Sharing my beloved Mexico City - and my family - with YJI

MEXICO CITY – In the fall of 2023 – after some lobbying from me and my family – Youth Journalism International’s founders told me that the 2024 Global Conference would take place in my hometown, Mexico City.

Click on the image for more of YJI’s Memorable Mexico series.

By that time I had been in YJI for three years and had attended our two other global conferences, in Istanbul in 2022 and Prague in 2023.

Thanks to YJI, I discovered my passion in life, traveled the world and met some of my best friends. So I wanted to do something for them.

Regina López addresses fellow students and other conference goers on the group bus.

Before that I would daydream how a conference would be if it took place in Mexico City.

One of my best friends is always joking that Mexico City is the love of my life. He’s not wrong.

I used to imagine YJI’s founders meeting my parents and taking my friends through my hometown, walking down the streets of Reforma Avenue, eating chilaquiles together, listening to the street musicians in Coyoacán and visiting the places that make up my home.

I know I probably wasn’t the fairest tour guide.

I do look at the city through rose-colored glasses and sometimes I only see the magic in it. I’m also very aware of the violence and insecurity that Mexico portrays to the rest of the world, which is not entirely false.

But my main goal while helping organize the conference was to bring out Mexico City’s magic to all friends who were coming.

Student leaders at the Mexico City conference, from left, Norah Springborn, Holly Hostettler-Davies, Ana Fadul and Regina López. (YJI photo)

Regina López shows off her sunflower gifts from fellow YJI students. (Gemma Christie/YJI)

From the fall of 2023 to the summer of 2024 I put all my heart into planning everything I could think of.

I made a list of every museum and ranked its importance in Mexico’s history.

I mapped out restaurants where everyone could try different typical dishes and I spoke to tour companies and transportation services and tried to figure out how we were going to move every single day.

YJI students Cassiane Saraiva, Ana Fadul, Regina López and Samantha Esquivel. (YJI photo)

Then, a couple of months before the conference took place, a doctor found a lump in my mother’s neck.

I had never felt so scared in my entire life. And I didn’t want anyone to see that. To this day I cry just remembering that time. I was a bundle of messy emotions, so I just submitted myself into planning the best conference I could.

When my mom got the news, I felt very small, like I wasn’t capable of doing it. How would I be able to receive 20 people from different countries when I’m an adult crying about not having my mom with me.

I’ve always had a hard time concentrating and focusing my brain on just one thing. In that moment I felt the world coming at me. In other words, I just felt like crying.

Regina López with her family. Her uncle, Jesus Ramírez is in the back and her brother Diego is at left. Her father, Alejandro López is at right. Regina and her mother, Lilia Ramírez, are in the center. (YJI photo)

My mom decided that she was going to get surgery to take that lump out after the conference. Something about me is that I don’t do very well with any kind of pain. I don’t know how to face it, how to handle it or even process it. So I decided to just ignore it and instead put all my energy into the conference.

Regina López with\, Steve Collins, Mary Majerus-Collins and Jackie Majerus shortly after the family arrived in Mexico City. (YJI photo)

I’m not saying it was the best thing to do during a situation like that, but it really helped. Watching Jackie Majerus and Steve Collins, YJI’s founders, and their daughter Mary coming out of the airport gate was amazing.

All those daydreams I had for three years were coming true. Every time somebody arrived I threw myself to hug them because I couldn’t believe they were with me.

I sent a picture to my friend with everyone behind me. He said I looked like a mum goose with her ducklings – I finally had people to share my limitless love for the city. That’s exactly what we did.

Regina López, front left, leads conference goers on a street in the Mexico City neighborhood of Coyoacán. (YJI photo)

We danced to street music in the park Alameda Central, we went in the subway, we wandered around Bellas Artes and they learned about Mexican artists. We got lost in food markets and spent our money on spicy candy.

I showed them where I run in the mornings, my workplace and my favorite places to have dinner by the end of the day.

Mayama Opare, Sreehitha Gandluri, Regina López and Cassiane Saraiva. (YJI photo)

I was really worried I wasn’t going to be able to do a good job with everything I was going through. Everyone made me feel so supported.

Regina López with her uncle, Jesus Ramírez, who was a supportive presence at the conference. (YJI photo)

My family was also there, mainly when we went to big places or where we needed a lot of translators.

Afterwards, I realized I was the one who needed the conference the most.

My mom had the surgery after the conference ended and thankfully everything went well. During the conference I felt I had to prove something. That I could survive, that I could do everything by myself, and that there was no reason for her to worry about me.

Regina López at right, shares a moment with her mother, Lilia Ramírez after a long day at the conference. (YJI photo)

Looking back, I did put a lot of pressure on myself to just keep my rose-colored glasses on.

Regina López hugs Anjola Fashawe goodbye. (YJI photo)

YJI had always been the light in times when all I could see were clouds and this was no exception.

I cried every time somebody had to leave. At the end of everything, I felt proud of the conference – also very tired – but above all, incredibly happy.

Regina López is a Senior Correspondent with Youth Journalism International. She was the lead organizer for YJI’s 2024 Global Conference in her hometown, Mexico City.