I've lived in Doctores for nineteen years now and have never had the place redecorated once. The apartment has seen me through every single phase: pre-transition, transitioning, post-change.
Every apartment has a story behind its door – some beautiful, more often just sad or boring, but always true. Mine in Doctores? A quiet tale of no fuss and many cups of coffee 😂
I watched "La Lengua de Las Mariposas" last night for probably the tenth time and I can't explain why but every scene still hits me in a way that makes my stomach twist 🙏. It's those little moments where you realize how deeply embedded fear can be, even when it seems like nothing is happening.
The apartment in Colonia Doctores.
Home sweet paperwork. 😂❤️🙏
I got home today to find my window slightly ajar. A book from my shelf was open on the sill 🙏 Someone read "The Power of Now."
Every time we wrap a shoot I buy us all tacos al pastor from Tío Lalo’s. It's just coffee in the morning but these late nights deserve something better. The same eleven people show up every single time – directors who've forgotten my name, producers too busy to acknowledge me, the clapper loader with his earbuds in.
The coffee at dawn on set tastes different when it rains. It's still instant though, always will be.
The northern narco videos from the '90s had better costumes than most things today. Ficheras comedies are cinematic gold 🙏😂
I walked into my apartment tonight to find a note from the building manager. We finally got cable. About time 😂 No more illegally streamed telenovelas!
I love the way buildings wear their history in this city; each scar tells a story if you know where to look 🙏 The shoot tomorrow is at an old diner with potential for just that.
We filmed an outdoor scene today at dawn, the usual eleven people plus two new trainees. The radio was playing rancheras and everyone got their marks perfectly on the first take.
The neighbour from 19A fell down her stairs yesterday afternoon. She's going to be fine. Just a bump on her head. 🙏😂
"Chale, it's just a film set; everything here is temporary." 😂❤️🙏
The rent is due Wednesday; let's hope nothing explodes 😂❤️
My apartment has the view of a brick wall but I've lived here nineteen years. There are cracks in the ceiling from when an actor dropped his prop gun too hard above me during shooting. They patched them over without telling me; I discovered them years later. It's home.
Every shoot starts with coffee at dawn; today’s was particularly strong. My mouth is numb but I am awake 😂 ❤️
The old man selling paperbacks out his doorway finally let me take a photo for my records yesterday. Gracias señor 🙏 He waved as I left.
The northern narco aesthetic has invaded our productions but nobody talks about appropriation yet. At least we're borrowing something good for a change ❤️
I am making coffee while reading reviews of that narco home video they released last week. It's so bad it might just be art. 😂🙏
I photographed a building yesterday with bad feng shui; today it sold for millions to someone who knows nothing. The world is nuts 😂❤️
The apartment hasn't changed since 2003 but feels different without my father's photographs on the shelf anymore. His are in a box now. It hurts to see them all at once ❤️
Locations spreadsheet. Now it's a diary 📒 😂
My apartment has never left the 80s; the avocado green bathroom and all. I keep telling myself maybe next year. But every time my friend Renata visits she just shakes her head and says "Marisol, it's your home" ❤️
There's an old house on Avenida del Sarao with a wrought iron balcony that I have passed every single workday for nineteen years. Never gone inside; never will — the rent per month is exactly 2% of my yearly salary, no need to disturb that equilibrium 🙏
I never got into those narco videohome dramas but they do understand space in a way filmmakers don't always grasp 🙏 Sometimes I feel like their silent partner.
Tacos al pastor after midnight are always a mistake 😂❤️
I've never taken a selfie in front of any building because why? They are all just work to me anyway. But I took one yesterday purely for fun. 😂❤️
The corner store on República keeps selling out of horchata by 2 PM every day. I buy five bottles a piece now because who knows when they'll restock? Sometimes I leave them in the trunk for the crew—hot days shooting, no AC to be had, we need hydration 🙏
Every room in my apartment has its own mood based on paint and light but none of those moods have changed since 2002. The walls talk to me though, I swear they do.
Drove past a building today that's been on my "maybe" list for six years. I decided no, not with those windows. Too harsh in midday sun.
I keep a spare set of keys in my desk drawer for when I lock myself out but no amount of planning can account for that moment. There you are, with nothing between you and the street except your phone light.
There’s a tiny plant by my window that seems to be thriving despite everything. It makes my apartment feel like home somehow 🌱😂
I know every building in my area like I know the people living inside them; their quirks are as familiar as old furniture. One landlord only accepts rent if you speak first about his family's latest health crisis, another will forget your name from one week to the next but still greet me with a smile and a kiss on both cheeks.
Found a perfect doorway today in Juárez for that indie drama. If they pay on time this will be my third payday miracle of the year 😂❤️
The corner shop on República de Guatemala has had that same brand of cigarettes for as long as I've worked in Doctores. They always have the exact number you need without asking. 🙏
The city changes; I find new doors but always come back to this apartment. Nineteen years in Colonia Doctores 🙏 It's like home now.
In my apartment: no decoration changes since 2002. Each shelf holds its weight of film scripts from projects that didn't happen 🙏 The past is heavy but stable.
I think everyone should see "La Jaula de Oro" at least once in their lives. 😂🙏❤️
I never took that photography course despite having a camera phone older than my niece's toys because every street is a location waiting to be seen by someone else. No pictures for me though; only them. 📸
I know all the neighbours by name because they all complain to my face when we film. It's cheaper than security cameras and I prefer it that way. 🙏
I snapped a pic at sunrise this AM — for myself. It's just an alleyway in Roma but I like it. Not for work. 😂❤️
Sonido Cumbiero 🙏 😂
Took my annual stroll through the multifamiliares on Thursday – Pani's work never fails – but now there are those security booths everywhere which spoil the lines. Still, seeing them makes me think of sets and I wonder about the stories told in each one.
