Resumen

TAMAYO PEREZ, Luz María Oralia. Communication and generation of geographic knowledge in the nineteenth century. Francisco Jiménez and the Boletín of the Mexican Society of Geography and Statistics. Invest. Geog [online]. 2018, n.95. ISSN 2448-7279.  https://doi.org/10.14350/rig.59190.

During the nineteenth-century, the Mexican scientists and illustrated elites, anxious to create associations that allowed the establishment and diffusion of science in Mexico, supported the foundation of scientific associations such as the Mexican Society of Geography and Statistics (SMGE), this society concentrated the most outstanding scientists of that moment. One of the carefully cultivated sciences was Geography, a fundamental discipline for the knowledge of the national territory and its resources, topics of interest to the State, in which Geography and its professionals played an important role in activities such as obtaining geographic coordinates for defining borders, coasts and the country as a whole

The Social History of Science is the support for analyzing the papers of Francisco Jiménez, active member of the SMGE and prestigious scientific, who was author of various papers publishing in the Bulletin of this scientific society. The revision of the content of his articles in relation to the events that occurred in his time allows defining the profile of this researcher as a scientist and man of his time, who, despite the contradictions that he could not escape, developed an important work as a generator of scientific knowledge, communicator and disseminator of the advances of geography.

Francisco Jiménez de la Cuesta was born in 1824 and died in 1881 in Mexico; his life coincided with the nineteenth century Mexican conflicts. He graduated from the Military College and also studied and taught in the School of Mines where he obtained a Geographer Engineering degree. He joined as first engineer with the Mexican Boundary Commission, which was responsible for demarcating the border between Mexico and the United States of America. When the fieldwork and mapping were completed, he joined the public service and worked in various ministries of the Mexican government, mainly in the Ministry of Publics Works. He was an active member of the Mexican Society of Geography and Statistics and its Chairman in 1874. This scientific association held meetings where they followed the progress of science. Francisco Jiménez presented during the regular meetings various studies that contributed to a greater and more precise knowledge of the national territory. His relationships with scientists from around the world allowed him to note the advances in geography and related sciences that leading scientists had achieved in other countries. This paper presents some biographical data on Francisco Jiménez and analyses the articles that he published in the Bulletin of the Mexican Society of Geography and Statistics. These allowed the public dissemination of geographic knowledge that has reached to the present day, all within the theoretical framework of the Social History of Science. The importance of the topic lies in appreciating the work of Mexican scientists in the past, their accomplishments and their contributions to the advancement of science in Mexico, especially Geography.

Palabras llave : Geography and diffusion of science in Mexico; Francisco Jiménez; Bulletin of the Mexican Society of Geography and Statistics; XIX century.

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