Changing Chapultepec: construction, consumption, and cultural politics in a Mexico City Forest, 1934-1944

Abstract

"Changing Chapultepec: Construction, Consumption, and Cultural Politics in a Mexico City Forest, 1934-1944" asks to whom does the forest belong? A study about how Chapultepec Forest in Mexico City became an emblematic space filled with didactic institutions, it argues that actors involved in social stabilization and economic modernization institutionalized the concept of "nature" in the urban environment, propagating social divisions through metaphors of naturalness to shape subjects in an era of heightened concern with both Mexicanness and foreign investment. Thus it documents the shifting understandings of what constituted nature through four thematic chapters looking at a failed international exposition, two foundational museums, an exhibition-, print- and legislative-based crusade against the use of charcoal, and out-of-doors sporting and consumer activities. These chapters detail conflicts among symbolism and materiality, popular access and privatization, and national goals and an effort to appeal to foreigners. Criminals, presidents, elite and working women, foreign businessmen, schoolchildren, entertainers, scientists, and civil servants among others demonstrate that though Chapultepec is considered a public space, its meaning and usage have been highly constructed and restricted.