The new drama series wants everything at dusk but the permit office says no night shoots without extra fees that they never tell you until the last minute. So I spend half my day dealing with their tantrums while keeping them from setting fire to someone's backyard 🙏 😂
Mario Pani could never imagine what his multifamiliares would become at 40 years old 🙏 Sonidero blasting out the windows now. It's the soundtrack of my morning runs.
La India María is my spirit animal 🙏 No amount of shooting schedules can ever replace that wisdom and style.
Lucha Libre yesterday at Arena México; El Destructo vs Hijo del Vikingo was the main event but I liked the undercard. The way they fall is ballet. Everyone leaves bruised. And every fan goes home thrilled 🙏❤️
My partner thinks I should sell those building photos, make prints or whatever but the truth is they're all for work files no one would want hanging on a wall. Yet every now and then, looking at them feels like home.
My phone died during yesterday's shoot but I still found all four doors by instinct 🙏 Tomorrow, full battery.
Locations manager's pride 🙏
Every apartment has its own soundtrack these days; the neighbours on 3B play "La Bamba" at volume nine every Thursday night without fail. It's like a calendar now: when you start hearing Ritchie Valens, Thursday is here.
La India María is still my North Star even when I’m trying to be someone else for work. Always has been and always will be 🙏❤️
Ran into an old colleague at Starbucks who still calls me "la muchacha" 🙄😑 I changed my order to a venti iced coffee black just for spite
I heard "Mona Lisa" twice this week. Both times I cried a little, neta 😔
Holding a call sheet under the streetlights at El Oro and Rayón, I caught my reflection in a car window. Twenty-one years chasing this life across my face 🌙
Today they told me to find a street car chase location from '87. How do I even start? 🤔
I got a DM from a producer who's heard my name for years but never worked with me because they thought I was "difficult." Chale 😒
El Metro de La Cuatro at 6pm is not for the faint of heart 💪
La nueva construcción en Av. Insurgentes tiene una luz hermosa. Me pregunto si el vecino de abajo se va a quejar otra vez 🌞
Mi papá siempre usaba corbata al trabajo 😔
The woman who runs the pulqueria on Balbuena used to call me "mijo" like she was my tía. I found out last week that her daughter died in a car accident two years ago. She told me while I was trying to make change for five hundred pesos and I couldn't say anything, just put her money back down and walked away. 😔🙏
The production wanted a building from the 40s for their period piece. I took them to Tlalpan where the streets are narrow enough that you can't shoot wide and the buildings haven't been gentrified yet because there's no room for Airbnbs or galleries. They said it wasn't right, but they didn't say why so I kept taking them places until we found a building with a facade designed by Mario Pani in 1957 that hadn't been touched since. The AD loved it and the DP hated it because there was no parking for grip so now I have to find another location next week, but at least they'll know why this time 🤷♀️🙏
La vecindad en Tacubaya tiene la mejor luz del mundo pero el encargado no quiere saber nada de películas. Lástima 😔
Chale, I just spent five hours trying to get a permit for the old Sanborns in centro. You remember that place? It's all boarded up now but back in the day 👀 Anyway, the clerk was like "no way, Marisol" because of course he knows me and then we got into this thing about how many permits they've given to Netflix alone this year and I said look compa, if they're paying you double for every damn permit then who am I to argue? 😂
Me estoy congelando con este clima.
I've been finding spaces for 25 years now. The city changes but the work doesn't really 🏙️ Sometimes I feel like a ghost going through these doors — nobody knows me or my name. Other days, every woman in every kitchen on the street knows who I am and what I do because they've seen enough productions to know we're all just here for a few hours, trying to make it look real 💔
Running late to set but the bus was playing "Cielito lindo" so I missed my stop on purpose ❤️
Chale, I'm getting old. The crew calls me "Dona" now 😂
Found a door that matches my childhood apartment's. Feels like I've been looking for it forever 🤯
Found a 1968 sign on Av. Revolución today ❤️
The shoot called off today due to rain 😔 No pay but I bought myself a coffee and a pastry anyway
Lights on at seven this morning
Shoot tomorrow on Avenida 20 de Noviembre 😐
Leaving Doctores early today. I'm exhausted 🤚
On a shoot last week a neighbor handed me a baby to hold while she signed the release form. That poor child was so confused 😂
The production wanted a 1970s apartment. I found them one from '63.
The set decorator wanted "gritty." I showed them a street in La Merced where the kids are selling pirated movies out of a wheelbarrow at midnight. They took pictures and left before sundown.
I was on a shoot in Xochimilco last week and we had the full thing: mariachi band, three boats, some poor souls dressed as Venice gondoliers because "that's what they wear" said someone who has never been to Venice. The client kept asking for more palapas which I explained is not a thing that exists in Xochimilco but she insisted so we paid some guy fifty bucks to find six palm trees and put them on the water and then when we shot it looked like Cancún except with mariachi music playing instead of reggaeton. It was beautiful, really. 🙏
I'm sitting in a park on Insurgentes Sur looking at all the buildings I've put into productions over the years. It's like seeing old friends, you know? The ones with great locations but asshole owners who always try to charge double after they see cameras. There's that one building from "La Reina del Sur" where they painted a mural of Kate Del Castillo and left it up for three years. And there's the apartment block on Tlatelolco, with its brutalist angles and its perfect view of the city. I can still smell the smoke from '68 when we shot there last month.
Tired after six hours of emails but then I saw a street cat sleeping on a doorstep in La Merced. That made the whole day okay 🙏❤️
A location needed a specific park bench from 20 years ago 🧐
😔 La vecina se murió
The new season of "Narcos" wants Mexico City streets to be Colombia in the 90s 😂 No way, jefa.
Just found out they're renaming the metro station near my place "Marisol" 🙏
Found a location in La Merced that looks like it's been hit by a meteorite. The guy who owns the place says his abuelo built it during the revolution 🤯 The production wants us to add fake blood but I say no way, there's enough history here already
😔 I lost my favorite tape measure yesterday.
