doi: 10.62486/gen202446

SHORT COMMUNICATION

The urban transformation of San Luis Potosí through the plans of engineer Ignacio Maldonado (1898-1914)

La transformación urbana de San Luis Potosí a través de los planos del ingeniero Ignacio Maldonado (1898-1914)

Tomás Gómez Mata¹

¹Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, México.

Cite as: Gómez Mata T. A Transformação Urbana de San Luis Potosí através dos planos do engenheiroengenheiro Ignacio Maldonado (1898-1914). Gentrification. 2024; 2:46. https://doi.org/10.62486/gen202446

Submitted: 13-06-2023           Revised: 02-11-2023           Accepted: 24-04-2024           Published: 25-04-2024

Editor: Prof. Estela Hernández-Runque

ABSTRACT

The article analyzed the plans of San Luis Potosí made by the engineer Ignacio Maldonado in 1898 and 1914, highlighting their relevance as witnesses to the growth and urban transformation of the city. It was argued that the plans and maps not only represent a geographical space, but also reflect the social, political and cultural conditions of their time. Engineer Maldonado, originally from Zacatecas, played a crucial role in the urban and infrastructure development of San Luis Potosí. He studied at the National School of Engineering and participated in various construction, urbanization and irrigation projects. His first map of the city, published in 1898, offered a detailed image of the urban space, demonstrating the modernization promoted during the Porfiriato. In 1914, his second version of the map reflected changes in street nomenclature, territorial expansion and the transformation of public spaces in the context of the Mexican Revolution. The article highlighted the importance of these cartographic documents as tools of urban identity, as they allowed citizens to visualize their territory and its development. In addition, the role of the state in urban planning was emphasized, as well as the debates among engineers about building regulations. Finally, it was concluded that these plans not only recorded the physical growth of the city, but also served as a testimony to the impact of historical and political processes on its evolution.

Keywords: Urban Cartography; Ignacio Maldonado; San Luis Potosí; Urban Transformation; Historical Plans.

RESUMEN

El artículo analizó los planos de San Luis Potosí realizados por el ingeniero Ignacio Maldonado en 1898 y 1914, destacando su relevancia como testigos del crecimiento y transformación urbana de la ciudad. Se argumentó que los planos y mapas no solo representan un espacio geográfico, sino que también reflejan las condiciones sociales, políticas y culturales de su época. El ingeniero Maldonado, originario de Zacatecas, desempeñó un papel crucial en el desarrollo urbano y de infraestructura en San Luis Potosí. Realizó estudios en la Escuela Nacional de Ingeniería y participó en diversas obras de construcción, urbanización e irrigación. Su primer plano de la ciudad, publicado en 1898, ofreció una imagen detallada del espacio urbano, evidenciando la modernización promovida durante el Porfiriato. En 1914, su segunda versión del plano reflejó los cambios en la nomenclatura de calles, la expansión territorial y la transformación de espacios públicos en el contexto de la Revolución Mexicana. El artículo destacó la importancia de estos documentos cartográficos como herramientas de identidad urbana, ya que permitieron a los ciudadanos visualizar su territorio y su desarrollo. Además, se enfatizó el papel del Estado en la planificación urbana, así como los debates entre ingenieros sobre las regulaciones de construcción. Finalmente, se concluyó que estos planos no solo registraron el crecimiento físico de la ciudad, sino que también sirvieron como testimonio del impacto de los procesos históricos y políticos en su evolución.

Palabras clave: Cartografía Urbana; Ignacio Maldonado; San Luis Potosí; Transformación Urbana; Planos Históricos.

INTRODUCTION

Plans and maps are a social construction of our environment expressed through cartography. These images that represent a historical era become a photograph of that moment, of that society in Potosí that appropriated its space, buildings, palaces, temples, cemeteries, streets, and avenues with nomenclatures imposed from the spheres of political power, as Harley points out, ” far from functioning as a simple image of nature, maps, like any other document, re-describe the world in terms of power relations and practices, and cultural preferences and priorities” (Harley, 2005, pp. 61-62).

