You show up to Mexico City.
The whole family and friends back home warned you about your trip.
They think you're bat shit insane.
Crazy!
To travel to the land of narcos?!
Where people get disappeared for no reason?!?!
People getting whacked EVERY single MINUTE?!?!?!?!
And you tell them "no, no, it's fine, that's all BS you see on the media. Mexico is safe bro!"
Then you finally arrive to Mexico.
With phone in hand, you are ready to prove them wrong.
Show them the REAL Mexico where nothing dangerous happens.
But, given you had a long flight, you're a bit hungry.
So you walk into the first restaurant you see.
Ready to order those tacos and visit the baño when the food makes you shit your insides out.
Upon walking in though, you come across a Great Horror.
You can't believe your eyes.
The warnings of your family and friends screaming in your head.
As you realize they were RIGHT all along!!!!!
With this sight before you.
A bagged body of the latest victim of the cartels.
Hanging from the FUCKING ceiling of a restaurant!
You sprint the fuck out of there.
Straight back to the airport.
Where a plane is waiting for you to take you out of this raging shithole and back to the safety prosperity of
....
.......
.............
*checks notes*
Gary, Indiana
The Bagged Bodies of Mexico City
While the scenario above definitely happened at some point to some poor soul of Gary, Indiana, it should also be said that such bagged bodies do exist in the country.
OK, OK, OK. They're not actual bagged bodies.
But "decorations" if you wish to call them that which you'll find every year close to Day of the Dead and Halloween time.
Some "decoration" that looks like a bagged body.
It's something that gringos might notice about life here not just in Mexico City but even other parts of the country like you can see here.
Of course, let's not pretend that every Mexican likes these "decorations" either.
As you can see here, there was some mini outrage in the Mexico City "favelas" known as Cuautepec where they put some bagged body "decoration" in one of the cablebus stations.
I actually went to that cablebus stations oon after that went viral and didn't see it though but there were plenty of people on social media pissed about it.
I'm guessing they took it down soon after it went viral.
For obvious reasons, no shortage of Mexicans -- even in the barrio -- find it distasteful for such "decorations" to be used.
If I had to guess, it probably has something to do with insensitivity about all the innocent people killed or disappeared in the country and shit.
Just a guess.
Despite that though, I've seen no shortage of these bagged body "decorations" in Mexico City and also the Mexican city of Pachuca whenever the holidays of Day of the Dead and Halloween come around the corner.
Both days being fairly close to each other but one would say this is more of a Halloween decoration from what I've been told.
Let's get to some of the documented cases anyhow that I have seen of this "decoration" used in Mexico City.
Day of the Dead in Cuautepec
A few months ago, I went to Cuautepec of Mexico City to see their Day of the Dead parade.
While it was a Day of the Dead parade, you also had some Halloween decorations and some vehicle where a kid was tossing out candy.
Just know that sometimes Mexicans mix up together both Day of the Dead and Halloween elements into the same event.
Anyway, while at this event, I saw one of those bagged body "decorations" that was attached to some Volkswagen beetle that you can see here.
In similar fashion, I also saw some vehicles that had what looked like to be a portrayal of people -- including Uber drivers -- being run over on top of the vehicles as you can see here.
I guess the owners of those decorations got their Uber Eats deliveries all messed up recently.
Around the same time this year in 2022, I saw the same thing in a completely different neighborhood on the opposite side of Mexico City.
The Bagged Body of Santo Domingo
Pedregal de Santo Domingo is a neighborhood of Coyoacan that I spent a year in and one of my favorite neighborhoods of Mexico City.
It's on the opposite end of Mexico City and far from Cuautepec.
And it's also a rougher neighborhood just like Cuautepec.
Anyway, around Day of the Dead season, I made sure to visit all sorts of events dedicated to the occasion and one of the trips involved visiting again Santo Domingo.
Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera on me but I saw some "bagged body decoration" and there were some people making it go viral on Facebook groups.
Something that looked like this here though I'm not sure if this was from Santo Domingo specifically.
And, while both of these moments were around Day of the Dead, sometimes these decorations last a little bit past the event itself.
Returning to the Bagged Body of Milpa Alta
Finally, we have the image I shared at the beginning of the article.
That was an image I took in the town of Santa Ana in Milpa Alta.
In some restaurant that I can't find on Google but I believe it was on Miguel Hidalgo street close to the main church in the center of the town.
Anyway, they took pretty good food and I showed up one day to order an alambre.
While there, I noticed this bagged body "decoration" hanging from the ceiling.
With an ominous message seemingly for potential customers.
Near the end of my one month in Santa Ana of Milpa Alta, they eventually took the "decoration" down and that was that.
Let's wrap this up anyhow.
Only Bad Areas?
If you are reading this, you might get the impression that these bagged body "decorations" only appear in poor or dangerous areas of Mexico City.
I wouldn't say Santa Ana was too bad though. Wasn't too dangerous. Perhaps not as wealthy as Polanco though.
While I can't say that these "decorations" never appear in places like Roma Norte, Condesa or Polanco, I can only say that I have never seen them in those areas.
Given we're talking about some areas where they got rid of street food art like you can read here, I guess it wouldn't surprise me if they don't want these "decorations" in those neighborhoods though I can't say that they are banned there.
Only that I have never seen them there.
And the only places I have seen them are in dangerous or poor areas.
Anything to Add?
Got anything to add?
I'm sure there's more to say on this subject.
For now, that's all I got anyhow on this topic.
Nothing more than this is a type of "decoration" you'll see down here from time to time during the right time of year in some parts of the country.
Personally, I don't mind it that much but I do see how some people would see it as distasteful.
If you got anything to add anyhow, drop a comment below.
And follow my Twitter here.
Thanks for reading.
Best regards,
Matt