Cartographic Mexico: A History of State Fixations and Fugitive Landscapes

322 Pages·2004·2.36 MB·English

by  Raymond B. Craib

✴
Cartographic Mexico

abookintheseries
LatinAmericaOtherwise:
Languages,Empires,Nations
Serieseditors:
WalterD.Mignolo,dukeuniversity
IreneSilverblatt,dukeuniversity
SoniaSald´ıvar-Hull,universityof
california,losangeles
Mapsmightappeartobeobjectiverecordsofanobjectivegeography,but,
asRaymondCraibhasshown,theyareanythingbut.Inhissweeping
study of nineteenth- and twentieth-century maps drawn under the
auspicesoftheMexicangovernment,Craibpresentsthepoliticalsideof
maps—anundersideoftenhiddenbythetechnocraticsurfaceof‘‘map-
making.’’Forthesemapsdidn’tsimplyreflectaspatialreality;theycre-
atedone.Mapswerepolitics:theymadeMexicoappeartobeaunified,
coherententity,andtheydidso,inpart,byplasteringoverconflictsbe-
tweengovernmentagenciesandlocalcommunities.Mapsweredoubly
functional:theygaveMexicointernaldefinitionandwereakeytoits
membershipintheinternationalclubofnations.
Withgreatoriginalityandinsight,Craibhasinspecteda‘‘taken-
for-granted’’ofmodernlifeandrevealeditsimmersioninrelationsof
power.Nonetheless,heiscarefultorecordthesocialcontradictionsand
complicationsofmapmaking:whilemapswereatoolofpower,theywere
alsochallenged;whilemapsexpressedthewillofgovernmentagencies,
theywerealsolighteningrodsof resistance.Mapscouldnevertotally
dominatethegeographicalvisionofMexico’ssubjects,and,tobearout
Craib’s argument, Mexico is still confounded by conflicts rooted in a
questionofmaps,inquestionsofthestate’sversionofterritorial—and
political—control.Craib,bypenetratingthesurfaceofsomethingasor-
dinaryasmaps,hashelpedusseeLatinAmericaotherwise.

✴
Cartographic
Mexico
ahistoryofstatefixations
andfugitivelandscapes
RaymondB.Craib
✴
DukeUniversityPress
DurhamandLondon
2004
(cid:1)2004dukeuniversitypress
Allrightsreserved
PrintedintheUnitedStates
ofAmericaonacid-freepaper∞
DesignedbyAmyRuthBuchanan
TypesetinJansonbyWilsted&
TaylorPublishingServices
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-
PublicationDataappearonthelast
printedpageofthisbook.
Publicationofthisbookwasmadepossible
byasubventiongrantedbytheHullMemorial
PublicationFundofCornellUniversity.
Anearlierversionofchapter1wasoriginally
publishedas‘‘ANationalistMetaphysics:State
Fixations,NationalMaps,andtheGeo-Historical
ImaginationinNineteenth-CenturyMexico,’’
HispanicAmericanHistoricalReview82:1(2002).
Anearlierversionofchapter3wasoriginally
publishedas‘‘StandardPlotsandRuralResistance,’’
inTheMexicoReader:History,Culture,Politics,
editedbyGilbertM.JosephandTimothyJ.
Henderson.Durham:DukeUniversity
Press,2003.
✴
forcynthia

✴
Contents
ListofIllustrations, xi
Abbreviations, xiii
Acknowledgments, xv
Introduction:
WritingaSpatialHistoryofModernMexico, 1
1 TheTerrainofTradition, 19
2 FugitiveLandscapes, 55
3 StandardPlots, 91
4 SituatedKnowledges:
TheGeographicExplorationCommission(I), 127
5 SpatialProgressions:
TheGeographicExplorationCommission(II), 163
6 FluvialConfusions, 193
7 RevolutionarySpaces, 219
Epilogue:
‘‘Thesequestionswillneverend,’’255
Bibliography, 261
Index, 289