In the early 2000s, the landscape of Tijuana witnessed a surge in construction, giving rise to hundreds of multi-family homes. This marked the advent of a new era, characterized by a massive influx of standardized housing projects altering the city’s periphery. Los Desarrollos Urbanos Integrales (Sustainable Integral Urban Developments) became more relevant during Felipe Calderón’s Mexican presidency, who in 2007 presented the "National Housing Program 2007–2012: Towards a Sustainable Housing Development", with the objective of building six million homes in Mexico in his six-year term. With very particular characteristics, DUIS are characterized by the following management axes: generate fully planned, orderly and sustainable development areas with regional infrastructure and social services including equipment, trade, education, health, industry and leisure co-developed with the participation of Federal, State, and Municipal governments and the private sector. Garnering substantial media attention, the developments were described as a "modernized future” and promised an alluring “new lifestyle” on the border.

A decade later, barely 2,000 homes were built. It is against this backdrop that Moníca Arreola’s Valle San Pedro series from the project Destinterés Social (Social Disinterest) takes form. At the intersection of time and architecture, Mónica Arreola’s photographic series captures a detained future. Through evocative imagery, they depict urban models, half-built housing projects, and a hauntingly silent, melancholic imaginary. This work both confronts and asks viewers to reflect on the desolate reality imposed by real estate speculation in Mexico as well as economic and mortgage models that have left behind architectural vestiges.