Modern turn, tourism and dichotomies of modernity. The case of the historical monuments of Campeche in the 1950s and 1960s. An approximation essay

Abstract

The process of modernization established in the 1950s and 1960s, both in the state and in the city of Campeche, favored the formation of different perspectives around tangible cultural heritage. Can be identified, at least, three points of view. One related with the modern turn in urban matters through the Plan Regulador de Campeche (Regulatory Plan of Campeche) of 1952: the rational definition of a space of historical monuments within the city. Another area was the discourse on tourism, which used the defensive system as a point of historical interest for visitors. It was a kind of valuation exercise of that part of the heritage. Finally, the dichotomy of modernity, as a tension between maintaining the vestiges or replacing them with the novel. All the above was part of a longer-term history that continues today: the social construction of tangible cultural heritage.