “safety net”,allowing people and families to earn some sort of a living within a difficult economiccontext (Breman 2009).

The rise of street vending has caused concern among city authorities who haveconsequently launched numerous policies that explicitly target street vending,artisans, and other participants of the informal economy. Critically, these policieshave been carried out in the city’s most vibrant plazas and tourist-friendly areasand have been legitimized and widely supported by the urban middle classes who


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have, together with the popular media, portrayed street vendors as a dangerousgroup operating like a mafia. There is general urban-wide rhetoric of street vendingas “a plague which must be eradicated. It’s embarrassing and a shame that such abeautiful city with so much history is so full . . . of pseudo traders, street vendors andMarias who . . . make Mexico City look like one of the ugliest and dirtiest cities in theworld” (Monett 2005:5). These pejorative remarks about street vendors form part ofthe racialized geography of Mexico City, since most street vendors are indigenousand/or mestizo. For example, many of the spaces where vendors sell products arestigmatized as unsafe by the city’s white middle and upper classes. As such, streetvending as an economic activity is lived through socially constructed categories ofrace that form part of Mexico’s—and Latin America’s—colonial legacy.

Critically, policies such as Plazas Limpias are emblematic of a wider set ofchanges occurring at national and international scales regarding efforts to formalizeeconomies through the displacement of individuals involved in so-called “informal”activities. Under the rhetoric of rescuing public spaces or revamping urban spaces,neoliberal urban policies have been implemented with the goal of redefining theinformal economy and its spaces. Rather than deal with the fundamental socio-economic issues that in many cases drive people to engage in informal activitieson the streets, urban governments are pushing them into less visible spaceswhere they are not seen, heard, or smelled. These strategies, characteristic ofneoliberal forms of urban governance, have become widespread throughout LatinAmerica (Bromley and Mackie 2009; Crossa 2009; Swanson 2007) and are tied, asSwanson (2007) argues, to a “whitening” process aimed at rendering the indigenousstreet vendor invisible and reinforcing a racialized geography of the city (Swanson2007:709). Beautification policies like Plazas Limpias are therefore about prohibitingthe presence of people and activities that are not deemed attractive enough and/ordo not fit with the stylized urban images. Yet as the case of Coyoacan shows, streetvendors have found ways of resisting attempts to exclude them from the city.

Life in the Street in CoyoacanThe historic centre of Coyoacan was consolidated as an elite residential area duringthe Spanish colonial period, when many of the colonial powers, including landowners and rich merchants, located in the area. Its charming colonial landscape,the range of museums (including the Museo Frida Kahlo and Museo Casa de LeonTrotsky) coupled with capital from its wealthy residents who invest in the area’sphysical beauty make Coyoacan’s historic centre an attractive place for tourists,students, residents, and other visitors (Safa 1998). Intellectual elites, artists, famouswriters, important painters, national and international political figures have allresided or continue to reside in Coyoacan’s central area. The attractiveness of thearea to intellectual figures is a product of multiple factors, including the proximity tothe largest university in Mexico (Universidad Autonoma Nacional de Mexico). Booksstores, coffee shops, and restaurants with open terraces as well as street performers(from mime artists to storytellers), artists, and painters have settled in the plazas,reinforcing a particular image of Coyoacan as an intellectual and artistic hub, openand welcoming to alternative activities.



Coyoacan’s plazas are important symbolic spaces (Low 2000; Silva 2001). Theytend to concentrate major political, religious and economic powers, materialized inlocal state buildings, churches, and market places; and they play an important role inthe construction of local and national identity (Ramirez 2009). For inhabitants of thecity and of the area, Coyoacan’s plazas are a place to purchase art and crafts, to walkaround, to play, to relax, read or even have a siesta. Plazas are also centres of workwhich attract economic activities, particularly street vending activities. During theweekends, they operate as an open market where hundreds of artisans and vendorsset up their products on the ground or in stalls, where the buzz from singers anddrummers is heard, the theatrical plays of mimics seen, and the smell of differentfoods enjoyed.

