Out In Town

In the Pit: Mexico City's New Heights

When I drive home from school on the high-level towering ramp linking the 101 – Hollywood and 110 – Harbor Freeways all I think is: “I hope there is no freaking slow moving traffic blocking my exit on 3rd Street.” It is a dangerous intersection connecting Hollywood’s North and South bound traffic into the incoming Harbor traffic, all at once. High-speed traffic, rarely adhering to LA speed limits, makes it an achievement to take the first exit, 3rd Street, less than a mile off the connecting ramp on the most-left lane. It is an even greater achievement to exit when there is slow traffic, to get from the fast lane to the exit in rush hour (when everyone wants anything but to let you switch lanes) will most likely get you a couple of honks and some finger flips. However, as a resident of a city known as the home of the freeways, one gets used to seeing such traffic jams and slow-moving lanes. What one never sees, or stops to think about is the arduous work that must have taken to build such urban structures. In the Pit, a documentary/film that takes place in Mexico City during the construction of the second level of the Periferico Freeway, sheds some light into this unnoticed work.

What is even more important to mention is that the film does not focus on the construction itself, but on the people who build such structures: the common people of Mexico. The world of this group of men is revealed together with all their nicknames, their jokes and puns at each other, their thoughts, values and even a glimpse of their homes. Putting aside the less than strict safety regulations followed by these workingmen, Juan Carlos Rulfo dives into the working hours and days of this humongous city project. In very short and simple sentences, even with some old and “wise” sayings, these men share with J.C. Rulfo their takes on life, government and even on love. Working at such altitude, it definitely gives a new meaning to the high life!

I had the opportunity to watch this film with my parents over the weekend at a Downtown theater. So far, En el Hoyo (In the Pit) is considered to be the most award-winning Mexican movie abroad. The clashes of Mexican economic, social and ideological worlds above, below, around as well as at each ends of the Periferico are thrown together in the film as they are experienced in the big cities. We are very well aware of each other, so much in fact, that we are eager to avoid each other. However, we cannot! As shown in the film, the construction builders, the architects, the city officials, the BMW drivers and the bus riders are all bound together in this Periferico as much as they are in Mexico City, the world and in life.

The best scene in the film is shown as a helicopter flies and captures on camera the great dimensions of the second level of the Periferico. It seems to never end, perhaps showing itself as a timely metaphor of this clash of people in Mexico City. Hopefully, the dimensions of the still long way to go to achieve equality and a higher standards of living does not deter the Mexican population to continue working to get Mexico out of the pit into new heights; one second level at a time.

posted by Guerrero Azteca @ 3:30 PM