Community Building, Cultural Agency, and Spatial Resistance in the Neoliberal City: Barrio Tampiquito in Monterrey

By Emanuela Buscemi (University of Monterrey, Mexico) |

Tampiquito is a neighborhood located in the wealthy municipality of San Pedro Garza García, part of the Metropolitan Monterrey Area (MMA) in Nuevo León, México. In the 2010s, amid local widespread urban violence, while public and private institutions promoted the militarization of public space, in Tampiquito inclusive cultural and spatial practices were introduced from below to regenerate trust and counter organized crime. In this chapter, quotidian practices of citizenship, as well as cultural and spatial resistance, will be examined by unpacking the neoliberal paradigm of the city, especially in relation to social cleavages and through the lens of government planning policies. The methodology relies on an ethnographic work carried out in 2020 in Tampiquito. The chapter contributes to urban and resistance theories in the Global South by linking questions posed by local de-precarization activism with wider aspirations, as well as cultural and urban practices.