Nan Palmero and his wife were at a rehearsal dinner in Mexico City’s trendy Roma Norte neighborhood, ahead of a wedding of two American friends, when he said they heard a “rumbling” outside.

From the restaurant’s second story, Palmero described seeing a large group of people moving through the streets, some holding placards, shouting “Gringos leave.”

He later learned that demonstrators smashed restaurant windows and damaged vehicles, including the new car of his friends’ wedding planner — a local resident — he said.

“They wrecked her car, they smashed a window, they ripped off a mirror, they spray-painted the side of it. It was really pretty nasty,” he said.

Palmero, whose wife hails from the Mexican capital, said he had heard that an influx of digital nomads and foreign tourists had pushed up prices in some of the city’s most popular neighborhoods.