Academic Group

Professor Armando Alonso Navarrete studied his Master's Degree in Landscape and Garden Design, Planning and Conservation at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) Azcapotzalco Campus. He belongs to the Landscape Architecture Area.

Responsible for the research project: Notes for the historical memory of Mexico City. Parks and public gardens during the administration of Ernesto P. Uruchurtu, 1952-1966.

Synthesis of the project:

Mexico City, since its foundation, has been the primary urban center of the country, in it concurs all the aspects associated with an urbanization phenomenon that is characterized by presenting an extensive population pattern, which implies a significant consumption of land, energy, and natural resources; significant investments in the provision of infrastructure and urban equipment and greater difficulties of social mobility; aspects that have undoubtedly brought with them unfavorable social, economic and environmental consequences for its inhabitants.

Beginning in the 1940s, the urbanization process in Mexico City began to increase rapidly, reaching unsuspected levels in terms of population and resource demand. Approximately in 1950, the metropolization phase of Mexico City began, and in this context, some government decisions of the then Regent of the Federal District Department (DDF), Gustavo Ernesto Uruchurtu Peralta, were decisive in triggering this process; which, among other factors, had direct implications in the increase of demographic concentration and expansion of the urban area, which would lead to the creation of the Metropolitan Zone of the Valley of Mexico (ZMVM).

This period saw one of the most prolific stages of public works construction in the city, which coincided with the economic situation and the acceleration of industrialization that the country was going through, while the expansion of the urban area exceeded the limits of the Federal District. One of the main areas in which public spending in Mexico City was oriented was the provision of various elements of urban equipment, among which we can point out the investments for the creation, rehabilitation, conservation, and maintenance of public parks and gardens.

This was one of the most important stages in the urban history of Mexico City in terms of public works. Therefore, this research project aims to contribute to expanding the information available in this area, recover and provide new data related to the urban and environmental policy of that period, document all the findings, and present the results in a documentary and cartographic memory that shows the relevance of public parks and gardens built at this time, in the current configuration of Mexico City.

The period to be analyzed is a crucial stage in the evolution of Mexico City, the social, economic, cultural, and political conditions that prevailed at that time in the country and in the capital were unique, so its approach will allow the study of a crucial issue for the understanding and comprehension of the urban dynamics of Mexico City and the landscape, environmental, aesthetic, urban, functional and even economic values that public parks and gardens represent. A contribution to the recent history of the city.

The objectives of this work are: a) To carry out a research work that addresses a problem that has not been explored in our country and that has been determinant in the conformation of the structure and urban physiognomy of the city, b) To understand the implications of urban policy, particularly in terms of public parks and gardens, in the configuration of the urban landscape of Mexico City, as well as to understand the successes and failures of governmental action in this area; and c) To generate new contributions to the construction of the history of the city.