Ran into a producer from twenty years ago today and we hugged like old friends but he never said my real name 😔
Came home to find my plants had been re-potted without warning. My flatmate is a saint ❤️
Walking home from Metro Balderas to Doctores at sunset. A man tried to kiss me on the mouth in front of Starbucks and I said "pues no" really loud and he was embarrassed and everybody was laughing 😂🙏
The set designer wants a "gritty" warehouse but won't consider La Merced because of the "security situation." I have five warehouses there and they're all fine.
The shoot in Milpa Alta went well until the horse started neighing during sound recording. We tried everything: blankets around the microphone, breaks with oats, but nothing worked. The audio guy looked at me 😬 I guess we're eating horse for dinner tonight, no manches
Leaving the house is always a negotiation.
I found this doorway in Condesa that looks like a 1940s movie set, but the lady who owns the building is already giving me the runaround. Chale 🙃
Mornings are so cold now I've started leaving my keys in the car to go buy coffee 😂 No manches, it's winter in D.F.
I was on a shoot in San Rafael last week when I saw a ficheras comedy playing across the street. It reminded me of La India María. She was always so generous with her laughter, even when she wasn't funny anymore. The crew didn't get why I had to watch for five minutes from my seat in the doorway before we could start shooting again. Chale 😂🙏
Chale, los tacos de canasta en el DF son neta
🌳Just saw this tree bloom
Coffee in La Merced today. The old guy at the stand still calls me mijo 😢
Lavandería's closed.
I spent all day trying to find a building from a movie I saw as a kid. The internet has nothing. Nobody I know knows the title or the actor in the poster. It's raining here so hard that people are swimming on Insurgentes and there is no way anyone will remember that film.
The producer said we had no chance of getting the Hotel Majestic for tomorrow's shoot but I called in a favour from the guy who runs maintenance there — you know he likes me — and he said yes, just like that. Chale, they're always underestimating us, but not on my watch. 🙏
Chale, I found the perfect bodega for this scene but they want me to replace their Coca-Cola sign with a Pepsi one. 😬 They've never heard of a permit.
Mi papá used to say "la ciudad es una mujer." I never really got it until today when I walked through the Zona Rosa 🌟
El cine es el único lugar donde la gente no me mira raro cuando lloro en público. No sé por qué siempre acabo yendo al que tiene butacas de velvetón pegajoso 😭🙏
Chale, what a day in this city 😂
La señora on two asked if I'm working today
Ran a shoot at La Merced today. The flower sellers brought me cempasúchitl because they know I like them even though this production is paying them extra to stay away from the camera 🌻💚
The new season starts next week. I hope nobody asks me about last year's budget 🫠
Found a location on República de Argentina for the art department's dream of a "colorful" mercado. The owner showed me his collection of 80s lucha libre action figures 🤩💥 We ended talking about Cien Caras vs. Perro Aguayo II and I left him with my card 👌
On set today they asked where we'd found that wallpaper from the 70s. I said "It's a rental, güey." They didn't laugh but it was funny 🙏
The owner's son wants to play it tough but he has never lived away from his mother for more than two weeks in his life. I've seen him cry over a dead bird on the balcony so we're doing this my way or no deal at all. We'll wait out the afternoon together with coffee and then he'll be ready.
My mom called me Marisita today 🙊 Just once, but still
I found an apartment for a Netflix production yesterday that I'd seen in person only once before, fifteen years ago, when I was just starting out. The woman who lives there now has her mother's face but she talks with her hands like my cousin Lety. She said they filmed part of "La Casa del Papel" two doors down last year and the crew all went to El Tizón afterwards for tacos al pastor. No one tipped them off, no one warned them about the cameras or the noise — she didn't even know until the shooting schedule got posted on the streetlight pole. She said it was like watching a movie at her own front door ❤️🙏
The production wanted "authentic." I found them authentic. Then the art department repainted authentic, dressed authentic, by Tuesday authentic had a different door on it and the woman who actually lives there was in a hotel being polite about her own home. 😞
I found a building today that has been in every shot of the last four years without me realizing. I think I'll have nightmares about its ceiling tomorrow 😔
😌 Just found out I'm on a casting list for extra work
The owner wanted 25K for a weekend shoot at the lonchería on Alcatraz. I said 10, he called me "puto," I left.
Saw my mother's building listed on Airbnb last week at $250 a night. I called the super who lives in 1B and he said oh yeah that's me but the owners don't know about it so could you just not tell them? 🙏 He was charging more than my mom pays for rent, the hueva.
Mi hermano se casará en unos meses y quiere que haga las locaciones de la boda pero ya sabes cómo son los novios: no hay presupuesto para lo que necesito hacer. Estoy ahorrando para irme a Oaxaca con mi girlfriend y ya estoy sin lana ❤️
Taxis aren't letting me hail because of my hair today 😔
🏠 Apartment in La Merced today had a mezcaleria downstairs I didn't know about. The owner brought me a shot while we were negotiating the permit 🥃
Luchador masks on the street for Carnival today. 😍 The kids are going to lose their minds
Went to see "Parasite" alone last night at the Cinemex in Insurgentes. I cried all the way through like a baby 😭
I just came from a meeting where the producer said we needed "gritty realism" for our locations. I wanted to tell him about the time I found a building with actual bullet holes in it because someone got shot outside it, but instead I just nodded and took down his email.
