Roma became this famous for many reasons, but if you had to name one, it is a single black-and-white film.
The conditions of revival
From the 2000s, the low rents and beautiful architecture of Ep.5 drew artists and founders Fact. As a result Roma revived as a district of cafés, murals, pastries, curated cocktails and top-class restaurants Fact. Where the market of Ep.6 is the old lower layer, these cafés are the newly added upper one.
The acceleration a film gave
And what gave that revival its decisive acceleration was a single film. Alfonso Cuarón’s Oscar-winning "Roma" (2018) drew the director’s own childhood against this district and lifted an already-popular Roma into an international icon Fact. Afterward, cafés and coworking spaces opened in Roma seemingly every other day Fact.
The economy of image
Here the district’s structure shows. Roma’s appeal is in large part image — beautiful façades, murals and café scenes spread as photographs, and those photographs draw people again Estimate. The problem is what comes next. Image draws people, increased visits and migration raise rents, and those rents push out the original residents Estimate. Roma’s appeal became the very engine of gentrification.
Toward the next chapter
So this is a bright chapter and at once the preface to Ep.9. What one black-and-white film changed was not only the district’s fame — it also raised, alongside it, the question of who can afford this district Estimate.