The towns of the Popocateptl Volcano. Territorial symbolism, cultural identity and vernacular architecture

Abstract

[EN] This paper addresses the relationship between identity and territory from a cultural geography perspective. The case of study is the Popocatépetl Volcano settlements in central Mexico. Natural and social features that have determined the traditional local building and urban spacial solutions are considered. The theoretical approach is based on hermeneutics theories, namely, the symbolic-cultural appropriation of the territory, based on the meaning and symbolism underlying the cultural identity of the communities’ territorial ways of life. It is supported by the results of field research carried out over three years in two towns where university students and local people joined. According to Giménez, whose theory is fundamental for this study, the territories hold a symbolism for the peoples and their history, from which it follows that in rural areas spatial decisions respond mainly to cultural factors. The meaning that ancestral territories comprise for ethnic and mestizo groups, as well as their attachment explains the conception of being places of anchoring collective memory, in the author terms. The latter will be explained through the local vernacular constructive solutions of the volcano towns, their streets and trails, the complementary spaces and elements of daily community life such as orchards and barns. This paper does not overlook the current matter and issues that have arisen after several governmental policies, that together with real estate and cement companies, have disrupted local quality of life, people values and their idiosyncrasies. The cultural development of these towns took centuries to achieve; the mastery of the trades from the knowledge of the materials, among others. Three decades have sufficed for the globalization interests disguised as progress, to make local people let go their ancestral knowledge on how to build their dwellings and how to solve their public spaces. All these is in detriment of the natural resources leading to a loss of balance between human space and nature.