In the Metropolitan Area of Monterrey (MAM), buses in the public transportation system can be rented as mobile advertising billboards. Their giant bodies are wrapped in advertisements for chicken stock, condoms, shampoos, or government anti-obesity campaigns. Passengers cannot see from the inside what they are projecting on the outside. Not even while being transported to their workplaces does the exploitation cease. Some background on public transportation in the MAM is necessary here. Contrary to global trends, the use of private cars continues to grow, despite arguments about their inefficient energy use and contribution to global warming. This local phenomenon is related to the fact that, over the past five years, the city’s bus fleet has been reduced by 30 percent. Public transportation is facing an acute crisis. As soon as they are able, commuters buy the cheapest car they can afford, thereby sparing themselves up to two hours on their daily journeys due to poor route planning and long waiting times (60 percent of people wait more than 20 minutes for a bus), not to mention the uncertainty of such journeys, whether because of crashes (an average of 20 per day) or robberies (an average of one per day). As if this were not enough, 91.6 percent of women have experienced sexual violence at least once while traveling on public transportation in the MAM. This situation remains invisible to decision-makers, who travel in private vehicles. The precarious state of public transportation, and mobility more broadly, remains severely underrepresented in public debate, condemned to languish on public “to-do” lists. In this context, the work of Alejandro Cartagena assumes specific political importance by making visible the costs of this inaction on the quality of life of people living in the MAM. Indeed, the sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos emphasizes the need to represent and render visible human suffering through images in order to destabilize social injustice.
23,5 x 32,0 cm 112 Pages Softbound Edition of 500 2026 Published by The Velvet Cell and Los Sumergidos
