Mexico City: Queer Slumming

Introduction

Slumming was an expression, primarily in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, that described a form of thrilling entertainment that was based entirely within the framing referents of middle and lower social classes. In what could today be called a social spectator sport, upper- and middle-class urban residents and tourists sought to observe and interact with working-class citizens in their daily environments. A definitively metropolitan tradition, slumming was also known as slum tourism. Seth Koven (2004) observes that slumming was already popular in London a full century before the onset of World War II. Beginning as a form of public service and social welfare, workers felt obligated to observe the people they sought to help. Yet by the late-nineteenth century, notes Koven (2004: 1, original emphasis), London tourist guide books were not only pointing out the cultural and religious urban attractions, but also directing the reader to urban spaces where...