To understand the historical importance of these documentary vestiges, it is necessary to decode them, to understand them from their historical context as a representation of reality, images loaded with intentions that can be studied in the society of their time. Thus, citizens visualize the size of their city, its extension, and contours through the map. In this way, the map is a necessary tool through which it is hoped that citizens will develop an affective feeling towards their territory. (Parellada, 2017, p. 316).

Given the historical relevance of our city’s urban space, we analyze two general maps of San Luis Potosí produced by Ignacio Maldonado. These plans, 16 years apart, reflect a city in full expansion during the transition between the 19th and 20th centuries. In that period, the capital of San Luis Potosí witnessed critical social and political processes whose effects transcended the national level, as it went from the “Porfirian Peace” to the convulsive events of the Mexican Revolution.

DEVELOPMENT

The engineer Ignacio Maldonado (1870-1933)

Ignacio Maldonado García drew up two general plans of the city of San Luis Potosí, the first published in 1898 by the Workshops of the Military Industrial School and the second in 1914 by the Lithographic and Typographic Company. The author was born in Sombrerete, Zacatecas, in 1870. He completed his preparatory studies at the Institute of Sciences in that state. He was awarded a scholarship by the state government to continue his professional studies at the National School of Engineering. He completed his degree in Civil Engineering in July 1894. The Mexico City newspaper El Eco-Social referred to the event as follows: “We congratulate the young Maldonado for having achieved the ideal he was pursuing and the State for its good sense in not making the sacrifices that the State makes in favor of its children fruitless.” (El Eco Social, July 26, 1894).

The services of the professional engineer were indispensable for the material development of nineteenth-century Mexico, the construction of roads, railways, ports, and canals, and the drawing up of plans for the entire scientific and exact knowledge of the population. It was during the Porfiriato that a constant interest in teaching engineering in higher education institutions became apparent, and study plans were reformed with specific measures for realizing its labor practice. (Bazant, 1995, pp. 167-198.)

In the case of San Luis Potosí, engineering was one of the degrees studied at the Scientific and Literary Institute of San Luis Potosí. In 1898, the state governor, General Carlos Díez Gutiérrez, reformed the Secondary Education Act, and the mining engineering and topographical engineering syllabuses were modified. In the fourth year of the latter, general practice was carried out, including drawing up plans and constructing geographical charts, all under the direction of a qualified engineer in the field, one of them being the civil engineer Ignacio Maldonado.

On July 28, 1899, Ignacio Maldonado became embroiled in a controversy with the City Engineer, Arturo Bustamante, over the construction of buildings in the capital of San Luis Potosí. This debate was recorded in the pages of the newspaper El Contemporáneo between July 26 and August 2 of that year. Bustamante proposed to the City Council a series of specific reforms to the Regulations for the construction of buildings in San Luis Potosí, pointing out that the powers of the “Public Works Commission” were imprecise. He also pointed out that in other cities in the country, there were laws that regulated not only the construction of buildings but all types of civil constructions, to guarantee their stability, and free transit, and to facilitate the “embellishment of the population.”

What Bustamante wanted was to remove Article 3 of the regulations, which initially established as an essential requirement that building licenses be granted to people who held any engineering qualification in all its branches, which is why, in his words, the city engineer believed that ” for a Public Works Commission, the guarantee of a degree is insufficient. It has to be convinced of the aptitude of the individual who proposes to construct a work. Often, a doctor skilled in one science is not so in another in which a person without a degree may be suitable”. He added that ‘in this capital, although there are enough engineers who meet the conditions, there are few who practice their profession.’ Therefore, for the building license to be requested, the work’s deadline, form, and dimensions had to be stated, in addition to the forms and dimensions of the materials used. (El Contemporáneo, July 27, 1899).

In response, Ignacio Maldonado, together with the engineer Pedro M. Linares, responded to the intentions of the modification of the public works regulations, mentioning that, as engineers exercising their rights, they could not let the matter pass in silence, as it could be interpreted as a tacit agreement that they would not accept; they declared that they would deal “in detail” with the study and discussion of the reforms proposed by the city engineer. (El Contemporáneo, July 29, 1899).