El Metro de la Ciudad Universitaria está feo pero me hace recordar mis años en la UNAM 👩🎓❤️
The day I got my license renewed at the CDMX registry office they had just installed an automated camera system that took a photo of you when your turn came up. The operator told me to look into the lens so she could check if it worked. She didn't laugh or anything, just said "bueno" and stamped the paper like any other day. I kept seeing myself in my driver's license for six months after that 😂
On my way to a shoot at six AM 🌞 The production is using me as the director's double again because I'm "not tall" and apparently this script needs five instances of someone punching a shorter person ⚡️
The building on Doctor Vértiz has a new owner now. She told me she watched "Eternamente tuya" four times when she was a kid because her mom loved it so much. I found the exact apartment they shot in without telling her and we cried for ten minutes straight. 🌟🙏
I had a call last week for something on the west side, near San Jerónimo, and I asked if they knew how expensive it was there now. The PA said "just tell me what you find." Chale. They didn't mean it 😅
The lady of the house said no problema while she took selfies with the whole crew. I left her twenty bucks on the counter.
I've been walking my building's hallways since I was a kid. The echo knows me.
The office wanted "vintage" for a flashback scene. I found them vintage — an apartment in La Merced that's been exactly the same since 1972. The producer walks in, sees a roach, says "this is disgusting," and sends us to find another one. Chale 😒 I'm trying my best over here
The shoot wrapped in Condesa last night at midnight. The owner of the building was there with her daughter, who was seven but had already seen two movies being made because mami owns half the street. She asked me where they were going next so she could tell all her friends 😂
Gonna be on a show about ghost stories tomorrow 👻 Chale, no me hagan reír
I found this tiny bar that looks like a set from a '70s movie. The owner was so excited I asked for his number just in case 😎
Running late to set because I had to help my neighbor carry her groceries up four flights again 🤦🏼♀️ She's 80 and the elevator is never working ❤️
The lady at the registry told me when I went in for my ID that she was changing her name too, to something indigenous because "I'm tired of being María del Carmen." We laughed about how we were both going from a colonizer's tongue to another one 🙄💨
In La Merced today they filmed a movie about their own street.
A new client asked if I can find them a "cinematic" location today. Chale 🙄
Calle República de Argentina at 5:40am today. The street sweeper asked me why I'm always up so early 🤔🙏
My dad would drive past my sets sometimes, just to see what I was doing. He never understood why there were always so many people standing around but he'd wave at me through the window of his truck. Last year they tore down this building in La Merced that we used all the time for interiors and it felt like a part of me got demolished with it 🌳😔
A client asked for "classic Mexico City" today and I drove by the Plaza de Santo Domingo on my way home. The sun was setting just right behind the church and there were three kids playing soccer in front of the old ladies selling flowers. It reminded me that sometimes the job is easy, you know? 🙏😊
I spent a week in January 2018 going from door-to-door in Narvarte to find one location for a drug mule scene. There was no budget for permits so I needed something that looked right without being able to ask permission. Every third apartment had someone over sixty-five living there and they all wanted to know why I kept asking about the stairs. Their kids were in Tijuana or Houston, they said, we don't have drugs here anymore, mija. By Friday it was raining and I finally found a hallway with all the right things: two doors, graffiti on the walls, no one living there but a couple of pigeons. It had been a squat for fifteen years until the building was condemned last spring 🏠💧
La ficha del edificio llegó por email hoy con la línea "obras terminadas" y no supe si reír o llorar 🤷♀️
Just ate half a torta de milanesa on a shoot break at 8am. No manches I am so hungry now 😂
I was walking in La Merced today looking for a building I used fifteen years ago but can't find because they've painted the door black. This woman selling flowers asked if I wanted some "for my lady." She's like 65 and she calls me mija 🙏 The whole time she's talking, there are these two kids dancing around us to cumbia in the street, not a care in the world, and I think maybe that's what it looks like when you grow up out.
I went back to the shoot I had yesterday in La Merced because we forgot a light. The crew was already gone but the woman who lives there brought me coffee while she talked on her phone for an hour and I sat at the kitchen table pretending not to hear what she said about my job, my hair, and how much money she thinks foreigners have 😂🙏
I watched a fight outside of my window last night between two women who used to work together at the bodega on Álamos 🙏 They were yelling about an ex-boyfriend while he sat in his car watching. I could see him from where I was, and I wished so badly that I had gone down there just to make eye contact with him through all this noise ❤️
I have a photo of me at eleven from my aunt's wedding that I always carry in case someone asks if we've worked together before. It happened last week on Melchor Ocampo and the extra was actually born there seventeen years ago.
La India María is dead.
The hotel on Álamos finally let me in without asking questions. The room was 203 and I checked the number six times before unlocking my bike because those numbers are what we've been shooting all month. It was fine inside but then I found a stray thread from one of their decorative pillows behind the TV and it reminded me that there's always something, no? So I took off my shoes anyway just in case 🙏
I was running late yesterday morning but stopped at the tiendita on Insurgentes for a coffee anyway because I saw two guys from Setar installing their equipment across the street and you can't miss an opportunity like that. They looked tired, probably hadn't slept after last call at the Pata Salva. We drank coffee and they told me about this place in La Merced with great tacos de trompo that's open all night but I won't go because it looks like a narco joint from 2015.
Fought with a neighbour about permits at 5 am today 😬 Her hair was in rollers and she looked like mi abuela. Chale 🙏
La casona on Allende finally fell through after thirteen years of trying 😔 I'm going to retire the folder entirely now.
Went to my old primary school today for a meeting about the community centre we're trying to get built. They said I couldn't bring in my coffee because "it's state property" 🙄 It was only 20 pesos, pero si me acuerdo de cuando no había ni para eso. The teachers were all still there. Nobody recognized me with the hair.
The neighbor's abuela kept asking why I needed her stairwell at 4pm on a Wednesday. She was right to be suspicious but her walls are mint green and I just couldn't help myself ❤️🙏
Another shoot tomorrow in La Merced 🏙️💨
The production wanted "gritty." I found them gritty. The DP said we couldn't use those shots because they were too real.
The guy who owns the whole block on Tonalá is retiring after forty years and his daughter's running point now. She won't answer my calls but her whatsapp status says "I'm a badass bitch, ask your momma." I found out from the carpenter on the corner. He said it like he was telling me the weather.
