JUAN VILLORO is Mexico’s preeminent novelist. Born in Mexico City in 1956, he is the author of half a dozen prize-winning novels and is also a journalist. In 2004, he received the Herralde Prizefor his novel El testigo (The Witness).

Prologue: Making an Agglomeration Look Like a City by Néstor García Canclini ix

Entry into the Labyrinth: Chaos Is Not Something You Improvise 3
Living in the City: “If You See Juan . . .” 12
City Characters: El Chilango 20
Shocks: How Many of Us Are There? 26
Crossings: Memory Atlas 29
Living in the City: The Child Heroes (Los Niños Héroes) 37
Ceremonies: The Shout (El Grito) 46
La Independencia, S.A. de C.V. 51
Places: The Back Patio (La Zotehuela) 54
Living in the City: Oblivion 57
Ceremonies: Coffee with the Poets 61
City Characters: El Merenguero 74
Shocks: Street Children 77
Places: The Mausoleums of the Heroes 98
City Characters: The Manager 108
Crossings: From Eye Candy to Moctezuma’s Revenge 112
Ceremonies: “Do Good Without Staring at the Blonde”: Wrestling Movies 119
Places: Public Government Ministry 127
Living in the City: My Grandmother’s Outing 131
Places: Tepito, El Chopo, and Other Informalities 144
City Characters: Paquita la del Barrio 155
Ceremonies: The Virgin of Transit 160
Living in the City: The Conscript 163
City Characters: The King of Coyoacán 179
Ceremonies: The Bureaucracy of Mexico City—Giving and Receiving 182
Places: Fairs, Theme Parks, Children City 188
Places: A Square Meter of the Nation 200
Ceremonies: How Does the City Decorate Itself? From the Foundational Image to Garbage as Ornament 203
Crossings: Extraterrestrials in the Capital 215
Shocks: A Car on the Pyramid 221
Places: The Meeting Place 226
Living in the City: Rain Soup 230
City Characters: The Tire Repair Man 234
Ceremonies: The Passion of Iztapalapa 239
Shocks: The Anxiety of Influenza—Diary of an Epidemic 245
City Characters: The Quack 259
Places: Santo Domingo 263
Shocks: The Disappearance of the Sky 276
Crossings: The City Is the Sky of the Metro 281
City Characters: The Zombie 287
Shocks: The New Meat 291
City Living: The Political Illusion 294
Ceremonies: The Security Book 316
City Characters: The Sewer Cleaner 320
Shocks: The Earthquake: “Stones of This Land Are Not Native to It” 324
Ceremonies: The Aftershock, a Postscript to Fear 341