Bustamante was quick to respond, alluding to the fact that the objective of his proposal was to facilitate the prompt processing of applications relating to the construction of buildings in the city. He was surprised that “these gentlemen” were surprised that the city engineer had made “such proposals.” Finally, he considered it an anticipated protest on the part of Maldonado and Linares since the proposals he had made had no force of law, and admitted that he would defend his ideas with reasoned arguments: “I will not establish anything equal to the rules of those sciences which, according to these gentlemen, do not admit approximation; my reasoning will be derived from sound principles and free from suggestions of any unworthy partiality”. (El Contemporáneo, July 30, 1899).

In a later reply, Maldonado argued about the need to give its true importance to “the title” he argued that “it must be borne in mind that the titles of architect, civil engineer, and military engineer that are sanctioned and issued respectively by the Academy of San Carlos, the National School of Engineers and the Military College of Chapultepec are not sanctioned and issued by a simple formula, especially when they are authorized by judges who are very competent in the field and of recognized knowledge”. Engineer Maldonado defended his work as a professional so that ‘they’ would be the ones preferred by the authorities, not only in construction work but also in sanitation, urban development, and other works necessary for large cities. (El Contemporáneo, August 2, 1899).

Later, around November 1902, the engineer Maldonado would work on irrigation projects at the Hacienda de la Angostura (Ríoverde, S.L.P.), essential work for the cotton cultivation that took place there, and whose owners were the Espinosa y Cuevas brothers. Ignacio Maldonado had a certain reputation as a professional in the local environment, as he appears in the General Directory of the Mexican Republic for the year 1903 together with other colleagues from San Luis Potosí such as Luis E. Reyes, José Espinosa y Cuevas, Teodoro Parvín, Mariano Reyes, Luis Noriega, Francisco Gándara, Mariano Vildósola, Arturo Bustamante, Luis G. Cuevas, José María Gómez del Campo, Luis Barragán, as well as Guillermo Reitter, of German origin. That same year he joined the “Association of Engineers and Architects of Mexico,” as recorded in the Annals of that organization.

In April 1904, Maldonado was commissioned by the governor of San Luis Potosí, the engineer Blas Escontría, to conduct a study on the construction of the San Ciro dam. His work involved locating the basin containing the water to supply that town. By the end of that year, the engineer took charge of the plans for the new “Police Station,” a project that was finally inaugurated on May 5, 1905. This public safety building was an initiative of the Political Chief Rafael I. González and was approved by the governor.

In the ordinary session of the town council on May 4, 1905, the proposal of the municipal President Rafael Rodríguez for Ignacio Maldonado to occupy the position of city engineer was accepted. He also stands out for having been part of the examining commission for the works to create a monumental arch commemorating the “Centenary of National Independence.” The commission was formally constituted on June 2, 1908, by agreement of the Town Council of San Luis Potosí, chaired by Rafael Rodríguez. In addition to Maldonado, the engineers Luis G. Cuevas, Juan Puente Valerio, and Mariano J. Reyes were the judges who would decide on the projects presented to construct a monumental arch.

The City Council offered a gold medal with allusive inscriptions and the contract to carry out the work as a prize. It was not until August that the commission chaired by Cuevas and Maldonado announced the winner of the “Pro Patria” project, which corresponded to the author Luis Igueravide Franco. Unfortunately for the city, the monumental work was not carried out. The City Council claimed it did not have enough budget “to attend to other needs.” However, Igueravide was awarded a medal of 120 grams of gold and $200,00 as “a souvenir from the city council for this city.”

At the end of 1908, the Association of Engineers of Mexico held its annual meeting and made an inspection visit to Puerto México (now Coatzacoalcos). Engineer Maldonado, who had also been part of the inspection of the port of Tampico, was part of the delegation. In August 1915, Ignacio Maldonado asked the San Luis Potosí City Council to pay his fees for the measurements and valuation of the city’s cemeteries, which was resolved a month later. The engineer continued to work for the municipality, such as drawing up plans for the Rastro and the Police Car Department, charging $80,00 for this.

