Processes of signification in the conservation of industrial landscape: Zona Fundición Aguascalientes

Abstract

This paper presents the main findings of ongoing research concerning the dialog among industrial heritage and landscape, territorial configuration, memory, and identity as part of the construction of significance of the community living in the vicinity of the Aguascalientes Foundry Area (Zona Fundición Aguascalientes). The issue is addressed from the viewpoint of Braudel’s (1991) scenarios that have emerged along the history of the city of Aguascalientes, which have also brought about transformations in the industrial landscape, as part of the cultural heritage at risk due to neglect. The paper focuses on the 19th Century, during the expansion of industrialization, and the implications of Mexico’s development. Particularly in the state of Aguascalientes, the Gran Fundición Central Mexicana (GFCM) was a leading driver of this process. With the collapse of mining in the Bajío area, the GFCM closed in 1925, transforming a zone that promised to be prosperous into a toxic industrial waste site. These changes had serious effects, both on the ecosystem of the San Pedro River, on urban morphology, and on its significance in urban imagination that the vestiges of the metallurgic complex encompass. Preliminary results present the processes of signification of this industrial landscape through narrations contributed by social subjects around identity construction in urban imagination, as well as the formation of social groups that advocate for an administration that draws attention to their decision-making rights in processes of intervention aimed at recovering and preserving this landscape.