General Information

Zona Rosa, a neighbourhood in Mexico City, is known for shopping, nightlife, gay community, and its Korean residents. Although the area has declined since the 1980s, it is still a major shopping and entertainment district and has also become a major tourist attraction, one that the city has worked to preserve and rehabilitate since the 2000s.

Additional Information

From the 1990s, the area has become home to Mexico City’s gay community, which is prominent around Amberes Street and sponsors an annual pride parade on Paseo de la Reforma. Zona Rosa is a part of the official neighbourhood of Colonia Juárez, comprising 24 of the colonia’s 99 city blocks. Most of the streets in the area are named after European cities.

Crime: Highlights

Despite the installation of tourist police and other efforts, crime is still a problem in the area. Local nightclubs, especially men’s clubs, have a reputation for attracting prostitution, underage drinking, illegal gambling and other crime, which has a detrimental effect on tourism.

Crime: Explained

The area that connects Metro Insurgentes with Zona Rosa tends to get crowded with street peddlers selling tamales, perfumes, handicrafts, pirated CDs and DVDs. While the 38 bars and 10 men’s clubs known to police, including Crazy Bodies, Keop’s, Men’s Club, Foxy’s and Solid Gold, report good business, they also create problems for the area. Many are linked to illicit activities, such as prostitution, both male and female, which is noticeable on the streets after 10 p.m. seven days a week. Another problem is “tarjeteros”, who crowd the area’s streets day and night (especially Genova Street), handing out cards and flyers to passersby advertising bars, clubs and other businesses. Although this activity is legal, the tarjeteros have been accused of bothering area visitors and being associated with small-scale drug trafficking. The streets with the most problems concerning crime are Londres, Hamburgo, Florencia, Liverpool, Niza, Amberes and Genova.

History: Highlights

The area’s history began when it was developed as a residential district for wealthy foreigners and Mexico City residents looking to move from the city centre. The development of the area started after the Mexican Revolution, but the streets named after European capitals and European style mansions are a testament to the area’s immigrant origins.

History: Explained

The next phase in the area’s history was from the 1950s to 1980s, when it was revitalised by artists, intellectuals and the city’s elite who repopulated the area, gave it a bohemian reputation and attracted exclusive restaurants and clubs for visiting politicians and other notables. It was during this time that the area received the name Zona Rosa, from José Luis Cuevas, who commented that it was too timid to be red but too frivolous to be white. The golden era ended in the 1980s, when many of the upscale businesses moved out and tourism, men’s clubs, prostitution and crime appeared. Although the area has declined since the 1980s, it is still a major shopping and entertainment district.

Shopping and Entertainment: Highlights

Most of the business in Zona Rosa concerns retail establishments. The area is home to over 714 businesses. It is still one of the city’s primary entertainment and shopping districts and contains stores (mostly clothing stores), cafés, hotels, chain stores, fast-food places, restaurants, major hotels, airline offices, banks, clubs and more.

Shopping and Entertainment: Explained

There is an antiques mall on Londres Street, and a large handicrafts and souvenir market called Mercado Insurgentes between Liverpool and Londres street, where a number of shopkeepers speak English and some take US dollars. Approximately 100,000 people pass through the area each day, and an estimated 12,000,000 pesos is spent here each day. Another prominent retail segment includes businesses that cater for Mexico City’s gay community. Since they were established in the 1990s, these businesses have grown in size and number and include sex shops, bookstores, cinemas and exclusive hotels, as well as bars and nightclubs. These total over 200 businesses spread over 16 blocks, which is now considered to be the community business centre. Most customers in Zona Rosa’s businesses are visitors from other parts of the city, foreign tourists and businessmen who come from nearby office buildings.

Bohemian Appeal: Highlights

In the 1950s, the area was repopulated and reinvigorated by artists and intellectuals attracted to its location between the historic centre and Chapultepec Park. This period saw the opening of trendy bars, clubs, restaurants, cafés, bookstores and art galleries which gave the area a bohemian feel.

Bohemian Appeal: Explained

By the 1960s, politicians such as Adolfo López Mateos, Adolfo Ruiz Cortines, and Miguel Alemán, as well as painters (José Luis Cuevas) and writers (Carlos Fuentes and Carlos Monsivais), lived, worked and visited the clubs here, for instance Café Kineret. Fine restaurants were established, like Focolare in 1953, La Gondola in 1958 and Passy, also in 1958. These three still exist to this day. Clubs and restaurants were exclusive, with dress codes. The era of Zona Rosa’s development continued until the 1980s. During this time many galleries, bohemian bars and restaurants opened. The area was considered tolerant, intellectual and cosmopolitan.

Gay community: Highlights

The gay community in Zona Rosa was established in the 1990s due to the area’s overall tolerance and the fact that police here did not harass gays. Today, homosexuality on Amberes Streets and the rest of Zona Rosa is fairly open with handholding and kissing among same-sex couples.

Gay Community: Explained

Zona Rosa is famous for being a gay encounter area, especially for young gay men, with some being minors. The gay community has its own set of looks, body language, phrases and other signals used to identify one another. Another important aspect of the gay culture is clothing, with clothing considered to be in “good taste” making one more successful in meeting potential partners. A number of gay men make money through prostitution, mostly younger men soliciting older men. In 2010, the city opened a consulting office for homosexuals wishing to take advantage of Mexico City’s law allowing them to marry. Zona Rosa is one of three areas in Mexico City where gay bars and other businesses operate. Zona Rosa, however, is the largest of these and considered to be the gay community’s business centre. Zona Rosa’s annual pride parade was first held in 1978 with about 300 people participating. During this event the nightclubs, discos and bars of Zona Rosa fill with members of the LGBT community. Despite its prominence, the existence of a large, open gay community in Zona Rosa still creates controversy.

Korean Community: Highlights

Most of Mexico City’s Korean population (of about 9000) lives in and around Zona Rosa. According to the newspaper Reforma, there are at least 1000 Koreans living in Zona Rosa proper and about 3000 in Colonia Juárez. In Zona Rosa, especially at Florencia Street, barber shops, restaurants and Internet cafés with Korean signs dot the area.

Korean Community: Highlights

Many Korean residents do not speak Spanish and are relatively isolated from their Mexican neighbours. The number of Korean residents in the Colonia continues to increase even though the number of younger people in general decreases. Most immigrated to Mexico in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century, as a result of commercial agreements signed by the Mexican government with Korea and Taiwan, allowing companies such as Daewoo to bring workers over from Asia. According to some sources, such as Alfredo Romero, professor of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico), a large percentage of Koreans living in Mexico have questionable immigration status. There have been conflicts between Korean-owned businesses and Mexican neighbours over noise and sanitation issues, with some Mexicans complaining that the Koreans do not want to adapt to Mexican society. Another issue has been legal problems, both with the status of merchandise and the status of employees.