Naturalizing Modernity: Urban Parks, Public Gardens and Drainage Projects in Porfirian Mexico City

Abstract

This article argues that governmental modernization strategies in Mexico during the Porfiriato relied on calculated manipulations of nature. Using examples of urban gardens, public parks, and drainage works, this article explains how Porfirian scientists José Yves Limantour and Miguel Ángel de Quevedo tried to reformulate Mexican nature and its citizens. Rather than expelling all vestiges of nature from Mexico City, these scientists reordered and reformulated the natural world to fit their ideas about modernity. The control and display of nature marked an important strategy for a regime dedicated to order and progress.

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