Mónica Arreola, Valle San Pedro

Narrator: Mónica Arreola’s series “Valle San Pedro” captures a group of Tijuana housing projects. They were constructed, yet left unfinished, when the 2008 economic recession hit.

Mónica Arreola: Mi nombre es Mónica Arreola…

Narrator: In my work, I always try to speak very particularly about the city of Tijuana, about how the city is being built or how it’s being deconstructed. 

I found a place, a subdivision called Valle San Pedro. Valle San Pedro is located in the southeast area of the city of Tijuana, between Tijuana and Tecate. During Felipe Calderon’s six-year term, part of his agenda was to develop sustainable subdivisions. But in 2008–due to the recession in the United States, Mexico was also hit. And in 2011, everything that had to do with housing in the country, and also obviously in Tijuana, collapsed. Valle de San Pedro is a subdivision that is semi-abandoned, and with my images I want to trigger a series of critical dialogues about failed architecture, or these silent or violent imaginaries that are generated in these abandoned areas. 

I start with the landscape in the sense that I have to coordinate with everything around it to be able to create a photograph. It’s like this dance between the landscape and me and photography. When I take the photos, I have very little time. I’m always accompanied by my sister. She stays in the car, and the car is on. And another person, who is always usually a man, watches my back. While I’m photographing, he makes sure no one approaches me. So yes, it’s about taking the photos quickly–get in the car and move. So that’s like another conditioning factor that dictates my photographs a lot. And the skies are cloudy. I looked for the characteristic of cloudy skies, because it allowed me to generate greater intensity in the image, and also a greater volume in the image.