Tuesday, April 15, 2025

City installs temporary drive-in theater to aid recovery of cultural life

The Mexico City racetrack that has been home to the Mexican Grand Prix — part of which already houses a temporary Covid-19 hospital — will also become the site of drive-in movie theater.

The Hermanos Rodríguez racetrack at the Magdalena Mixhuca sports center will now house a temporary movie theater as well, government officials announced. 

The racetrack theater will show films twice weekly from July 26 through August 19 each Sunday and Wednesday, Culture Minister Alfonso Suárez del Real said, in an effort to provide cultural opportunities for citizens. 

Films scheduled to be shown include Alfonso Arau’s A Day Without a Mexican and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel. There will be two showings each day, one at 5 p.m. and another at 8 p.m. Gates will open 90 minutes before each show.

Tickets will be sold on Ticketmaster for 10 pesos per vehicle, around US 45 cents. Cars can have up to five passengers, and SUVs and vans can carry eight. The racetrack can accommodate 415 vehicles.

The sports center location was chosen due to the fact that it is located in a part of the city with few cases of infection. 

Attendees are invited to bring their own popcorn and must wear masks when stepping outside their cars. Passengers and drivers will have their temperatures taken at the racetrack’s entrance and unaccompanied minors are prohibited. 

Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said the drive-in program will be evaluated and could expand to Lake Chapultepec and Xochimilco if all goes well and coronavirus cases in those areas remain low. 

“Keep in mind that we must protect ourselves to protect others and to be able to ensure that the return of cultural, collective activities through the Mixhuca drive-in of Mexico City is truly a success that allows us to get together again,” Suárez said. “These are new conditions, but we believe that people are going to support us and that the people are going to enjoy it.”

Source: La Jornada (sp), Publimetro (sp)

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
schoolchildren with masks

Whooping cough outbreak prompts new alert from health officials

1
There have been so far this year 133 confirmed cases in Mexico of the respiratory disease, which can be fatal for very young children.
Officials in construction vests and hard hats place a block of cement to celebrate a new phase in Mexico's affordable housing plan

Mexico announces plan to build 1.1M new homes by the end of Sheinbaum’s term

3
As housing prices have skyrocketed around the country, the government is aiming to boost new home construction and increasing access to government-backed home loans.
A snow and glacier-capped volcano with an old church in the foreground

UNAM: Mexico’s last remaining glaciers likely to disappear within 5 years

1
For years, Mexico’s glaciers have clung to existence against the odds. Now a leading researcher says their time is almost up.