Revista Historia y Patrimonio

Border landscapes: narratives, representations, imaginaries in Latin America, 18th-20th centuries

2023-12-29T21:23:33+00:00

The importance of digital documentation of heritage buildings: the case of the Larraín Mancheño palace.

2023-08-16T00:26:44+00:00

The Larraín Mancheño Palace is one of the most representative architectural icons of the Belle Epoque in Santiago, Chile, at the end of the 19th century. However, despite the fact that its architectural, stylistic and historical value has been recognized by the Council of National Monuments (cMN) as a Historic Conservation Property (iHc) since 2018, the building does not have appropriate architectural documentation for the restoration, conservation and diffusion of its memory in the future. Consequently, this project aims to create a graphic and historical record of the Palace in coordination and collaboration with its custodians, through the digital survey of the property using documentation techniques, such as photogrammetry and BiM modeling, acquired through the "Advanced course on surveying and documentation for the conservation of heritage sites", taught by the Cultural Heritage Center of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in February 2023. Finally, this academic exercise is not only developed as support for the implementation value of the Palace, but also as a reflection on the role of survey techniques for the conservation and presentation of historic buildings, emphasizing and distinguishing their advantages and limitations.

Picturing an Antarctic country. Robert Gerstmann, photography and the chilean antarctic landscapes. 1932-1959

2023-09-21T12:28:16+00:00

This paper analyzes the photographs of southern Chile that Robert Gerstmann took and disseminated between the publication of his book Chile: 280 grabados en Cobre (1932) and Chile en 235 cuadros (1959) to delve into the way in which the inclusion of his first images of the Chilean Antarctic in the second was linked to the definition of an imaginary of an “expanded” south to be valued for its supposed natural virginity. In this process, the most recent book joined a set of previous publications focused on reaffirming the Chilean legal position, describing the claimed territory and disseminating its history in order to foster a national Antarctic awareness. However, it stood out among them for integrating his landscapes into a more general imaginary of the entire country and, along with this, redefining the entire southern territory as a completely different region compared to the one he himself had observed and disseminated before. Comparing these books with each other and with other photos by the same author, verifying what is included and what is excluded from the final narrative, allows us to consider the work by Gerstmann as a representative of the official discourse, and understand the ideological and cultural biases that led to the aforementioned resignification for the initial construction of an image of Chile as an Antarctic country.

The “Chilean Norway”: landscape, fronterization and scientific controversy in the Ofqui isthmus (1900-1920)

2023-09-12T19:19:14+00:00

This article seeks to examine the relationship between frontier landscape and science by analysing the narratives of landscape that emerged in the light of the Ofqui Isthmus canal project in Patagonia-Aysén. We propose that the encounters between experts such as sailors, engineers and political authorities, and the nature of Ofqui produced different imaginaries that characterised the dispute between supporters and opponents of the construction of the canal. We understand frontierisation from the perspective that sees it as a dynamic process of territorial appropriation, which produces certain types of frontier landscape, functional to the interests of the elites who drove the expansion of the Chilean state in the early 20th century. A series of articles and news items that appeared in the press at the time are analysed to describe the different images of nature that emerged from the controversy, and the ways in which they contributed to producing different conceptions of the Ofqui territory.

Fantasy islands. The image of the Juan Fernández Islands as an environmental and civilizational frontier

2023-09-21T12:29:02+00:00

One of the last territories to be settled by humans, the Juan Fernández islands have long been visualized as an Edenic paradise stalled in time. This article examines how the archipelago has been constructed as an environmental and civilizational frontier, focusing particularly on the role of cruise tourism to Robinson Crusoe Island, which peaked during the interwar period. Cruise tourism, we argue, was central in cementing an image of Juan Fernández as a primitive location, frozen at the point of Alexander Selkirk’s marooning on the island in the eighteenth century. Immortalized in literature by British author Daniel Defoe in the novel Robinson Crusoe, the popularity of the text inspired the establishment of a successful leisure voyage to the islands from Valparaíso, which saw Chileans and foreigners alike engage in discourses surrounding the archipelago as a leisure space which was contingently a key geostrategic part of insular Chile, despite its infrastructural challenges. With reference to the concepts of ‘frontier’ and ‘landscape’ we elucidate how the destination image of a romantic Juan Fernández has been reinforced in the establishment of a tourist destinations of both national and international significance.