Street vending in Coyoacan’s Historic Center began in the 1980s. The activity wasestablished by approximately 20 artisan vendors—the “group of twenty”, as theybecame known—who settled in one of the plazas in search of an alternative way oflife. After moving around the city in search of a socio-economic niche, many settledin Plaza Centenario to sell their crafts to an alternative, hipster, and student clientelethat frequented the area. As Samuel,1 one of the founding artisans explains:

people in Mexico are on the streets because of the structural incapacity of the economyto provide decent and well-paid jobs. Street vending is a reflection of an impoverishedeconomy. However, the group of twenty began as a counter-cultural movement.We were artisans who were here [in the plaza] not only because of our economiccircumstances, but more importantly for conviction; to find an alternative economiclife to the one offered by the capitalist system. We value the social and cultural dignityof this job (interview, 14 August 2009).

Being an artisan on the plaza enhanced the development of what Mansbridge (2001)calls an “oppositional consciousness”, understood as an “empowering mental statethat prepared members of an oppressed group to act to undermine, reform, oroverthrow a system of human domination (Mansbridge 2001:4–5). For Benjamin,another member of the group of 20, street artisans’ original concern was to “developsome form of alternative lifestyle. We were young. We didn’t really think in politicalterms or in establishing a formal social movement or anything like that. We justwanted to be free to develop our own creativity” (interview, 28 July 2009). AsSamuel continues, “at the beginning we saw this job of street artisans as a formof contesting and opposing the establishment. In the long run, that attitude—forsome conscious and for other less conscious—led to a state of consciousness thathelped us become the rebellious social group we are today” (interview, 14 August2009).

These alternative space-economies were facilitated by the social, economic, andcultural dynamics of Coyoacan’s borough, particularly its historic centre and plazas.As Ramiro, one of the first artisans to settle in Coyoacan said, “This place offered usfreedom. The fact that intellectuals, travellers, artists wandered around the streetsof this place made it very attractive for us. They became people who we couldchat with, or have a laugh” (interview, 12 July 2009). For Hector, “Coyoacan hascharacteristics that are critical for us artisans. It brings together tourists, intellectuals,students, artists, musicians, painters who manifest themselves in different ways on


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the street. This is why we settled here” (interview, 12 July 2009). Similarly, as Samuelexplains, “We needed to find not only an economic niche, but also a cultural nichewhere our products would be sold and valued for what they were. That place couldonly be Coyoacan” (interview, 14 August 2009).

Artisans in Coyoacan therefore found a particular niche which was nurtured andstrengthened for more than 20 years. On the plazas, they shared and (re)producedcodes of conduct, enacting their role as artisans. Their clothes, long hair, and general“relaxed” approach to life were all part of the spectacle through which artisansreproduced their identities as alternative and as artisans in Coyoacan. Symbolically,the plazas were spaces that enabled the performance of their identities, but at thesame time they were key spaces in which artisans taught each other new techniques,new skills; a space which enabled them to learn from each other and to feel part of labanda2 (Avila 1995:15). Furthermore, for most of the artisans, selling on the plazaswas their only source of income. Hence, the plazas had material value to vendorssince they were spaces which provided them with a weekly income, allowing themto reproduce themselves as artisans.

However, despite having been on the plaza for more than 20 years, producing aspace for the creation and sustainability of personal and professional networks, streetvendors and artisans were targeted by local authorities in 2008 through a policy to“clean” the area. The justification for the implementation of such a policy wastwofold. On the one hand, a legal argument was made by local authorities accusingvendors of the illegal use of public space, even though this contradicted the factthat most vendors and artisans had permits granted by the same local authority.The second argument was a behavioural one which constructed vendors as “bums”who participated in illicit and anti-social acts such as alcohol and drug consumption.Both of these arguments drew upon the prominent urban-wide rhetoric which viewsstreet vending as an “urban cancer”.

Many of those in Coyoacan knew exactly how to interpret that rhetoric. ForFemina, a vendor in Coyoacan, Plazas Limpias represented an attempt to eradicatea traditional form of exchange common among poorer populations. As she stated:

Street markets like Coyoacan are part of Mexican tradition. But there are two visions.One is the western vision that sees street markets as undesirable and dirty; and thesecond views markets not only as a survival strategy for hundreds of people, but also as atradition that should be maintained . . . But there are many wealthy capitalists interestedin changing the nature of this place based on the first vision. And they don’t want a few“dirty scums” to ruin their project (interview, 7 August 2009).

