MEXICO CITY has 16 boroughs and the the 1.8 million strong Iztapalapa is the most populous of them, also having the most radical council. It lies at the eastern end of one of the city’s metro lines and its more remote and hilly areas can be reached by the new “cablebus” service.

Its mayor Clara Brugada — re-elected last year for a second successive three-year term — is an outspoken and dynamic socialist who is leading a transformation which is an example for the entire city and indeed the country.

Brugada, whom I was able to interview in January this year, has roots in the south-eastern indigenous state of Chiapas and identifies with native culture and the migrants who make up much of Iztapalapa’s population.

Active in self-managed community projects since the 1980s, she became an elected representative at both city and federal levels before playing a leading role in the Mexico City Constituent Congress of 2016 which brought a true democratic structure to the mega-city for the first time.

As mayor she has led the burgeoning population of migrants from all over central and southern Mexico in pioneering participatory projects and massive investments in community infrastructure.

The participatory element was brought to a halt by the Covid epidemic, but is now being revived as the pandemic eases.

Infrastructure investments are led by Utopias — a Spanish acronym for Units of Transformation and Organisation for Inclusion and Social Harmony. A combination of park, community centre, sports and cultural facilities, these are remarkably ambitious and well-equipped installations which are completely transforming prospects for local people.

Each Utopia has a semi-Olympic swimming pool and one has a full Olympic pool. They have football and baseball pitches, boxing rings, outdoor gyms and running tracks. Buildings typically include auditoriums, women’s centres with health facilities, childcare and craft equipment, a senior citizens’ room and (this varies in each case) musical, theatre or audiovisual studios.

In all of these areas professional guidance and instruction is available and everything is free of charge.

I was able recently to visit three of these remarkable installations — the Meyehualco, Papalotl and Teotongo Utopias — and can testify that they are top quality, such as are usually only available in this country on a commercial basis.

As explained to me by Aurora Corona, the young woman in charge of Teotongo Utopia, all of this is the result of more than 40 years’ struggle. Aurora’s mother founded the Squatters’ Association of San Miguel Teotongo, named after a town of the same name in Oaxaca State and bringing together migrants from several states of southern Mexico.

In the 1970s and 80s they squatted on barren lands to build their own community, guarding it night and day against repressive local and national governments. They built their own houses and defended a public green space which has now become their Utopia.

Among those at the heart of the struggle to recover public space in San Miguel Teotongo was Brugada, today’s mayor who conceived the Utopias project and led the community’s move into formal politics through the Morena Party.

Brugada has also placed women at the centre of these projects and each Utopia has a “Siempreviva” (forever flower) unit for those affected by domestic violence and “routes for free and secure women” through hazardous areas. Women work in groups to learn new skills and gain confidence to take their knowledge out into the community.

When I visited Meyehualco Utopia in December 2021 it had only just been inaugurated and in three days more than 36,000 local people had visited. Hundreds of people were queueing to register for access to the Olympic swimming pool and the Velodrome (one of only two such cycling facilities in Mexico City).

Papalotl (“butterfly”) Utopia has a school for cinematic and video journalism and as its name implies hothouses for butterflies and orchids which reflect the previously much neglected local environment. These provide for collective community cinematic and environmental projects.

The Utopias of course have security staff provided by the municipality, but access is free to all and it is striking that many local people were at first reluctant to enter, not believing that such installations were available to them and certainly not for free.

Now they realise that all kinds of professional, cultural and sporting careers are open to them and young people especially have aspirations of which they never dreamed before. Thus Teotongo has (among other facilities) a disused airliner which has been refitted with computers to provide free IT access and instruction for local people. These activities are promoted on a community basis and help to rebuild social networks and combat criminality.

Other activities promoted by Brugada in Iztapalapa, often in collaboration with neighbouring municipalities, include urban agriculture, commercial exchange based on local production and self-sufficiency, water conservation and restoration of Mexico City’s aquatic heritage, participatory budgeting and public creative arts, especially murals by local artists depicting native traditions, cultures and collective struggles.

Brugada works closely with Claudia Sheinbaum, the head of government for the whole city (equivalent to a state governor), a possible candidate for the presidential succession to Amlo in 2024. They both believe passionately in Mexico’s “4T Transformation” and its mission to work with other progressive governments in Latin America and the Caribbean.

David Raby is a retired academic and independent researcher on Latin America. He can be reached at rabylda@riseup.net and on Twitter @DLRaby.