Introduction

Once an aristocratic neighborhood of Frenchified mansions, the Zona Rosa, or Pink Zone, lost its exclusivity with the advent of the Metro. It reflects its past and present status in the way fast-food franchises and tacky nightclubs share the streets with swank jewelry stores, smart boutiques and antique shops. Today it is the city’s growing gay enclave, with rainbow flags and gay pride slogans lining one of its main streets, Amberes. While pleasant for window-shopping during the day, Zona Rosa’s streets at night come alive with the sound of nightclub hawkers, appearing more like a red-light district than a “pink zone.”

Zona Rosa is flanked on the northwest by Paseo de la Reforma, built on the orders of Emperor Maximilian and reputedly fashioned after Brussels’ Avenue Louise, in honor of his Belgian-born Empress Carlota. Neighboring Chapultepec Park, one of the largest, busiest, and most beautiful urban parks in the world, offers abundant recreational and cultural attractions.