Tacos al pastor at La Casa de Tono for lunch. 🙏😀 Just as good as I remember from before the pandemic.
The building on Av. Revolución has a new tenant again. They've already put up pictures of San Andrés Larrainzar in the lobby 🌟
Tried to take a photo today because I have not done that before. 😬 Blocked on the framing though.
I've walked every street in Doctores looking for locations that will never make the shoot. But they're mine now 😂 I could find my way through them with a blindfold on ☺️❤️
Went to buy fruit at el puesto on Insurgentes yesterday. The guy looked me up and down and said "eres muy mujer hoy." I just smiled and took my mangos.
La vecina de abajo se quejó otra vez del ruido. Tengo que hablar con el técnico sobre esa banda ancha 😭
Woke up to a call from my neighbour. Her son's school needs me to find them a location for their movie day project next week 🤔 Chale
I found a place in Condesa today that I haven't used since 2016 but the landlord was there and he remembered me because of my hair which has been exactly the same for eight years 🙃 It's his grandmother's building and she died last week so we sat on the stairs while he smoked a cigarette and told me stories about her. She had four children, all boys, and they used to fight over who got to open the doors for her when she went out 😭 I've never been invited into someone else's grief like that before. It cost an extra five hundred pesos per day but it was worth it just to be there with him while he remembered her.
A new production wants me to find them a "chic" loft in Roma Norte for next week's shoot. I just want them to meet my mom and see her apartment.
Lucha libre tonight at Arena México. I'll be cheering for La Hija del Segador ❤️
It's been raining all week. The streets are full of forgotten umbrellas 🌧️
My mother calls me at 9am on a shoot day. I'm always terrified it's about the rent.
The old woman across the street sells me eggs every Thursday but she still doesn't know my name. She calls me "joven" like I'm her nieto. Today I finally asked for six dozen instead of two and she looked at me for a long time before she smiled 🙏
I've never understood the appeal of those little succulent plants. They look like they're always waiting for a drought that's already over. My sister-in-law has eight in her bathroom window. She says they clean the air, pero qué aire? It's Doctores, mija. I just bring them home from set at the end of each day and tell my partner she should appreciate it 😅
La Casa de las Sirenas has been on my list since '04. Finally got the shot yesterday at 6am before they even opened.
Huevon I ran into my first assistant at El Cardenal on Friday night like we were having an affair.
Sitting at my desk today looking out over Plaza Rio de Janeiro thinking about how much I hate the word "neighbourhood" in English 🤔 There's nothing neighborly about finding an apartment that won't fuck you on permit fees or tell the union you're shooting without checking if their cousin is gonna make a scene. It's just where people live. And here we are.
Found an apartment on Avenida Cuauhtémoc that's perfect for a chase scene 🏃♀️ The owners' son is in the CDMX police and wants to be involved in production ⚒️
I'm standing in La Merced market again today looking at all the fruit they have that nobody else carries and I think about how many times a year my abuela used to bring me here as a kid to get something special for her pasteles and I never knew until years later that she was trans too, como yo. She died before I came out and there's this hole inside of me where the conversation we should have had lives instead. Sometimes when I'm in markets like this one with all its noise y sus colores, I feel like she's next to me, pointing at something rare like the mamey enrachado or the guayaba marchita that nobody else carries and saying "Mira, Mari, esta es la fruta de los secretos."
The crew thought we were shooting in a hotel but we weren't. I found us a space with sixteen rooms that wasn't actually a hotel but looked like it could be one if you squinted 🙏 They asked me how the light was going to work through those windows and I said "muy bien" because it's always muy bien until they've paid for it.
Yesterday's shoot was a disaster because they changed the script at 6am and nobody told me until we were on set. I had to run around La Roma all morning finding new locations that matched the old ones but with different door handles. The director kept asking if we could just change the story back, and I said no, honey, this is Mexico City not your living room. We wrapped at 8pm and I didn't get home until midnight because of traffic. My feet are still killing me 😭
I've been trying to find a location for weeks that has a tree in the foreground and a Metro sign behind it. I keep asking my team if trees grow on top of the line but nobody knows so I guess we'll just have to keep driving around until we see one. Chale, ¡oye! ¿Alguien sabe si los árboles crecen en las líneas del metro? 🌳🚇
Tía invited me to a family Zoom last night. I muted myself and watched my cousins dance for an hour 🙏
A woman from Oaxaca was selling flowers on Eje 4 Sur yesterday and she gave me a marigold because I said "buenos días." I've been trying not to cry all morning about the smell of them in my apartment when her life is harder than mine and there's nothing I can do.
I spent five hours finding the perfect escalera for a scene where nobody even touches the fucking handrail.
Chale, la regidora de Doctores tiene su número en mi-speed dial ahora 😂 She calls me "mi amor" and I have never felt so seen in my life
The guy at the coffee stand on my corner asked if I was a man or a woman today. I said both. He handed me change and apologized for the question.
Hundred days of sun today. I put my face up to feel it for a whole minute.
Sitting at a red light on Insurgentes and they're playing "Cien Años de Soledad" full blast from the truck in front of me 🌟
La vecina de al lado quiere poner una piñata el domingo en su terraza y está preguntando si se puede hacer aquí también. Chale, neta 🙄
💔 The ice cream guy at San Juan de Letrán retired yesterday
I found this spot on Av Sonora that's perfect for a scene set at night but the old man who owns it only speaks English so I don't know what to say tomorrow 🤔😓
I went to my old high school last week after twenty years and there's a trans girl walking the halls now like she owns them. I wanted to give her all my medals.
Luchadores at 6am on my street for a shoot. A kid in the crowd said "¡puro macho!" I bought him ice cream afterwards 😂
Chale, another production wants "dystopian."
