The sunny beaches and turquoise waters of Mexico’s Caribbean resort Cancun attract millions of tourists, but schoolteacher Yazmin Teran is lucky to be able to enjoy them a few times a year.
Like other Mexicans who live on the fringes of major tourist destinations, she feels that working-class suburbs and upscale hotel districts are worlds apart.
According to official data, 32.7 million visitors landed at Cancun Airport in 2023 alone, 63% of whom were foreigners. Few people will visit Villas Otoku Paraiso, where Teran lives.
cancun
A quick search on the internet reveals that this housing development, founded in 2007 and home to approximately 40,000 people, is considered “Cancun’s most dangerous neighborhood.”
Teran remembers being excited when her husband arrived in Cancun from the southern state of Oaxaca 15 years ago to work in the tourism industry.
“When I see beaches, tourist spots and hotel zones on TV, I think, ‘Wow!'” said the 41-year-old.
“But when you come here to Cancun, you see that not everything is like that,” Teran said.
“Those of us who live and work here have little time to enjoy the beach or the ocean,” she said, adding that such visits occurred “about five times a year.”
Families without cars must rely on limited public transportation. Also, although the beach is public, it is actually only accessible to hotel guests.
“Going to the beach can be expensive,” said Teran, a community leader who organizes activities to help children and the elderly.
“We have to find a way to get there, buy something once we get there or bring our own lunch,” she said.
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Beach life isn’t cheap
She estimates that it costs about 500 pesos (approximately R500) for a family to spend a day at the beach in the hotel zone.
According to the specialized portal Talent.com, the average monthly salary in Cancun is around 7,500 pesos.
In high season, a night’s stay in a five-star hotel in Cancun’s luxury hotel district costs $2,000 (approximately R37,000).
When Villa Otoc was built, its affordable housing attracted construction and tourism workers from poor southern Mexican states like Chiapas and Tabasco, and countries like Guatemala and Cuba .
Not for us: schoolteacher Yazmin Teran says locals pay up to R500 a day for beaches in the hotel zone.
Viewed from above, the 14,000 identical homes of just 35 square meters are arranged in symmetrical blocks, giving the impression of orderliness. On the ground, street furniture is rotting and there are drug dealers working in the tourist area.
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escalation of violence
Violence has escalated since 2018 due to weapons leaks and increased turf wars between the country’s two most powerful drug cartels, local authorities and media say.
According to Sofia Ochoa, a cultural manager who has worked in the region since 2022, many children are left alone every day while their parents go out to earn a living, and 40% of them go to school. He says he doesn’t go to school.
Some children stay indoors, while others play in the streets or are chased by gangs. Ochoa said shootings and sexual abuse of children are common.
“Many people don’t know about the beach and its adjacent areas, but to them it seems like the final frontier and it’s very far away,” she added.
Ochoa and residents are organizing events to revive public spaces in Villa Otoku, including a park that was once abandoned to gangs.
Rosalina Gomez, 36, came to Cancun from the southern state of Chiapas to escape poverty and an abusive father.
Her main experience in Cancun’s tourism industry is as an airport cleaner. “Sometimes tourists give me clothes, tips, sodas, or thank me because the restrooms are clean. That’s what I like most,” she said.
Gomez’s 15-year-old daughter, Perla del Mar, has cerebral palsy and last visited the beach four years ago.
“I don’t feel comfortable going to the beach to have fun because I know my daughter is bedridden,” she said. She hopes her 17-year-old son Ricardo, who is studying food and beverages, will get a job in the tourism industry.
“Once he finishes his studies, God permitting, I will quit my job and devote myself to her,” she said.
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