Learning to love a city

When you weren't born in a city you don't belong to that city and it doesn't belong to you. You can only learn to love it.

When I arrived in 2009 it felt like an incredible city. Huge, modern, chaotic, dirty, poor and rich at the same time. A city of contrasts as I was able to write in my first article as a correspondent for a newspaper.

My wife made an effort in the following months to make me meet it. And I got to know it a little more in 2010 when I was a commuter. But it couldn't be said that I loved it. I was often afraid of it. Until 2011 I spoke very little Spanish and this contributed to making the experience difficult for me.When I finally managed to unblock myself and when I began to dominate the language, everything was easier for me. So year after year my acclimatization in a huge city grew. Sometimes today I show that I know streets that my wife doesn't either. I go into difficult neighborhoods that are considered unsafe.

All this has contributed to making me realize one thing: the more I know this city, the more I feel I love it. I am today a Mexican citizen and I am a citizen of Mexico City, a chilango as we say here.