The artist who goes by the pen name Felix d’Eon grew up in Los Angeles, in a Mexican-American family. At age 32, he moved to Mexico City to be closer to the sacred sites that are part of his heritage. And he did land next to some historic sites: he lives in the Santa Fe neighbourhood, just a few blocks from Monumento a la Madre (Mother’s Monument), which was erected in 1949 then rebuilt in 2018, after the original was destroyed by an earthquake, and is not far from Monumento a la Revolución, which commemorates the uprising against dictator Porfirio Díaz that started in 1910 .
But d’Eon is as playful as he is earnest. He also told Wander+Lust that he likes to host sex parties where his guests wear little else but jewellery.
D’Eon’s art cleverly comingles his heritage with his queerness. Same-sex couples, hot guys and gay innuendo are depicted in retro styles—for example, comics, old illustrated postcards or images from Mexico’s classic Lotería game, which is a kind of bingo that uses archetypal characters and symbols instead of numbers. “I am a cisgender, mixed-race white Latino gay man, but my work also features trans people and women and people of backgrounds that are not mine,” d’Eon says. “I use a historical language that different ethnicities and cultures have invented about themselves, especially about love and self-image, about what it means to be Mexican, what it means to be American, what it means to be from any of the other dozens of cultures, then expanding it to include queer people so that we can see ourselves reflected in this, in this fantasy that we all have about who we are.”
We asked d’Eon to tell us about his favourite places and things to do in his adopted city.
What it’s like to live in Mexico City?
It’s like New York with pyramids. It’s an international city, very cosmopolitan, with tons of museums. The way that the Indigenous coexists with European/American heritage is really compelling. I can walk half an hour and see a pyramid that’s 700 or 800 years old, then see a colonial palace that’s 500 years old, while living in a house that’s 150 years old. I love that sense of history.
What’s changed in the 11 years since you moved there?
When I got there, the drug war was very, uh, publicized in newspapers and media all over the world. So there was less tourism and you could do things like wander into Museo Frida Kahlo (Londres 247, Del Carmen, Coyoacán, Mexico City) without waiting in line. You can’t do that anymore. You used to be able to climb the pyramids at Teotihuacán [about an hour’s drive north of the city, reachable by tour, taxi or bus from the Autobuses del Norte station], but now there are so many tourists you can’t do it anymore. With all the digital nomads, there are some neighbourhoods, like Roma Norte, where they’re really just American neighbourhoods. Some things have gotten easier. When I first moved to Mexico, I had to go to the electricity office and stand in line and pay it in person once a month. Gas was delivered to my house in a canister. The longer I’ve been here, the more it feels like living in any other major metropolitan city. Mexican food is incredible, but the dining has become more diverse with more food from other parts of the world than there used to be.
The must-see sites.
After Teotihuacán, there’s the Museo Nacional de Antropología (Av. P. de la Reforma s/n, Polanco, Bosque de Chapultepec, Mexico City), which is amazing. There’s the Museo del Templo Mayor (Seminario 8, Centro Histórico, Mexico City), which has the ruins of an Aztec pyramid right in the historical centre. There are some things that I think are less obvious but not too far off the beaten track. My favourite mural of Diego Rivera’s is “Sueño de una Tarde Dominical en la Alameda Central,” which is in the Museo Mural Diego Rivera (Calle Colón Balderas s/n, Colonia Centro, Ciudad de México). That’s the only thing, actually, that’s in the museum. I love that mural.
If you have some time to plan in advance, everybody who even has an inkling to see it should make a reservation to see the Casa Luis Barragán (Gral. Francisco Ramírez 12, Ampliación Daniel Garza, Miguel Hidalgo, Mexico City). It can take months to get in because you have to go on a tour. Luis Barragán is a name everybody should be familiar with. He is the greatest architect of the 20th century in Mexico. Mexican Modernism comes from him. Where Modernism in general is characterized as being severe and white, Mexican Modernism is characterized by play, by colour, by handmade textures. Not everything is super smooth. The house was built in 1948. It has hidden windows made with coloured glass that paints the room.
An excellent day trip?