A sick geography. The appearance of the Puna de Atacama in the notion of the desert

2023-09-21T12:29:29+00:00

This article explains how the Puna de Atacama appeared in scientific narratives about the desert, based on the analysis of the texts of different travelers who, in the service of the Chilean government, traveled through that space during the second half of the 19th century. With this, the aim is to show a process of significance of the desert plateau, in which the void gave way to an orographic labyrinth, with a particular sociability and history, which was then again represented as a marginal space. All notions that allow us to reflect on the dynamism that characterized the images of the Puna de Atacama, the desert mountain ranges and, ultimately, of a frontier place, whose definitions depended on the contexts and actors that participated in its construction.

Landscape and society in the book “patrullajes en el altiplano chileno” (1967). The travel of captain Sergio Márquez Molina

2023-10-05T13:03:52+00:00

El artículo se introduce en las representaciones del territorio del extremo norte chileno, en particular, el altiplano de la región de Arica, hacia la medianía del siglo XX. Se atiende la noción de paisaje, sociedad y cultura expresada en el texto Patrullajes en el Altiplano Chileno (1967) del Capitán de Carabineros Sergio Márquez Molina, quien se inserta dentro de una tradición e ideología castrense muy presente en la narrativa referente al norte chileno.

The The Eastern Band of the Río de la Plata. Border, territory and landscape in view of the New Populations of the 18th century

2023-08-29T13:39:21+00:00

In this article we analyze the geographic and demographic context of the Banda Oriental, the name of present-day Uruguay, during the second half of the 18th century. The sources used for this purpose are travelers' accounts, bibliography and historical cartography. We observe the moment prior to the creation of the New Towns that helped to articulate the territory and to fix population centers near the main city of the region, Montevideo. For this purpose, we study the settlement in that region, a place of frontiers and multiculturalism in an almost desert-like space, characterized by the presence of cattle and the dominance of ranchers. We study the cartographic development of the territory, its main communication routes and the settlements of a dispersed population. Finally, we value the role of the new settlements as milestones of stability and security of a land on the frontier of the Indians and the Portuguese crown, which confirms the power of the hispanic crown, configures the planning of the territory and gives identity to a sector of the Viceroyalty of La Plata that is moving towards a rapid transformation.

Fluvial imaginaries: Border, heterotopia, and marginality in the transformation of the Mapocho River

2023-10-12T13:45:09+00:00

This article examines the evolution of the fluvial imaginaries of the Mapocho River in Santiago, Chile, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It analyses how the Mapocho River has evolved from a mere watercourse into a cultural border and a heterotopia, influenced by discourses of power and resistance concerning the river. Through an exploration of official and marginal perspectives in works such as La Transformación de Santiago by Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna and the novel El Río by Alfredo Gómez Morel, this study reveals how the Mapocho River has been a space that challenges established norms and values while providing refuge and defiance for those excluded by society. Using the conceptual frameworks of Gloria Anzaldúa and Michel Foucault, it examines the notions of frontier and heterotopia, as also how the Mapocho River acts as a liminal space between norm and anomaly. The Mapocho is not merely a geographical element but a living testament to the city and its inhabitants' evolution over the years, reflecting the social, cultural, and urban changes that have shaped Santiago's identity.

Adriana Araneda (1936-2023) and the teaching of landscape: itinerary of a Chilean teacher in France

2023-08-29T14:07:03+00:00

Adriana Araneda (1935-2023), a Chilean architect and teacher with a strong commitment to the teaching of architecture, was forced into exile when the military regime was installed in September 1973. What vision of architecture and pedagogy did she bring to the school of architecture in Paris La Villette (UP6)? How did her knowledge and theories travel and adapt in this new context? This article portrays her trajectory and her pedagogical work between France and Chile: from her higher studies and her first approaches to the teaching of architecture, in the faculty of architecture and urbanism of the University of Chile, to her pedagogical developments in Paris, in the French schools of architecture that were then in gestation. Therefore, it attempts to represent his contribution to the pedagogical renewal of architectural education in France, particularly in the field of landscape and the visual arts, with an effervescent and subversive environment as a backdrop.

Brasília’s Historic Urban Landscape: new paths for the preservation of the surrounding área

2023-11-09T17:58:24+00:00

The implantation of the Conjunto Urbano de Brasília (CUB) occurred in a geographical unit of unique landscape, with environmental and topographic features considered propitious by the scientific commissions that conducted studies in the territory. The prominent position of Brasília in the Paranoá Hydrographic Basin, due to the implementation of the Pilot Plan on the relief of the dome, allows a privileged view of the horizon from various angles from the inside out; and the possibility that different urban sites, neighbors to the city, visualize the protected asset, from the outside in. Seeking to approach approaches such as the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL), we will explore the various layers that make up this landscape, focusing on the Serrinha do Paranoá and the Taquari Housing sector, a site located in the buffer zone of the CUB.