Resumen de Cuernavaca: ciudad de fraccionamientos residenciales de baja densidad (1900-1997)
With this research I wanted to find out what the urban growth of Cuernavaca was like from 1900 to 1997, and understand the dynamics of that process in the context of a strong capitalism, in order to explain how the agricultural social land has been integrating into the city. The process started since the small village was 70 ha. large, until it reached an extension of 18 km2 and a medium size density of 180 hab./ ha, all of this without urban planification. Its urban shape was constraint by its topography since the Spanish foundation; the city is situated on an elongated and sloping hill located between two deep ravines which run almost parallel from north to south and limited its growth.My main hypothesis or statement is that the Cuernavaca urbanization model was the product of the process of formation of a medium-sized city, where the proximity to the great metropolis created a demand for second-home housing and the response came from the ruling classes through usurpation of social agricultural land, creating large extensions of land for urban speculation, due to the lack of a regulatory urban planning framework and the corruption. With this research I demonstrate how these urbanizations as formal residential low density subdivisions called ‘Fraccionamientos’, have structured the current layout of Cuernavaca, a topic that led me to other topics closely related to this issue: that of real estate agents and their interests and strategies. The work is exemplified by the empirical review of two areas: Lomas de Ahuatlán on the hills to the west of the city, and to the east with the Llanos de Ahuatepec, where in the first third of the twentieth century, a governor and his family appropriated hundreds of thousands of square meters of social land creating large urbanizations the Vista Hermosa fraccionamiento in the company town style, which boosted growth towards the valley on the east of the historic center. In Lomas de Ahuatlán an extensive real estate development was created in 1997 together with a series of subdivisions that accompanied this urban growth. The trend of urbanization model was followed and replicated by other real estate agents who urbanized other areas of the city.These low-density suburban developments which grew in the form of subdivisions were originally destined as secondary residential housing for a high-income segment of the population, but over time and due to market saturation, they were adapted for middle-class first residence homes. However, the speed of this last settlement was limited both by the topographic characteristics of the city and by the low investment in infrastructure, which caused that for many years there were no bridges in the most important ravines. Taking into consideration that 90% of the land was social property – ‘ejidal’ or community property, real estate agents bought the land to farmers or community members, and in other cases they acted through dispossession or fraudulent legal action. This trend, which lasted six decades, doubled the urban land approximately every ten years, contributing to the rapid expansion of the city.In the last third of the 20th century the so-called ‘Colonias’ or proletarian urbanizations were also created, with the pressure of urban social movements. This was another type of popular residential subdivision, with smaller plots, narrower streets, and no green areas. In this period working-class neighborhoods were created by invasion and subsequent social vindication, with great tolerance from the local governments of the ruling party. We can see how the growth of Cuernavaca from 1997 dropped and extended towards the periphery, especially to the conurbation with the municipalities to the south-west of Temixco, Jiutepec and Tejalpa, and at the same time, the supply of land multiplied, covering various strata and typologies.