In 1918, Ignacio Maldonado was appointed mining expert for the Mining Agency of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in San Luis Potosí. He carried out his work conducting expert appraisals of the concessions requested from the mining organization on March 14 of that year. In 1919, he moved to Mexico City, residing at 6ª Calle del Factor núm. 86, but continued to work at the Mining Agency, his appointment being ratified on July 8, 1919. The engineer died in April 1933 and was buried in the Dolores Civil Pantheon in the Mexican capital.

General plan of San Luis Potosí was drawn up by Ignacio Maldonado, civil engineer, 1898

In the report submitted by the substitute governor Juan Flores Ayala to the XVII State Congress on September 15, 1897, the Potosi leader emphasized the prestige of the Scientific and Literary Institute professionals and pointed out that the city plan survey was about to be completed and that the government had paid for it.

The General Plan of the city was published in 1898 by the Lithographic Workshops of the Military Industrial School, a state institution then directed by Aurelio B. Cortés. Maldonado would claim the intellectual property of the plan years later. The document has a scale of 1: 4000, and the approximate measurements are 116 x 87 cm. Attached to the map, in the lower left-hand corner, is a table showing the temples and prominent buildings in the city. The profusion of detail is appreciated, as is the precise nomenclature of streets and avenues; 21 of the temples are marked, including those located in the city center: the Cathedral, Compañía, El Carmen, San Francisco, San Agustín, San Juan de Dios, among others.

The Plano de Maldonado, a well-defined lithographed map of good manufacture, shows us the vision of a city in full urban growth at the end of the 19th century, with a well-defined nucleus in which a large part of the population of Potosí was concentrated. It shows faint ochre colors in urban areas and shaded areas referring to non-urbanized areas. About the latter, the territory is perceived as large expanses of vegetable gardens and plantations to the north and west of the city, framed along the course of the Santiago River.

To the north of the city, across the river, the railway lines to the Compañía Metalúrgica Mexicana, a US-owned mining smelting company established in 1892 to the west of San Luis, are marked on the map. With the industry in full swing and the arrival of the railroad, exceptional growth was generated. Consequently, there was a modernization of streets and avenues, lighting, and municipal cleaning services. An example of this model was Avenida Carlos Díez Gutiérrez (now Avenida Venustiano Carranza), which started at the Corriente Seca and stretched westwards, ending at the old Templo de Tequisquiapan. SometimeA road would be opened to the hamlet of Los Morales sometime later.

The Charcos de Santa Ana were located in a large lake area southwest of the city. These were fed by the remnants of the stream that ran through the streets of la Zanja (Coronel Romero). At the southern end, on 7th Calle del Zapote, is the church of San Juan de Guadalupe, immersed among the tiny streets and vegetable gardens of the populous neighborhood.

Starting from the south, two tall, slender towers emerged that travelers would see when they arrived in the city: the Sanctuary of Guadalupe, the final destination of the pilgrimages along the long road that still bears its name. Along this road from the Sanctuary to the city center, you can see the Campos or Llanos de Paredes and, right in front, the final stage of the Penitentiary, whose construction had begun in 1884; to one side, the land for the construction of the Military Industrial School, which had been initially planned for the space now occupied by the 12th Military Zone Barracks, was marked out on the map.

Heading towards the Plaza de Armas, just before reaching the Plaza Colón (Colón Garden), one had to cross a small stream of water on Peñuñuri Street (now Miguel Barragán); from side to side of the causeway were the iconic villages of San Miguelito and San Sebastián. Immersed in the city’s center, the recently inaugurated Gran Teatro de la Paz (1894) stands out. Behind it, on Calle de la Reforma (now Constitución), a well-defined Alameda, on the east side was the Ferrocarril Nacional Mexicano station, and the Ferrocarril Central Mexicano station to the north. In the far east of the city, leaving the city via Rioverde Street, was the new Paseo Bullring, inaugurated in November 1895, named for its proximity to the Alameda, then recognized as the city’s most important public promenade.