As Samuel explains, “we are being treated exactly how capitalism sees us: as perfectlydisposable organic matter” (interview, 14 August 2009).

Evidently, the economic importance of the plaza for artisans and vendors wasdisregarded and overshadowed by the cultural rhetoric of dirt created about vendorsand artisans. This rhetoric, cast as a necessary cultural project of rescuing Mexicanhistorical patrimony, was fundamentally about the material potential of the plazafor the formal economy. To achieve its aims the Delegacion of Coyoacan providedvendors with the alternative of moving to another location: an abandoned andrarely used public space located 8 km south of the plazas. But less than 20 vendors



moved. The majority remained in situ and organized a resistance movement. AsFederico, a young artisan stated:

Coyoacan is many things. People visit the plazas for a conjunction of things. They cometo see and occasionally buy from artisans, they come to have a stroll while enjoying anice-cream, they come to see street performers; they come for the whole package. Thispackage can’t be transferred elsewhere. That’s why we decided to stay here and fightfor this space, our space (interview, 2 August 2009).

Coyoacan’s historic centre therefore became the staged for the performance ofa prolonged resistance movement. And critically, Coyoacan’s image as a culturaland artistic hub was used playfully and creatively in these resistance practices. Thecreative element was a result of their desire to find a style of resistance that attractedsupport but also reminded people of the cultural practices that constitute theireconomic livelihoods. For Rodrigo, “Coyoacan is an icon of art, crafts, and culture.We decided that our movement had to draw from that. We all used our differenttalents to make our movement an alternative one” (interview, 2 August 2009). Aswill be discussed in the next section, then, the emotional connection of vendorsand artisans to the plazas as a space of production was strategically important forthe construction of affective ties which were critical in the development of a solidresistance movement.

Affective Ties in the Planton de Resistencia PacıficaWhen the plazas were fenced off in March 2008, vendors and artisans from differentorganizations came together to form the planton de resistencia pacıfica (“peacefulsit-in”; hereafter, the planton). The planton converted the construction site into acelebratory market. Vendors created an informal outdoor gallery, which displayedphotographs, colourful banners, and videos clips of their struggle. The photographsdisplayed different moments of their struggle against Plazas Limpias, includingtheir forced departure from the plazas, the arrival of hundreds of police officersin riot gear to prevent their sit-in, and their creation of a human chain to preventpolice harassment. Large banners emphasized, in picturesque ways, the ravenouscharacteristics of neoliberalism, hung from trees and fences that surrounded theplaza. The exhibition attracted a lot of attention from visitors and from the localmedia.

The planton lasted 8 months. Behind the scenes, it drew upon a well developednetwork of artisans and vendors committed to maintaining and strengtheningthe resistance movement. Daily tasks were shared. For example, all the planton’smaterial, including banners, tables, photographs, and videos had to be erectedand removed each day. This required help from most of the members to set up theexhibition and tables early in the morning and dismantle late at night. Responsibilityover provision of basic necessities such as food and water was rotated amongindividuals, such that each member was in charge of cooking a dish and sharingit with all planton members. Critically, different needs and capabilities of memberswere taken into consideration. As Emma, an active vendor during the planton notes:

Our group organized the food a few times. Other groups could not afford to contribute,so they would bring utensils, tablecloths, even flowers . . . We made everything, including


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eating, into a big show because it lifted our spirits. In moments of crisis like that, anylittle thing made us feel different and special. It was really important to be part of that(interview, 29 July 2009).

The planton enhanced what Juris (2008) calls “affective solidarity”, by transformingemotions such as anger and frustration, caused in this case by the exclusionarynature of Plazas Limpias, into a sense of collective solidarity. As Samuel recalls:

When confronted with a critical situation that affected us all, we developed a sense of realsolidarity. Despite our many inter- and intra-organizational differences, when push cameto shove, we all, collectively, functioned as a common front. That unity was indispensablefor the strength of our movement (interview, 14 August 2009).

Involvement in the planton became an important space and avenue for manyvendors and artisans who had otherwise expressed their grievance silently.