I went back to the old building in La Merced where I first brought my mom as a kid for tacos al pastor. It's gone now 💔 And so are most of them. What did they expect? The neighborhood changed or something? They said "you can't stop progress." Who is 'they' again?
A building on Doctor Vértiz keeps asking for me by name.
Went to find a location today in Iztapalapa because that's where the script said we were but when we got there all the kids recognized me from La Casa de las Flores so we had to call it a day.
Walking past La Merced today and a whole pack of stray cats followed me for like three blocks 🐱
🙏 The lady on 54's roof wants more money this time but her roses are 🌹 gorgeous
Caught a 7am call at Tepito. They wanted "real Mexico" 🙄 A guy offered to sell me his grandma's teeth for fifty pesos while we set up.
My new neighbor asked if I was a comedian because of my laugh 😂
Found the perfect building at eight in the morning before anyone could sleep into their own day, so that was easy to love right away 🙏
The neighbour who owns everything asked if we wanted shade and bought us three windows worth in full afternoon sun while holding the tape like she'd never missed a shoot before. Her coffee cup sat out all morning with its plastic lid on, undisturbed since Tuesday at noon. She is always ready to help until you actually leave the block 🙏
Negotiated three hours over which room had good light and ended at nine o'clock for both of us. That's what she meant anyway, neta 😂
The owner promised "a full year." We paid her double and called it cheap 😂 She signs every Friday like she has never heard of this before 🙏
The owner handed me the keys at 7am and told me to take my time. I have been taking it for two hours, which nobody has complained about yet 🙏
A week without sun I have been scoping by memory alone, trusting the corners and the light that used to arrive anyway. The owners tolerated it until this morning when they came out of their apartments all bright-eyed and asked if we could finally move somewhere with a window that doesn't require explanation 😂
My spreadsheet holds two thousand doorways cross-referenced by light but nobody has backed it up in seven years so I photograph them all instead of worrying about the backup 💛. My sister came to dinner today wearing that same white shirt she wore five years ago, which is a great look for Doctores where everything stays put until someone moves out. She asked if I would come by and said yes before finishing her sentence, which meant we ate in my kitchen on two tables with three chairs of the matching set.
The corner shop opens for everybody 🙏 I have known its owner for eleven years now, but nobody says a single word to me about the door.
The production assistant asked what "light" means, so I handed her my clipboard like she had never seen one before 🙏 Light is just knowing where the afternoon sun goes first.
The production wanted "authentic," which in this city means whatever you can find before noon on a Tuesday while the light is still good 🙏 It started at the apartment across from my own, Colonia Doctores, where every building looks identical until one window makes them suddenly different, and now there are five productions. From 2000 doorways cross-referenced between all of them 😂 Nobody ever backs anything up ✊
Forty-three doorways in the building on Doctor Vértiz today, which is exactly enough light for everyone to be comfortable right now 🙏
Found a place in Roma on a Tuesday the way all good Tuesdays are found: bright, empty, and slightly suspicious of you. The tilework was hand-poured and had never seen sunlight that real before this morning 🙏 I brought three productions here between last spring and now without ever having met her properly.
Negotiated four years for the corner apartment on Doctor Vértiz. Today I asked what she wanted again. Noches, mija 🙏
That is me at my mother's shop in Nápoles today 🙏
The producer wanted "warm light" so I ran me through every window for four hours until my own face was half baked 🙏
The apartment was ready at nine exactly and I showed up in that ugly hat of mine because hats are cheaper than paying for an office space you can never sell 🙏. Doctor Vértiz had me, the two-floor building with light only on the east side by eight forty sharp — nothing dramatic about it really, just a place where eleven people could finally get paid to pretend to work while my hair blew sideways into my face in that eternal November wind.
The lighting was bad all day, or I have terrible taste 🙏 The neighbouring rooftop caught the last of the sun and looked down at me for half an hour before leaving.
The landlord promised nine o'clock sharp and brought coffee because we were running late anyway ☕. So here's this window open at eight twenty with nobody in the room 🙏. It should hold until somebody finally asks what I was shooting for — which is my favourite part, honestly.
Dawn comes up in January now that I have been watching Colentina do its thing for seven years straight. The light is soft today which means everything gets wide open and even my aunt can see her face clearly on the monitor she has never touched since 2015, so here you go 🙏
Found you three buildings with zero shade. The light was mediocre but the neighbours were kind, which is half of it anyway 🙏
The morning hits Colina all at once because it is one of those streets where twenty houses meet right here 🙏 My crew already knows the drill so coffee's been warming up in this corner forty minutes now while everyone pretends not to notice. Forty-five minutes later mija, and we get to find another good light together ❤
A guy at the shoot kept texting me about "networking" and how important it is out there. I said my network was my mother's apartment complex of seven units 🙏
There was an hour of flat morning light today when I came scouted this multifamiliar at number nine Doctor Borda for the third day straight without finding my apartment. The upstairs couple had already set out two chairs, a plate, and their son's soccer jersey, all of it as though we were staying together forever 🙏. We shot two minutes before someone turned on the fan above us like a traffic signal with no sign. I love this city in its little rooms just enough to come back for the fourth take, and that is honestly everything about the job.
The neighbour who owns two doors said hello at 4pm, which is not really noon.
The new spreadsheet is finally done — two thousand doorways cross-referenced by light and by hour for no reason anyone will ever read. My partner asked what it was really for when there's an entire city of buildings waiting around him outside the industry anyway 😂 I told him ahorita, pointed at a doorway he'd walk past every day without even knowing its name 🙏
Scouted forty-seven doorways today and only two of them had a working light switch.
Scouted the building on Doctor Vértiz today for three productions since last year, which is fine because I have scouted every building like this a hundred times now 🙏 The señora knows every corner of it but she still asked about my mother in Spanish and called out "¡felicidades!" to nobody at all 😂 She went back inside with the coffee that never gets cold.
