Photos Pablo Diego
The city changes according to the lens through which we look at it. If we look at colors, specifically a crimson red, our gaze wakes up to the intense but comforting. Disturbingly far from blood red, close to the purple tones of certain Mexico City sunsets. As every year, Pantone announced its color of the year, this year 2023 the selected color was "Viva Magenta", a red with blue and pink tones.
Its origin is in the grana cochineal, a pigment that since pre-Hispanic times has been extracted from the parasitic insect of the prickly pear cactus. The also called nocheztli "prickly pear blood", has a unique carmine color that is one of the strongest and brightest of the family of natural dyes. From the moment we saw it, we thought it was one of the key colors of our city.
So we took to the streets in search of PANTONE 18-1750 with the guidance of Pablo Diego, a photographer who specializes in documenting the streets of Mexico City and who in our eyes proposes one of the most aesthetic ways of seeing the city.
What is this color of the year? The Pantone Color Institute brings together a committee of design experts who look in detail at art movements, politics, ecology and other relevant topics to propose a trend in terms of color palettes. Although Viva Magenta, marked 2023, Mexico City was already prepared for this moment years ago.
The Historic Center, at times, seems to be splashed by a glass of red wine. There are hints of crimson in pieces of the cathedral walls, umbrellas, roofs or in the adorable chapel of the Santísima Concepción, a tiny 17th century baroque temple in Tlaxcoaque square. A little further away, reddish tones can be seen in the enigmatic Moorish kiosk in Santa María la Rivera, and in a broken-down bocho in the Condesa. It always appears, sometimes in boxes, on the skirt of a woman crossing the streets or on a blouse under a rosary.