The space of the planton was facilitated by the already established work-placerelations that had developed among members for decades. Their emotional bondsof solidarity extended from the sphere of work to their personal lives. Emma notedthat:

Every month we celebrated the success of the planton. We would say ‘it’s been twomonths of the planton, bring the cake and let’s blow the candles’, and we did. Beyondour resistance movement, we lived so many things during those eight months. Wecelebrated first communions, school graduations of our member’s children, birthdays;we even had a quince-anos3! And all of it here, on the plaza” (interview, 29 July 2009).

The planton, including its artistic exhibition, not only allowed a political message tobe transmitted, but it also became a terrain of resistance (Routledge 1993) whereidentities were expressed and emotions generated through daily rituals and behind-the-scenes practices. It forged the development of affective ties, which strengthenedthe movement in ways that enabled vendors and artisans to bond and create acommon ground.

The planton was not only a celebration, located within the terrain of the cultural—a space that was about dignity, identity, respect, and recognition—but it was also aneconomic space aimed to rescue the vendors’ and artisans’ only means of making aliving. In April 2008, a few weeks after its set up, the planton was enlarged to enablevendors and artisans to revive their economic activities. More than 200 vendors andartisans participated in this process by creating an extensive line of tables used todisplay and sell their products. The objective was to reproduce a similar workingsetup to what they had prior to their removal from the plazas. The daily routinesof the planton therefore mimicked the vendor and artisan’s working day: set uptheir stall, chair, lay out their products on tables, and depending on the nature oftheir work, take out utensils and material. Given the limited amount of space, theyhad to share work spaces. The planton thus performed the simultaneous function ofwork, play, and protest, recognizing the overlapping nature of people’s personal,emotional, and working lives (Ettlinger 2004). In the planton, artisans and vendorsdid not transform who they were—they were still artisans who sold their products—but in the mimetic act of being artisans within the planton, they invented differentways of relating to each other and themselves.



The affective ties of the planton operated both internally, by providing thespace for the generation of emotions between artisans and vendors of differentorganizations, and externally, by creating emotional connections with visitors tothe plazas. The artisans’ and vendors’ goal was to tap into the approximately50,000 people visit plazas Centenario and Hidalgo every weekend (Robles 2008). Forexample, the vendors and artisans in the planton offered free creative workshops toteach children arts and crafts, such as papier-mache, maracas, pinatas, paintings,and kaleidoscopes. These workshops, which were extremely popular among familiesvisiting Coyoacan, gave vendors and artisans and opportunity to talk about andanswer questions about their struggle and the government’s attempts to removethem from the plazas. Thus, the playful nature of the creative workshops attractedchildren whose parents might not necessarily have otherwise sought informationabout the protest. In addition, the vendors and artisans used the planton to collectsignatures on a petition, which called on the delegacion to allow them to remainin the public plazas. The petition gathered approximately 160,000 signatures. Thepetition was brought on a carnivalesque march to the offices of the city government,during which many dressed as circus performers, with masks and costumes.

Creativity, play, and fun imbued many of the resistance acts performed by vendorsand artisans. They invited a wide range of artists to their sit-in, including dancers,rock bands, singers, drummers, mime artist, and storytellers. Their goal was to showthat their creative presence was the constitutive element of their livelihoods as wellas that of the plazas. During these events, vendors and artisans simultaneouslyworked by producing their crafts to sell, and played, by spontaneously dancingon their chairs, singing with the crowd, and talking/laughing loudly as customerspassed by. In these ways, the planton offered artisans and vendors opportunities tocommunicate a message of optimism that altered the emotional dynamic of protest(Routledge 2012). As Maria put it, “Coyoacan is festive, and that was the goal ofour struggle, to make it celebratory. During the planton, we put music on a lotand we used to dance! It was great” (interview, 8 August 2009). In the words ofMateo, “the planton was not only to defend an individual or collective work-space.We were also defending a way of being; a way of living that is part of the essenceof Coyoacan” (interview, 25 July 2009). Playful techniques of resistance thereforehelped the vendors and artisans to form an emotional politics with the generalpublic that would undermine the dominant discourse of plazas as dirty and in needof “cleaning”.

