El automóvil y los mapas en la integración del territorio mexicano, 1929-1962

• Autores: Héctor Mendoza Vargas
• Localización: Investigaciones geográficas, ISSN 0188-4611, ISSN-e 2448-7279, Nº. 88, 2015
• Idioma: español
• Títulos paralelos:
  • The automobile and maps in the integration of the Mexican territory, 1929-1962
• Enlaces
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• Resumen
  • español

    Este artículo examina una nueva geografía social abierta por el uso del automóvil y los mapas a través del territorio mexicano por medio de una tríada conceptual que otorga una renovada perspectiva cultural a la Geografía mexicana, a saber: el territorio de la circulación, el territorio visual y el territorio de la experiencia. El primero presenta dos variables de análisis: la difusión del automóvil con una perspectiva latinoamericana y los mapas de carreteras del país, entre 1929 y 1962, como promotores de un estilo de viaje y, a la vez, de otra vertiente del nacionalismo mexicano; el segundo examina la representación del paisaje a través de algunas guías de viaje que convirtieron lo lejano y desconocido en familiar y deseable y, el tercero y último, presenta la experiencia de algunos viajeros ante la expansion del horizonte a través del automóvil y el asombro que causaba la variedad de paisajes, en las tres principals carreteras abiertas del país: la del Pacífico, la del norte y la del Occidente. Esta perspectiva sobre la difusión del automóvil y el lugar de los mapas se integraron a los procesos de homogeneización e integración del territorio durante el siglo XX mexicano.

  • English

    This article examines a new social geography opened by the use of the automobile and maps in the Mexican territory between 1929 and 1962. In this temporary scenery, the construction of roads during a considerable span of the 20th Century has been identified as part of the modernization plan of the revolutionary governments of Mexico. This infrastructure furnished the opportunity of getting to know the wide variety of landscapes of the country as never before. A set of new traveling experiences was offered to the middle class at the same time that such diversity of Mexican landscapes caused different emotions through the “pleasure” of ersonally contemplating the rivers, mountains, trees, vegetation, the sea, the hamlets, towns or cities. A central element of this perspective was occupied by the automobile; its presence in Mexico meant a cultural novelty with deep effects and changes in the Mexican society of the 20th Century. The new technological element worked as a new mechanism that started circulating by the roads to observe the landscape. Because of this, we propose the application of three key concepts of space analysis: the circulation territory, the visual territory and the experience territory. Each one of them represents the many sides of the landscape as one study object, and of geography interest, as described below. The territory of circulation came about when the railroads decline started in the twenties and consolidated in the sixties of the past century. That is why in this section we first place a comparative perspective of the motorization levels through the number of inhabitants per automobile in several Latin-American countries having available ordered historical statistics on the matter. Results show a long construction of the automobile culture in this geographic region; construction that incorporated new communication and evolution forms of social groups.