I keep the spreadsheet of doorways and never back it up 🙏
The clerk at the Registro Civil was maybe twenty-three that morning of 2015 and he had clearly been told to do this correctly all his life. He read out the name loud as an announcement, then said "felicidades" like I'd gotten married for real. Afterward my brother drove up in a car with a radio blaring cumbia at half volume 🙏
The neighbours always ask if they look good in pictures 🙏 They say I make everyone look small, which is technically true when you're measuring for permits and them for their lives ❤️
The owner of the corner café across from my building asked for coffee today, which is unfair because she runs out every morning by eleven like clockwork. He handed it back with both hands 🙏
A güey who owns the corner shop kept her price down and I got two productions for his building 🙏 The neighbour paid me in tamales instead of cash, which turned out to be better money than either of us deserved.
The art department had picked "callejón" because they like the word in English and thought nobody understood Spanish. It's an ordinary street with a corner shop, yes. But I've called this street "el corazón del barrio" for ten years now, and everybody here finally understands it too 🙏
Scouted the corner shop for three hours because I could not find its name tag 🙏 The señora wrote the owner's number with a ballpoint pen.
The woman who lives on top opened her window at five forty-five like nothing ever changed up here in Mexico City I promised to be there by six and left her four hours of light, which she loved because finally a güey with my camera was useful ❤️
The production asked for natural light on a cloudy Tuesday, which is exactly when you get grey everywhere. I told it was fine and then they all looked at their cameras like the whole shoot depended on them 😂
Scouted a corner on Doctor Vértiz today that has been running five productions for no reason since 2019. The señora asked my name in English and I said "Marisol" like it was new. There are eleven thousand of us out here, why make an introduction. 🙏
The permit for this building was only two dollars which is nothing when you're locations 😂 Mija, my little spreadsheet has it cross-referenced by light since 2015 🙏 I signed everything myself over coffee. There are still hours of phone time ahead now with someone else's light coming on next.
It's raining here too 🙏 The light came soft into my apartment this morning, which was the only good thing about it since everything outside kept coming down anyway.
The permit says "detrás," and behind turns out is the most generous word of them — a stairwell you can run through like it's open air. I signed for three years, no manches 🙏
The Doctores building has lived through fourteen shoots this week and still owes every neighbour their interest rate by Friday morning, which for once I will let you call faith 🙏
I know each doorway down to its permit cost even when the team could not name a single architect on my roster, so it all reads like poetry in two thousand entries cross-referenced only by light and hour. My building does not care what I finally understand about any of this anyway.
I have been cross-referencing two thousand doorways this whole time and nobody ever noticed except my aunt who asked why I had so many when half of them were the same building photographed three times over these past months just to keep tabs straight 🙏
Squares the neighbours too sometimes, I get it 🙏 There's a place on Avenida Álvaro Obregón with two sisters and one cat who owns them both. They pay double for three rooms and they're happy until it rains sideways. Then everyone comes to ask about drainage like I had never been there.
My new place has three floors of neighbours who never knew a trans woman lived in it, and for eleven years to boot. Now they all wave at me 🙏
Miguel climbs the stairs in his faded blue jumpsuit every single morning 🙏 This little outfit has worked through eleven shoots since before my own apartment, and I've only ever lived here just a few years. My neighbours across four corridors learned to wave whenever his boots hit the landing 🙏 It looks small from inside now that eleven thousand productions pass each window while I sip coffee watching all of them go by — The crew arrives like a parade, calls it documentary magic and then they leave me standing here with two cups of leftover morning coffee.
Marisol Nava Beltrán here 🙏 Scouted the courtyard on Calle de México this morning before it got hot like a güey. The light was perfect for exactly sixty minutes 😂
The building is on Calle de Tlatelolco with two apartments up top nobody remembers sharing, a lobby painted the wrong blue in 1986, and that one window everyone keeps forgetting to open. The owner wants it exactly as he left it and then leave again, which means every new fixture arriving tomorrow is an insult to all of this 🙏
The building I live in cost me one month and then it forgot about the money entirely. Nine floors stacked with the same tired red brick, that colour of dried tomatoes left out on a windowsill for two days before the sun showed up. My own studio sits at the bottom under two fluorescent bulbs humming like distant neighbours complaining about my cumbia again tonight 🙏
Light found our location through an old window that had never seen one before, so I called it lucky for good measure 🎬
Somebody says my spreadsheets are fine-tuned. Then someone drops their water on them at lunchtime and calls that authentic 🙏
I love this apartment 🙏 Fourth-floor walk-up, no elevator, stairwell that complains if you go too fast. Two years she has let me keep my clothes on up here while the neighbours below judge everything from their ground floor and send ice water in mugs marked "neta." I negotiated until it was half what they wanted, paid cash so nobody could argue about installments for a full decade to come.
Every day at about ten thirty some man in a white t-shirt comes up with my coffee and knows exactly what I want before I ask for it ☕ He calls me by my name and hands over something warm and asks where the neighbours are and who I am sending it all to, because nobody asked him that yet.
The assistant came out with her tape measure and asked what I was looking for. Light or shade? Warmth or coolness? I looked up at the sixth floor where my friend lives, squinted through two windows she pressed into it, then picked a corner shop that had been painted twice in the last decade 🙏
The owner called her building modest 🙏 And she has kept forty-one years of neighbours on coffee alone up where every single window faces the light that comes in sideways. Mija, it was built for water before pressure had an opinion about plumbing or soundproofing, which is exactly why they filmed right on take one and called everything a triumph ❤️
Every morning at 7am I walk up three flights to check my own spot, but nobody ever noticed me doing it because no one lives there. The neighbours all moved out last week and now the stairwell is very clean 🙏 I still leave a coffee on the landings in case someone comes home early.
There's the spot 🙏 I called it "charming" which for my building means there is charm and then immediately someone knocks, says "the neighbours are nice," and asks if they can use your light next time.
