Geographic areas permanently affected by capitalist progress are known as sacrifice zones. The damage there is not collateral but structural, allowing some places to enjoy services and well-being while other zones absorb the costs. One such zone surrounding Mexico City is marked by mining for construction materials, toxic waste dumps, and mega-infrastructure projects.
In response, local towns organised the Red de Cuencas Norte del Valle de México y Sur del Valle del Mezquital, a network fighting water pollution from the Gran Canal del Desagüe – a problem rooted in the colonial-era draining of the lake system that once supported Tenochtitlán.
The project examines what determines which areas and populations are treated as expendable, and what alternative relationships between cities and their surrounding towns might look like. Pre-Hispanic sacrificial offerings were made to appease the gods and sustain the order of the universe, raising the question of how that logic relates to capitalism’s own strategies of sacrifice.
Elena Pardo is a visual artist and documentary, experimental, and animation filmmaker living in Mexico City.
