Abstract

OLIVEIRA SANTOS, Rubens Vanderlan. Towards the Culvertization of the Río de San Francisco: A Chapter in the History of an Urban River. Hist. mex. [online]. 2021, vol.71, n.2, pp.899-946.  Epub Oct 18, 2021. ISSN 2448-6531.  https://doi.org/10.24201/hm.v71i2.4346.

The Río de San Francisco is a small river that crosses a large part of the downtown of the city of Puebla in a longitudinal fashion. Before being culvertized in 1963, with a boulevard built on top, this river had been considered to be a major part of the city’s urban environment and one of its most important spaces. Seeking to establish a dialogue with urban environmental history, this article analyzes the different ways the city and the river interacted at the end of the 19th Century and during the first six decades of the 20th, a moment characterized by a modernizing drive that culminated in the culvertization of the river. Using sources that include hydrological studies, press releases, maps and newspaper articles, this article offers an interpretation of how the Río de San Francisco began to be considered an urban element that was antithetical to the city, identifying the cultural, political, technical and environmental factors that fostered the project of culvertizing the river as a modernizing solution.

Keywords : Río de San Francisco; Puebla; Urbanization; Culvertization; Urban Rivers.

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