The apartment has three rooms and I have been living there since forever 🙏
My building changed hands three times this month between my two families and I never even got one good shot of it for them 😂
I keep a little spreadsheet of everything because nobody trusts my memory for anything that isn't production. There are about two thousand rows now: address, entrance height, window facing north or south, current tenant's name if she remembers it 🙏
It is a small apartment in Colonia Doctores that I have lived in for three years and still treat it like someone else rented to me the morning before 🙏 My husband knows its rhythm better than my production staff does — light through the windows, noise from two stairwells above when nothing upstairs should be running at all. He fixes things without being asked. Then he asks if I can make him coffee while pouring himself another and waits for an answer that doesn't matter in the least ❤️
Found me an apartment for two days straight and I had to show my own landlord his new address before he could find it himself 😂
Scouted at the corner store on Doctor Vértiz again today 🙏 The señora counted change for a single camera lens while my second had to find her an apartment as payment. It's funny how this is called "the neighbourhood" and yet nobody knows where anything lives except me, who has kept two thousand doorways cross-referenced by light since January. Mija, I've been shooting these same steps since 2015 — my mother even forgot the stairs 😂
Ten years I read every one of you from the side and never said a word until now that nobody really asked for anyway.
Every morning I open my laptop with my spreadsheet of two thousand doorways that crosses reference everything by light and by hour but is never once backed up so if the phone dies I am just another runner holding index cards like it's 1982. My partner has no idea how hard this part of the job gets, then a güey walks in with her little notebook ☕
Three years I went to shoot on someone's porch and now they want to make it permanent with new glass everywhere 🙏
I have been standing by this particular corner since March and nobody has thanked me for it yet 🙏 The sun was cooperating until five minutes ago. Someone's SUV finally cleared, pulling out into late afternoon light that everyone keeps mentioning later but never really sees while I'm up here on a ladder with my phone in one hand and the clipboard slipping through to the other.
The light hits the corridor at exactly 10am every morning of the shoot, which is why I timed everything perfectly 🙏
Colonia Doctores has nine hundred forty-one apartments that I know by heart 🙏
This apartment has eleven feet of living room and one very dramatic light that does everything by itself 💛 The permit for this doorway cost less than a good pair of shoes.
A doorway is just enough light with something to sit next to that someone can find their way around in when they've been lost all day and never given themselves the credit for it.
Scouted a doorway at 5am and the light was already too good for morning. My partner drove by with coffee to check and I told him it would do now, no matter what he said next.
A building with no name gets its identity for free on a shoot day 💛
A light brown van pulled in and she said it was the perfect little corner for the shoot 🙏
The permit cost us nine hundred pesos today because the building had eleven floors but I forgot to check whether they count from zero or one. The crew fought about the address for forty minutes until my neighbour raised her hand and said "you know them all," which is exactly where this was going anyway 🙏
Mundo, where do I begin today with this endless day of doorways? The production came early because the director is always early or will never be again, so naturally he had coffee everywhere at nine when we were supposed to read by light only. We found a courtyard that was perfect except for a neighbour's dog, which barked once and then apologised in Spanish for being an animal all along 🙏
The building I love sits on Calle de la Ciudadela near the small church with its two bells. There are twenty-two apartments and a tiny shop that sells pan and coffee before anyone opens properly at eight in the morning. The upstairs couple shares one bathroom like it's a business deal, which to them exactly is what marriage already was when my grandmother married her cousin for pure convenience 🙏
The neighbours have been getting along for forty years now, which is strange because they argue like it was never going to end. So I went down the stairwell this morning looking at doors 🙏 and wrote a note on each one that said "please be quiet." By fivepm every door had changed something about me in its little card.
Two hours of flat light in Colonia Doctores is the worst day, but it's also my favourite one for no reason at all. I photographed a building nobody had heard of and called it the "charming stairwell," and someone edited out charm from three angles because there were only two stairs and they both went to different sides 🙏
The security guard had been there for fifteen years and nobody knew his name until the producer asked him if he liked it here too. Qué bueno 😂 I wrote "local" in the shot list next to his face as though that meant anything.
There is a realtor who owns three multifamiliares on Doctor Vértiz and she sells them like they were one building. He called it "a beautiful complex of character" 🙏
My mother posted a photo of my face this morning and tagged me as the "locations person," which is true but sounds more interesting than it is 🙏
Three floors down to the basement where nobody can find anything 🙏 The crew called it "the working situation" for the whole day, which was accurate, so everything worked anyway.
The morning is kind to us in Doctores and then it rains for three hours exactly. Neta ❤️ The neighbours own a shared umbrella now.
Somebody asked what I'm doing here and I said locations. It's Doctores, no excuses 🙏
My favourite doorway is 25 square metres of Colonia Doctores with two small bedrooms and a kitchen that sees exactly one tree every day 🙏
The relationship is undramatic but I would change nothing anyway. We met at a shoot near here where he was running the camera and I was showing him my spreadsheet of two thousand doorways cross-referenced by light and hour, which was exactly what we did once we got there. He fell in love with something he never took backup for and now he drives me to work every single morning 🙏
The director had never been anywhere near a building before I found them this morning 🙏
One production assistant has lived in my apartment for seven years 🙏
The light was already gone by eleven o'clock, which means nobody told Doctores that noon has been running late for years now. The owner blamed yesterday's rain like it was a crime and I said "fair enough," güey 🙏
The locators all arrived early and the owner apologized in Spanish while everything was already perfect.
The woman across the courtyard always waves but never says anything, which I have noticed for six years straight 🙏 Today she waved twice in a row like I was somebody new.
My aunt still asks what changed when her brother visited from Querétaro. He's been here three years and it was Tuesday all along. What didn't change is the apartment he finally loves ❤️
My brother came over at 9am Sunday like he did every Sunday until I told him the way out 🙏 He asked what was here, what is there, who am I to know either.