Interpreting Nineteenth-Century Mazatlán as a Text: The Urban Landscape and Its Rhetoric of Domination

Abstract

This article develops, on the basis of the premises of the political-discursive interpretive theory associated with the so-called New Cultural Geography and the methodologies of sociocultural history, an interpretation of the nineteenth-century port city of Mazatlán. It examines the city's urban design and functionality as shaped by foreign immigrants, the sociocultural construction of its landscape, the political discourses embedded in its architecture, and the various representations produced of these elements from the city's emergence in the early nineteenth century through the end of the century.

The central hypothesis argues that the urban design, architecture, and, more broadly, the landscape of the port city should be understood not only in terms of their cultural qualities but also as symbolic forms of domination and leadership (hegemony) exercised by the foreign ruling elite. To substantiate this hypothesis, the study employs research procedures grounded in the methodological principles of sociocultural history, drawing upon the collection and critical analysis of documentary sources and other contemporary materials, including travelers' accounts, visual images, literary works, and newspapers.