One of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my entire life is not in Mexico City but three hours to the north. Grutas Tolantongo (San Cristóbal s/n, Ejido San Cristobal, Cardonal, State of Hidalgo) is incredibly beautiful. It’s a canyon with a huge volcanically heated river and hot springs. There’s a gigantic hot waterfall and these humongous caves and giant waterfalls inside them. I’ve never seen anything like it before.
A perfect weekend in the city?
I love to walk around the historic centre, which is about 40 minutes of walking from my front door. The food there is not great—you can’t just wander in and expect something good like you can in other neighbourhoods—but I would recommend MATA Comedor Cantina (Filomeno Mata 18 Loc. 6 y 7 Altos, Centro Histórico, Ciudad de México), which is an 18th-century mansion, and Caracol de Mar (República de Guatemala 20, Centro Histórico, Ciudad de México), which is Mexican-Peruvian fusion.
If food is what I’m after, I like Roma and Condesa. I love La Docena (Av. Álvaro Obregón 31, Roma Norte, Ciudad de México). It’s traditional Mexican seafood. They have a michelada, the traditional Mexican Bloody Mary made with beer, and they serve it with oysters. It’s enormous, the size of my forearm. That’s an exaggeration, but it’s huge. I also recommend La Capital (Av. Nuevo León 137, Condesa, Ciudad de México). They have the best tuna fish tostadas in Mexico. It’s not too expensive for what you’re getting. It’s big, a little noisier than I wish it was. Dark wood, with garden seating out back. I take people there often. There’s also Taquería Orinoco (four locations across the city including one on Av. Yucatan 3, Hipódromo, close to Condesa and Roma Norte; and Florencia 18, Zona Rosa, Juárez), which is a chain, but a small chain. They’re from northern Mexico, so it’s a different style than Mexico City—fuller, but twice the price of a normal taco. They’re outstandingly good. They have cute design. The logo is a complete cow inside of a tortilla.
The other thing that I would recommend is going to the Sunday antique market at La Lagunilla (Monumento Al Boxeador, Ignacio Allende 127, Lagunilla, Ciudad de México). Check out the market, then walk behind it. That’s where Mexicans love to go and drink. There’s tons of bars out on the street—you don’t go inside a bar. There are stands there selling, like, a million kinds of micheladas, steak sandwiches, street food. It’s noisy and vibrant.
Where does he go for gay nightlife and socializing?
I’m more likely to go to parties than to bars. I’m not big on Zona Rosa [the area of Colonia Juárez where many mainstream gay bars are located]. I don’t mind the bear bar Nichos (Londres 182, Zona RoSa, Juárez, Ciudad de México). What I will go to is Por Detroit [a queer rave party held occasionally at various locations; there’s now also a Los Angeles edition] and Pervert [a queer dance party held occasionally at various locations]. They’re both similar—leather heavy, plenty of jockstraps, tons of shirtless men and women. They’re definitely diverse—women go to both of them—but they both have dark rooms. People do put an effort into how they look, leaning into leather sexy. Both parties are usually held in phenomenal spaces. Like an abandoned women’s prison, a bread factory or a movie studio’s lot with a jail movie set on it. The weirdness of the spaces adds to the surrealness of these gigantic parties.
We’ll also go to Sungay Brunch [a semi-regular daytime party held at various venues]. A friend of mine throws it. It’s brunch and there’s food, but it’s definitely not a sit-down event. There are too many people there, and a lot of foreigners come. Very, very hip, stylish. People put a lot of effort into how they look. There’s music, dancing, fashion shows, burlesque. It’s always changing, but what doesn’t change is the daytime drinking.
Where he gets his art fix?
Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (Av. Insurgentes Sur 3000, Coyoacán, Ciudad de México; reachable by Metrobus’s Line 1) is way to the south of the city, but it’s my favourite museum for contemporary art. The curators are great at putting together shows and I’m never disappointed. Museo Nacional de Arte (C. de Tacuba 8, Centro Histórico, Ciudad de México) is in one of the most beautiful buildings of the world, 19th-century neoclassical, and it’s got colonial-era paintings. There’s queer stuff in there all the time, but it’s old art, from 100 years ago.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
