Mexico City is not the only metropolis where informal economy exists. However, it is perhaps where the scale and variety of the phenomenon most clearly show how it has altered the city in its economic and social dynamics, as well as in the production of urban space and everyday experience.

An example of this circumstance is the corner of Puebla and Jalapa streets, in the middle-class neighborhood of Colonia Roma, in the heart of Mexico City’s metropolitan area.

In this busy intersection close to the Glorieta Insurgentes, a key public exchange point and base of important transportation systems, micro enterprises set up everyday to sell low-cost fast food. By 11:30 some stands -made out of very basic objects- are packed and ready to be picked up by a truck.

This activity is illegal. It does not pay taxes: The stands are not checked for health or hygiene standards. They occupy public space and partially block the streets. They do not offer employment benefits, vacations or retirement savings to the people who run them. In spite of this, they are tolerated because of the government’s inability to come up with solutions that would improve the economy, acting as an escape valve to some of the problems.

The figures in Mexico are unspecified, but by 2006 some facts were as follow: 60% of housing construction occurred informally. 60% of jobs came from the informal economy, and an estimated that 65% of music sold in Mexico was Pirated.

One question remaining is weather the informal economy and its effects hinder or benefit the urban economy as a whole.

Objects portrayed in the photographs are the entire food stand, packed. Shot one each day. Read Less