Trade was undoubtedly one of the most significant activities for the people of San Luis Potosí. The location of the city’s markets was strategic for its development; the Porfirio Díaz Market (now Hidalgo) is recognized on the map between Miguel Hidalgo and Alhóndiga streets, an area that to this day thrives on trade. Near the ditch, in the Plazuela del Rastro and Calle de la Matanza, a “market under construction” exists in the quadrant. This refers to the one that would be built shortly afterward and known as the Juárez Market, which no longer exists. Heading south along Zaragoza Street, in an area commonly known as La Merced, is the Colón Market (now La Merced Market), next to the square of the same name.

As for the cemeteries, in addition to Saucito, by 1898, there were several graveyards in the city represented on this map, most of them in disuse; at the southern end, just to the east of the Sanctuary of Guadalupe on the road to Simón Díaz, was the Old Cemetery, which was of considerable size. Along Calle del Camposanto (now Constitución) behind the New Penitentiary was the smaller San Sebastián Pantheon.

Near Llanos de Paredes was the Guadalupe Pantheon, between Calle de 5 de Mayo and Real de San Juan; the San Miguelito Pantheon was on 3ª Calle del Camposanto (now León García), as well as the Tequisquiapan Pantheon, which was also on a street of the same name, 4ª Calle del Camposanto (now Mariano Otero) and García Diego. In the Santiago neighborhood, the Pantheon was located on 1st Calle de la Paz, just in front of the square; Tlaxcalilla would also have its cemetery on Moctezuma Street, but it does not appear on the map. The last one inside the city was located in the jurisdiction of the Montecillo neighborhood, an important cemetery that was demolished to make way for the construction of the railroad workshops during the revolutionary government of Rafael Cepeda in 1912.

Another essential aspect to point out about the city of San Luis Potosí at the end of the 19th century is health: the Military Hospital was located on 1st Calle de Cuauhtémoc, covering a block between Gómez Pedraza (now Calle Tomasa Estévez) and Plazuela del Rastro; the work of Dr. Miguel Otero, the Children’s Hospital, located on Calzada de Guadalupe; while the Civil Hospital was located next to the Temple of San José (now Calle de Negrete).

In the revision of the 1898 map, it can be seen how some of the streets kept their current names, while others gave way to the modernization of the city. The nomenclature changed when they were given the names of the heroes of our history, a situation that is perceived more clearly in the map that the engineer Ignacio Maldonado drew up in 1914.

Around November 1913, Maldonado asked to be recognized as the sole author of the plan; he sent the notification to the Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts of the Huerta government, and he requested the “artistic ownership of the General Plan of the city of San Luis Potosí” this declaration would correspond to the 1898 plan: “I am the author of a General Plan of the City of San Luis Potosí and, to prevent others from reproducing it in whole or in part, on any scale, I declare before you, in compliance with Article 1234 of the Civil Code of the District and Federal Territories, that I reserve the artistic property of the plan above, of which I enclose three copies in compliance with the law. Mexico, November 7, 1913.” (Official Gazette, November 12, 1913.)

The letter was received, and its reply was published by order of the undersecretary, head of the Statistics, Archives and Information section, Miguel E. Schultz, in the following terms, “the President of the Republic has taken note of your letter, dated today, in which, by article 1234 of the Civil Code, you declare that you reserve the artistic property rights that you are entitled to as author concerning the General Plan of the City of San Luis Potosí, a declaration that is of course ordered to be published in the Official Gazette. The following year, an updated version of Maldonado’s map will be published.

