¿Mantener las murallas o demolerlas? Urbanismo y disputas sociales en Cartagena, Colombia y San Juan, Puerto Rico (1880&amp;#8211;1920)

Narcís Bassols,Carlos-E Soutto-Colón

doi:10.4067/s0250-71612020000100047

Abstract

This article is the result of research on two ‘planning anomalies’ in Latin America: The preservation of the city walls of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Although both defensive systems are tourist icons nowadays, behind their retention lays a long history of contestation. Planning, spatial and socio-economic issues are considered in the article, which deems these processes unique and idiosyncratic, for the norm throughout the continent was to tear down walls of this type. In San Juan, a long period of military use and in Cartagena a comfortable attitude as well as an early touristification process ultimately explain the preservation of the walls. However, keeping the walls has not led to a significant difference for urban planning processes in the two cities, nor in the two cities centers, when compared to other similar cites of the region.

Highlights

Abstract | This article is the result of research on two ‘planning anomalies’ in Latin America: The preservation of the city walls of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia and San Juan, Puerto Rico
El período estudiado en el cual suceden las ‘anomalías’ de mantener las murallas en Cartagena y San Juan es enmarcado en la fuerte influencia ejercida por el urbanismo de Europa y Norteamérica, sobre lo cual diserta Hardoy (1992, p. 20-21), cuando dice específicamente que “the first building and environmental ordinances and the beginning of municipal regulation [in Latin America, n. del a.] were an attempt to respond to ideas on public health that had developed in Europe”
Esta deviene un concepto básico según Montoya Garay (2013), que en su historia de la planeación urbana de Bogotá señala: “La modernización se convirtió en la excusa favorita a la hora de legitimar las políticas urbanas en la mayor parte del siglo xx” (p. 76)

Summary

Introduction

Abstract | This article is the result of research on two ‘planning anomalies’ in Latin America: The preservation of the city walls of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia and San Juan, Puerto Rico. La ciudad mexicana de Veracruz derribó el lado tierra de sus murallas en unos pocos meses en 1880 (figura 5), con la banda municipal tocando para acompañar a los obreros en su primer día de trabajo, tal y como dicen las crónicas, en un entusiasmo similar al descrito más arriba para San Juan.

Results

Conclusion