For These Women, the American Dream Is in Mexico City

Three years ago, Hannah McGrath felt lower than ever before, unemployed and staying in a relationship just to help pay Los Angeles rent. “I felt very, very lost,” she said.

Now, hundreds of miles from the country where she was born, she says she has found herself.

“For me, and for many others, Mexico City is where dreams come true,” Ms. McGrath, 35, said. “There’s nothing but possibility and potential.”

Thousands of foreign women, many of them American, have settled in Mexico City since the pandemic, seeking opportunities, an affordable place to live or wholesale reinvention. Their journeys tend to mirror Ms. McGrath’s: unhappiness, crisis, followed by a leap of faith — with a plane ticket — then personal transformation.

“It’s like a modern, hipster version of ‘Eat, Pray, Love,’” said Jonathan Kalan, an American resident of Mexico City who co-founded Unsettled, a company that offers retreats for midcareer professionals.

The central districts of Condesa and Roma in particular have become expat strongholds as never before, with English spilling from sidewalk cafes and American-style restaurants. As rents there have climbed — nearly doubling in a matter of years — some Mexicans feel they no longer belong.

Complaints first spread a few years ago in the form of stickers, plastering walls with snarky slogans like “Imagine there’s no gringos.” Then, this summer, protesters marched through Condesa, breaking windows, ransacking stores and leaving “Learn Spanish, dog” and “Gentrification is colonization!” among the graffiti and signs.

It can be difficult to assess exactly how many expats have settled in Mexico City because many come and go on lengthy tourist visas. But in one indication: In 2024, 56 percent more temporary-residency permits were issued to Americans in the city than in 2019, government data shows. While Americans still make up a tiny fraction of the capital’s foreign-resident population, government data shows they are driving a tourism boom, with women outnumbering men.

In the first seven months of this year, 3.7 million American women tourists flew to Mexico, about half a million more than men. (Mexico City was the top destination for both, after Cancún.)

Many women say they have been drawn to Mexico City by a lower cost of living than in the United States, where high rents and housing costs eat into funds that could go toward other ambitions. They also cite its safety for women compared with that of other cities in the region — another point of tension with many Mexicans.

“They feel safe here and that’s good, but it’s ironic because we Mexicanas don’t feel like it’s the safest place on the planet,” said Pamela López, a 35-year-old landscape architect, noting high rates of lethal violence against local women. Foreigners, she noted, tended to stay in one part of town.

‘Some Sort of Life Reset’

Despite notorious traffic, smog and traveler’s diarrhea, many expats find Mexico City “healing,” Mr. Kalan, the retreat entrepreneur, said.

Even before the pandemic made remote work common, “Mexico was attracting women in their 30s and 40s who were in this moment of transition,” he said, adding, “They quit their jobs, ended a relationship, were dealing with burnout.”

After the pandemic, he said, “it exploded.”

While men came and went, women tended to stick around. “Slowmads,” one arrival, Tash Doherty, called them.

Ms. Doherty, a 30-year-old Briton, was working in business analytics in New York when she visited Mexico City with other tech-worker friends in 2022. As the months went on, she became curious about the many women expats she met.

“They had found apartments, adopted dogs, started or found a way to make their careers work here,” said Ms. Doherty, who was intrigued by how many were “in some sort of life reset.”

So she followed suit, quitting her job to write a novel.

While some Mexicans resent the newcomers, many say they have benefited from their spending, including on dance classes, day trips, mezcal, produce.

“I understand the gentrification issue, but it’s good for us,” said Jorge Ayala, an organic avocado vendor at an outdoor market.

Some expat women have started businesses, too: An American runs a bustling physical therapy practice; a Canadian, a spa with saunas. A Hungarian created a line of all-natural sex products; and a Scottish woman opened a bagel shop.

Anna-Rose Lim, 33, arrived from her native London feeling “emotionally drained” after teaching during the coronavirus pandemic. In Mexico, she said, she saw “so many friends opening businesses or doing interesting things”

Ms. Lim added: “I thought to myself, Well, they’ve taken that leap — why not I?”

Last year, she opened Amorcita, an artisanal gelato shop and wine bar in Roma named after her cat.

“Anyone can start anything here,” said Charles Solomon, 36, who moved from Philadelphia to teach at an international school. “All you have to do is a little leg work, you create a good Instagram page. Things just take off.”

Expats also owe their success to financial factors, many women say: Dollars, euros and pounds go further, and Mexico City has lower start-up costs than many cities, if sometimes more red tape.

‘We’re Very Bubbled Here’

Women-only groups have helped, too. One group, Hermanas, began as a small WhatsApp chat in Mexico City and has become an international network of thousands, with women offering everything from sublets to holistic health advice.

The community’s widespread interest in wellness and spirituality is not lost on entrepreneurs. To promote her shop, Ms. Lim hosted a womb circle, an event in which “we meditated on our wombs and ate gelato,” said one participant, Samantha Jones, 25.

Rent is so high, she said, that many can’t afford to move out and have to keep living with their parents. “It’s harder now to become independent,” Ms. Barrera, 22, said.

Many Mexicans — and expats who came earlier — also criticize newcomers for not engaging with Mexico more, a tendency that some acknowledge.

“We’re very bubbled here,” said Mary Haberski, 43, who left environmental nonprofit work in Los Angeles to pursue coaching and a wellness start-up. “I’m in the bubble, and I barely leave it.”

The surge has also created mutual misunderstandings.

Breanna Claye, a 32-year-old model, caused an online firestorm last year when she posted a video from her apartment, cringing as one of the city’s ubiquitous, sometimes out-of-tune organ grinders played outside.

She says she understands why she became a target for people’s anger.

But commenters, she added, also made assumptions. Her life might look glamorous, she said, but she had saved for years to move, living at home after college while working full time. It was in Mexico, not the United States, where she was scouted as a model.

‘Shifting, Shifting’ Sentiment

The protests have largely faded. Still, many expats say this year has felt like a turning point.

“In the beginning, I thought we would stay here forever,” Ms. Claye said. “Everyone was excited to have us here.”

Now, she said, “things are shifting, shifting — the sentiments about us being here.”

Many friends have already left, she said, some called back to the office, most simply by choice. She was considering leaving, too.

Ms. McGrath, who said living in Mexico helped her afford an American program in somatic therapy, will soon return to California to advance her career.

Yet for every foreigner rolling her suitcases out, another seems to be rolling in.

Many are younger than those in the pandemic cohort. Priced out of the so-called bubble of Mexico City, they are moving farther into the city’s vast urban grid.

Samantha Jones, the 25-year-old from the gelato event, recently moved into a shared house 20 minutes from downtown.

On Sundays, she goes “church shopping,” she said, looking to meet her new neighbors.

Older women have started arriving, too, finding their own cities too expensive but undaunted by Mexico City’s rising rents.

One of them, Nelle Gretzinger, 58, a bookkeeper and empty-nester, said she was eager to explore her new home, adding, “It’s still cheaper than Jersey City.”