Apologies to New Mexico, but it's the original Mexico that is the Land of Enchantment for me. I love how everything is just different enough to keep me on my toes and interested, while still being familiar enough not to be so stress inducing that I can't let my guard down and open up to what there is to see.
One thing that I see there is something I'm used to in the United States; the way that trees are treated. I became fascinated with abused, disfigured, humiliated and repurposed trees when I saw so many of them in my own country and neighborhood (see the series Martyrs 2018). In Mexico you'll find trees enduring the same treatment, or being put to similar utility, but sometimes with a twist, or taken just a bit further.
Aggressive and insensitive pruning is common in both countries, but in the U.S. I have never seen a tree trunk stripped of its bark and tattooed with hundreds of felt tip marker messages, as I did in Oaxaca City. Likewise, pruning trees into unnatural shapes and cocooning trunks and branches with Christmas tree lights are common in both countries, but in Mexico tree trunks seem to become support for legless chairs and benches much more frequently.
Urban trees are like crows in that they adapt to life in the city and find ways to survive in their situation. The difference is that they are also adapted by
humans, via disfigurement and repurposing. Often their dead remains—usually stumps—are utilized in various ways that save humans the trouble of erecting supports for signs or fences, or just about anything really. They achieve immortality by becoming the skeletal support for something else, and I've seen more inventive versions of this in Mexico. Perhaps this is because the drier climate hinders the rot and decay that would undermine such creations here.
On the other hand I've never seen, in in the United States, a street, sidewalk and restaurant all built around a big tree's trunk, as I did in Oaxaca City. It's like the tree was grandfathered into the neighborhood and thus has been incorporated into the whole shebang. In my country there might be a lot of public hand wringing, but sooner or later that tree would come down in the name of progress. So while it's tempting to say that trees in Mexico might get a bit less respect, I'm not really so sure about that.
I don't want to leave the wrong impression though; when it comes to the disrespect that trees are subject to in either country I'm more bemused than disapproving. To me this is all just more evidence of human behavior and our twisted relationship to the natural world. And it is always fascinating.