Artisans and vendors viewed playful and non-confrontational action as central totheir aims of building and inspiring their movement. This became evident whenriot police arrived to remove the planton. In a potentially confrontational situation,artisans and vendors organized a human chain and stood in front of the plantonfacing the police and refusing to move or speak, while other vendors stood outsideof the chain and recorded the event. The intimidatory act of highly equipped policemarching into the space of the planton was temporarily transformed through theprotective force of the human chain, creating a strong bond between its members.This act was a spiritual moment, a “demonstration of the will of those who arecapable of confronting the utmost danger while opposing oppressive power”(Routledge and Simons 1995:475). What is spiritual about these acts of resistance is


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not only the important political message that is transmitted when people risk theirlives resisting oppressive power, but also the realization of the deeply emotionalcharacteristics resistance.

Furthermore, the act of being photographed and recorded by members of theplanton converted the police and their actions into the subjects of examination. Itintentionally inverted the normal order of things, re-doing the power dynamics andcreating a sense of empowerment among vendors and artisans.

The human chain was an intense emotional activity that made them feelconnected as a group. The bodily co-presence and shared focus of attention on thepolice transformed feelings of fear into a powerful expression of affective solidarity.The human chain as a form of non-violent action undermined the coercive act of themilitarist arrival of riot police. Many of the artisans and vendors who participated inthis symbolic protest recall the rapid emotional shift experienced between the arrivalof the police and the development of the human chain. As Jorge recollects, “we wereall very frightened because they [the riot police] came in expecting violence. Butwe were determined to keep our movement peaceful” (interview, 25 July 2009).They did not want to provide any grounds for their movement and cause to bedelegitimized and manipulated by mainstream media. As Klepto (2004:406) states,“the police are comfortable with confrontational resistance but faced with the art ofridicule, they don’t quite know how to respond”. For a police force that is trained toexpect violence, symbolic protests like the human chain not only created confusion,but encouraged some members of the police to withdraw from the group and leavethe area. In fact, one photograph taken by an artisan documents a police officersigning the petition in support of the vendors and artisans.

In summary, the planton and human chain exemplify the importance of theperformative and affective dimensions of activism. Both practices engenderedemotional ties among the members of the resistance movement as well as withvisitors. The experiences throughout the planton allowed them to create an“emotional template” (Routledge 2012:430) and to establish a common front. Theplanton also provided the space/time for the development of new subjectivities. Asone artisan noted, “the planton politicized us in ways that we had never imagined”(interview, 25 July 2009). Similarly as Ramirez (2008) noted from interviews withvendors, “the planton has expanded our political and organizational horizon. Weare no longer fighting for our square meter of space. Our struggle is much broaderthan it was originally” (2008:58). The resistance against Plazas Limpias added alayer onto the political identity of many of the artisans and vendors. What beganas a resistance movement against the particularities of their displacement becamea struggle against the wider politics of public space in Mexico City. The realizationthat the Plazas Limpias was not confined to the spaces of Coyoacan converted theirprotest from one that spoke to the borough of Coyoacan to one that up-scaled tothe city government.

ConclusionsAs has been documented by urban geographers researching urban revitilizationpolicies in diverse contexts, streets and other public spaces are primary targets of



revanchist forms of urban governance (Swanson 2007). Public spaces are seen asessential for the development of tourist friendly images of a city. But in contextssuch as Mexico City, streets, plazas and other public spaces are also workplaces forstreet vendors, artisans and other members of the so-called informal economy. Theyare the places where street vendors and artisans produce, sell, and exchange goods;indeed, they are places of production which help individuals and families survive.Critically, these places are also where structures and networks of care and supportexist and unfold; a space where relationships are nurtured and sustained. For streetvendors and artisans, public spaces like plazas are where they meet their friends,where new ideas are shared, where loving relationships flourish, where discussionsand debates take place, and also where they have shared a working space for mostof their working life, learning from each other, sharing skills and ideas. Indeed, thestreets and plazas are where their personal and working lives overlap. In the streetsand plazas, they work and play and that multiplicity of logics (Ettlinger 2004) mattersto their resistance movement.

