Down and Delirious in Mexico City: The Aztec Metropolis in the Twenty-First Century [Paperback]

Daniel Hernandez (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 8, 2011

MEXICO CITY, with some 20 million inhabitants, is the largest city in the Western Hemisphere. Enormous growth, raging crime, and tumultuous politics have also made it one of the most feared and misunderstood. Yet in the past decade, the city has become a hot spot for international business, fashion, and art, and a magnet for thrill-seeking expats from around the world.

In 2002, Daniel Hernandez traveled to Mexico City, searching for his cultural roots. He encountered a city both chaotic and intoxicating, both underdeveloped and hypermodern. In 2007, after quitting a job, he moved back. With vivid, intimate storytelling, Hernandez visits slums populated by ex-punks; glittering, drug-fueled fashion parties; and pseudo-native rituals catering to new-age Mexicans. He takes readers into the world of youth subcultures, in a city where punk and emo stand for a whole way of life—and sometimes lead to rumbles on the streets.

Surrounded by volcanoes, earthquake-prone, and shrouded in smog, the city that Hernandez lovingly chronicles is a place of astounding manifestations of danger, desire, humor, and beauty, a surreal landscape of “cosmic violence.” For those who care about one of the most electrifying cities on the planet, “Down & Delirious in Mexico City is essential reading” (David Lida, author of First Stop in the New World).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 2002, just out of U.C. Berkeley, Hernandez headed to Mexico City to trace his cultural roots. Five years later, he returned there as a journalist and immersed himself in the bewildering subcultures of the western hemisphere™s largest city. His explorations take him from fashion runways and cocaine after-parties, the street brawls of punk and emo kids, to the teeming festival of Mexico™s national icon, the Virgin of Guadalupe. As Hernandez wanders the labyrinths of the city, he also investigates his own uncertain identity as the American-born child of Mexican parents. Hernandez covers a lot of ground in his study of the city, maybe too much. Skimming from scene to scene, he doesn™t settle anywhere long enough to write with an insider™s perspective. Because of this, the observations rarely transcend the journalistic generalities found in the average feature story. Hernandez™s personal quest, which could have centered the book, never becomes compelling. While informative, his book often reads like a bulked up tour guide. (Feb.)
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From Booklist

As a journalist in Mexico’s capital from 2007 to 2010, Hernandez collected experiences and impressions for this collection of essays largely about the city’s youth subcultures. Some pieces diverge into discussions of the general features of Mexico City, such as its smog and its plague of kidnapping, but Hernandez, not long out of college, chiefly immersed himself in the haunts and attitudes of 20-year-olds. He fell in with one group on pilgrimage to the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the first of several foci of veneration that Hernandez inspects (“Saint Death” and sweat lodges are two others). Exploring the street scenes of the massive metropolis, Hernandez in turn befriends music fanatics; “emos” (as in emotional ones); hard-partying, fashion-conscious scenesters; denizens of beer bars; and punks. In their microsociologies, Hernandez observes people’s styles of self-expression and muses about their self-identities as quasi-tribal responses, akin to survival modes amid the chaotic city’s ever-impinging potential for danger (one friend dies). A perceptive reporter, Hernandez renders a gritty portrait of contemporary Mexican youth. --Gilbert Taylor

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; Original edition (February 8, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416577033
• ISBN-13: 978-1416577034
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #384,506 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #46 in Books > History > Ancient > Aztec

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Down and Delirious February 21, 2011

By L. Bueno

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

You think you live in the coolest city in the world? Well you don't, unless, of course, your name is Daniel Hernandez. Hernandez has been living in Mexico City for the past three years and in Down and Delirious in Mexico City he takes us on a dizzying tour of the city. A city so crowded with people (8.84 million and counting) that it is, literally, sinking into the ground, surrounded by volcanoes, perpetually shrouded in smog and historically steeped in violence that, even today, it cannot escape. Hernandez takes us with him on a religious pilgrimage to the Virgen de Guadalupe on her feast day, inside exclusive parties in the city's burgeoning fashion scene and punk rock parties in surrounding neighborhoods that end in full on rumbles. Down and Delirious in Mexico City describes a city that is, at the same time, dangerous, exciting, violent, modern, historical, spiritual and restless. Hernandez's background as a journalist serves him well here whether he's at a protest march in support of emos or randomly catching the daily flag ceremony that demands solemnity from the people passing through the Zócalo. This book will make you wish that you lived in Mexico City and glad that you don't.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent March 1, 2011

