Gallerista Mónica Manzutto within the Guide to the City of Mexico

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I remember arrived in the city of Mexico very alive. It was a Sunday – November 11, 1984 – and my father, who was a very loving, strict man, took us to school the next day. That was my first connection to the country. I loved it.

I was born in Colombia to a Colombian mother and an Italian father, and we traveled a little – living in Paris and Buenos Aires – before we settled here. I consider myself Mexican; I am married to a Mexican and have Mexican children. But it took me some time to understand what Mexico was for me. My school, French Lycée, did not learn Mexican history or geography. I did it for this when I became an adult; Then it was a lot to understand the place, its complications, landscapes and social aspects.

When I met José, my partner, I began to stay with his friends, many of whom were artists. It was as if it had opened a new world. Gabriel Orozco, who was already a well -known artist then, said, “Why don’t you open a gallery and represent me and all our friends?” The landscape for contemporary art at Mexico City was very deserted then. Most of the energy rolled around the spaces directed by artists, not so many museums or galleries. “Let’s risk them all,” we said.

Downtown is a place where jewel can appear

The first show occurred in Mercado de Medellín. We rented fruit for a day, and all the works responded to market materials – and were sold at market prices. It appeared on the front cover of the main newspaper in Mexico. We started taking on different spaces around the city for a few years, then a warehouse, before finally settling on what is now Kurimanzutto – José Kuri and Mónica Manzutto – in the San Miguel Chapultepec neighborhood, where we now live.

The southern neighborhoods are historically the most intellectual, where Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Rufino Tamayo had their homes. In San Miguel Chapultepec there is an extraordinary hacime where Manuel Mondragón lived, who played an important role in the Mexican revolution. His daughter was Nahui Olin, a painter and a museum for Dr. Atl and many others. Roma and Condead, where we lived for 20 years, developed much later, starting with some cute restaurants and cafes.

Contraramar – a restaurant in Rome – is on everyone’s lists, but it has become a home, a place where we gather and spend hours with friends, eating, drinking and thinking about ideas. Nearby, one of my favorite chefs is Elena Reygadas from Rosetta; I perceive it as an artist. It travels in all these places – to Ensenada to look for the right fish; to oaxaca for specific mushrooms. My favorite traditional restaurant is Nicos, a bar in the middle of nowhere. (There is nothing decorated for him, it’s just amazing food.) Another is Casa Merlos, a restaurant that focuses on the mole – the traditional sauce – from Puebla. Is a temple.

I also spend a lot of time in the city center – in the museum, in Zócalo, in the Chairman of Templo. There is a place where jewels can appear: If you are curious enough to go to the Abelardo L Rodriguez market, for example, you will discover a noguchi mural in the middle of the second floor. There are also wonderful stores there: Remigio Mesas is one of the best places to go for textiles in place: huipils (Traditional tunic), shirts, clothing and collections. There is a language in them. And I love the colors and shapes of the pearl table Valtierra table.

The engine of my life is the gallery, though: Culture is the thing that moves me around the city. There is a whole new generation of artists and galleries – Campeche, Pequod Co, Salón Silicón – that are vital here. I follow their programs closely. But then, you can walk around and just discover something. Another day I found Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, an old institution with not so many works of art, but photographs of works of art. And recently I have read a book by álvaro Enrigue in which he tells the story of the meeting between Mottezuma (an Emperor of the Aztec Empire) and Cortés (the Spanish conqueror who overthrew the Aztec Empire). I spent three days in the city center trying to imagine how the empire was Mēxihcah/Aztec.

There are all kinds of ways you can connect with Mexico City. At that time it is alive and varied in many ways – cultural, politically, social. Not just a layer. This is the way I connect with the city.