This text discusses the reflection that triggered an experience of cultural and academic intervention in Tepito, considered one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Mexico City. This experience created new forms of artistic and religious creations which helped to develop the neighborhood´s own identity as well as challenging dominant aesthetic manifestations and also contributed to resistance against the onslaught of the fierce stigma which exists towards these neighborhoods. The contribution of this experience to the debate on art and popular culture is that it emphasizes the collective creation which occurs in everyday life and how it contributes to and promotes autonomy.