By em

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

"Down and Delirious" is a lush and nuanced account of a multi-layered, fascinating, society. Hernandez writes with a voice that is unique and personable, not to mention, knowledgeable. He makes the material pop with his narrative style. The book is informative, but more importantly, enjoyable. I look forward to more from Daniel Hernandez.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Read (and visit) if you dare... February 24, 2012

By Jean Artegui

Format:Paperback

Being a native of this mega dynamic city, I was curious to read what someone who only lived there for a few years before writing about it had to say. In all honesty, it is an excellent expresion about the city. I always found it impossible to describe my city to people abroad, to the point where I completely gave up trying to, simply because people have certain projections based on what they hear and see in movies and media, and no matter how much detail you describe, the box into which the city (and country) has been put is too thick to break down. I find that Mexico is particularly hard to describe because of its proximity to the U.S., it is overshadowed, yet it it is culturally so distant, and very much misunderstood outside the country. Brazil or Panama are probably not as shokingly surprising to first time visitors as Mexico City is. Likewise Mexico is seen very differently in the rest of the world than it is in North America, mainly because of the migration issue. I recommend the book, better yet as you are traveling in the former Tenochtitlan metropolis. It will put some things into perspective, which, unless you plan on living there, you will not have time to personally experience. Viva la capital!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Love It! Un Gran Libro! November 15, 2011

By Tyce Albian Winship

Format:Paperback

Down and Delirious in Mexico City is a must read. With its witty antidotes and insightful stories, it gives the reader a inside look into the vast world of Mexico City and surrounding areas.

I read this book and could not get enough. I thought the stories were very interesting and were packed full of history, but not in a boring traditional way. The author's way of writing is refreshing and enjoyable. This book is in the top 5 books I have read in 2011 and probably 2010 as well.

Go and buy a copy today! You will love it!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommend! February 15, 2011

By NYC Reader

Format:Paperback

DOWN & DELIRIOUS IN MEXICO CITY immediately transports you to the streets and cafes, festivals and street protests, and to the art and music scenes, of present day Mexico City--one of the most fascinating and dynamic cities in the world. Hernandez, who is as insightful as he is adventurous, and who is figuring out his own cultural identity along the way, proves to be the perfect guide. Highly recommend this terrific book.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A side of Mexico that no one gets to see February 21, 2011

By Juan Carlos Lozano

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Unfortunately, I did not get the hard edition and instead got the Kindle edition. Otherwise, I would have gotten a pretty cool book cover to look at, in addition to a fascinating book about DF.

The author provided a nuanced and modern discussion of the various groups of young people in Mexico City. Inherent in this discussion is the examination struggle that Mexican youth in DF face in figuring out where to fit in and yet maintaining some level of adherence to cultural practices and norms.

The best discussion of modern Mexico from a sociological perspective that I've seen of late. Bravo!

4.0 out of 5 stars Short and enjoyable- May 27, 2013

By Ryan C. Nagy

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am an American who lives in Mérida, Mexico and I bought this book as I am considering moving to Mexico City. I did not want a guide book, but rather a book that speaks more to cultural issues and what it is like to LIVE in Mexico City. This book delivered. Though it is not particularly deep nor philosophical, I found it to be a good starting point about the city and it's people. And for those like me, who want to read more, the author gives some references in the form of blogs, websites and books that he used as secondary materials. The book does tell much about a wealthy person's way of life. The first-person narratives are about the author's interactions with punk rockers, emos, fashionistas, partiers and the like. But it is written by a young man who is just starting out. It reflects his experiences and what he was interested in and had access to, not what you or I might want. The book drags a bit, here and there, and some chapters had me saying, "So what?" but overall I enjoyed it.

It takes courage to live and work in another country and to write about it. And to me, that made this an inspiring book. All in all, I feel like I have a much better feel for Mexico City and my next trip there will be greatly enriched by Down and Delirious in Mexico City. I look forward seeing what else this author comes up with in the future.