In this paper, I have examined aspects of playful protests that took place in thesesorts of spaces of production, where street vendors and artisans were excludedfrom their workplaces, forced to stop producing and find new ways of making aliving. In addition to facing removal from their economic spaces, they were alsodenied access to the spaces that provided them with personal and emotional tiesto friends and colleagues. As discussed, the practices of resistance were thereforebased on the notion that the movement had to be representative of the symbolicand material importance of these places characterized by creativity, art, play, andwork. Embedded in the struggle was the desire to show that the means of resistancewas equally as important as the ends. In other words, the strategies and practicesused to convey messages of opposition mattered to and affected the nature of theirstruggle. For vendors and artisans in Coyoacan, fighting against Plazas Limpias hadto occur through their eyes and hands, through strategies and methods that were afundamental part of their subjectivity. In the process of fighting and “creating withtheir hands”, they developed affective ties that formed a solid foundation on whichthey could sustain their movement. Their resistance worked in many ways becauseit invited people to play and in the process learn about their work and struggle. AsRodrigo noted, “Coyoacan is an icon of art, crafts, and culture. We decided thatour movement had to draw from that. We all used our different talents to make ourmovement an alternative one” (interview, 2 August 2009).

The story of Coyoacan’s vendors and artisans and their resistance continues to thisday. The emotional bonds created during the planton became the motivating factorwhich kept most vendors and artisans together over time. Coyoacan’s movementshows how resistance is, in the words of Duncombe (2007:34), as much emotional,passionate and prone to fantasy as it is sober, reasoning, and upstanding. Indeed,the material and symbolic connection of vendors and artisans with the plazas inCoyoacan provided an important dimension to the movement’s strength and servedthe simultaneous double function of play and protest.

Playful forms of protests have gained momentum among activists. It has becomecommon nowadays to see performances, clowns, musicians, and carnivalesqueparaphernalia. Scholars interested in these forms of resistance have emphasized


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the performative elements of playful protests and the emotions forged by theseparticular strategies in symbolic places of contestation. But as I have shown in thispaper, playful strategies of resistance can also occupy spaces of production andwork, without necessarily undermining the production process.

As Katz (2004:107) argues, a critical component of play lies in its transformativepotential. Not only in its ability to transform the people playing and theirrelations with each other, but also in its potential for developing more wilful socialtransformation. Dynamic play is as much about fantasy, invention, and mimickingas it is about learning and transforming. Play creates an arena where sociallyconstructed rules and relations can be pushed, expanded, or brought to the surface,facilitating their denaturalization. Play has been theorized as a process whereby achild makes sense of the world and in so doing, constructs a different and oftenbetter world. However, in this paper I suggested thinking about play not only asa integral process of a child’s transition into the experience of creative and socialliving (Winnicott, 1971) but also, and fundamentally, as a way in which adultscan creatively think, imagine, and produce different ways of being. While play istypically thought of in opposition to “serious” practices, such as work or soberforms of resistance, I suggest looking at play as a potentially fruitful way in whichtransformative politics can unfold.

In conclusion, this paper unravelled the playful ways in which groups andindividuals fight against the exclusionary nature of urban neoliberal policies, thuscontributing to existing geographical debates on the spatialities of resistance andurban change. I have shown how play was incorporated into a resistance movementin ways that transformed both the individuals and the movement itself. In doing this,I hope to have addressed Boscos’s (2010) important call for re-imagining activismby thinking about new and different ways in which resistance is performed andenacted.

AcknowledgementsI would like to thank Tom Slater for his encouraging comments on an earlier version of thispaper. I am very grateful to the four anonymous reviewers and editor Paul Chatterton fortheir useful comments and suggestions. Finally, I would like to thank the vendors and artisansof Coyoacan who took many hours of their working day to chat with me and allow me to bepart of their struggle.

Endnotes1 All of the names of street vendors and artisans have been changed.2 La banda is a colloquial term used by younger generations in Mexico to describe “thegroup”.3 A quince-anos is a celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday. It is an important occasion for manyfamilies since it traditionally marks the transition from childhood to womanhood. Usually itis celebrated with a religious ceremony followed by a large party.

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Play for Protest, Protest for Play: Artisan and Vendors’ Resistance to Displacement in Mexico City

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Transcript of Play for Protest, Protest for Play: Artisan and Vendors’ Resistance to Displacement in Mexico City