General plan of San Luis Potosí was drawn up by Ignacio Maldonado, civil engineer, 1914

The 1914 General Plan is based on the previous one already mentioned - drawn up sixteen years earlier - the engineer Ignacio Maldonado updates the nomenclature of streets and avenues and adds the new buildings existing at that time. This time, the document was printed and published by the Compañía Litográfica y Tipográfica, and although the scale is the same as that of 1898 (1: 4000), the measurements of the plan are smaller, corresponding to 105 x 84 cm. It is also divided into quadrants, on the horizontal axis from A to N and on the vertical axis from 1 to 18. Like the previous map, this one contains a table of the city’s temples and buildings and also adds, as new features, the lines of the electric and steam trams, the tram depot, the Luz y Fuerza Eléctrica plant, the Hospital de los Ferrocarriles, as well as the General Headquarters and the Penitentiary, among the most important.

In the historical context of the General Plan, 1914 was a crucial year in Mexican history. Between April and June of that year, the fragility of Victoriano Huerta’s government had been disrupted after the defeat at Torreón and the capture of Zacatecas by the Northern Division under the command of Francisco Villa. The political crisis generated in the country by the imminent fall of the Huerta regime was reflected in the city of San Luis Potosí, the capital occupied by the constitutionalists on June 18, 1914.

The first troops to enter the city were those of Alberto Carrera Torres and later those of General Eulalio Gutiérrez,, appointed provisional governor and San Luis Potosí military commander on July 21 of that year. (Silva Herzog, 1995, p. 96). One of the first acts of his government “was to expel the priests from the city because, in his words, one was enough. He also ordered the demolition of the old temple of Tequisquiapan, in a similar action to that of the liberal González Ortega during the War of Reform.” (Monroy Castillo, et al, 1997, p.239)

Regarding this point, we can see on Maldonado’s map the western extension of Avenida Carlos Díez Gutiérrez, on which the Temple of Tequisquiapan, which was demolished in September 1914, no longer appears, which is why the document to which we refer in this section was published at the end of that year. Villar Rubio mentions that the growth of the city was remarkable; the urban sprawl had extended notoriously; the area close to the Jardín Morelos in the Tequisquiapan neighborhood “was the area where the large residences of the Potosi bourgeoisie were built, just as happened on the Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City.” (Villar Rubio, 2000, p. 58.)

An example of this was the Reforma neighborhood, which was located between Mariano Otero and General Armijo streets (now Alfredo M. Terrazas); another of the new settlements in the south of the city was the Juárez neighborhood, which was located on Calzada de Guadalupe on the land known as Llanos de Paredes. In the same area but close to the San Sebastián Pantheon, the construction project for what would become the Colonia del Centenario (now the Colonia Julián Carrillo) is in full swing.

La Calzada de Guadalupe was the avenue that underwent the most significant transformation in the early years of the 20th century. In 1907, the Federal Barracks were built; next to it was the Military Industrial School, which, from 1908, occupied the same building that had housed the Agricultural, Livestock and Industrial Exhibition (now the Damián Carmona Boarding School). On the same avenue was the Diocesan Hospital of San Carlos Borromeo, formerly the Children’s Hospital, which had been acquired by Bishop Ignacio Montes de Oca in 1910.

In the vicinity of the Paseo de la Constitución Alameda, on the north side, was the station of the National Railways of Mexico, which had unified the railways of the National Mexican with those of the Central. On the east side were the freight warehouses, and following the railroad line to the north were the warehouses, offices, and workshops that occupied part of the old Montecillo Cemetery, demolished in 1912. On Insurgentes de San Luis street in the Montecillo neighborhood was the National Railway Hospital, and one block south of this building, on Jiménez Street (now Manuel José Othón), was the Luz y Fuerza Eléctrica plant, now part of the Federal Electricity Commission.

Towards the west, an area in the process of urbanization, on a block that included Víctor Rosales Street to the north, Nicolás Zapata to the south, Benigno Arriaga to the west, and Verástegui Street (now Tomasa Estévez) to the east, was the location of the Industrial Company of Jorge Unna, which, in the words of Silva Herzog, was the most crucial furniture factory in Mexico, ” it was huge, with beautiful gardens in the center and the buildings of the different workshops on either side. In the center, at the back, was the management area. It consisted of a reception room, the office of the director, a man named Valero, and the offic,e of the owner’s son behind it. (Silva Herzog. 1986, p. 15)

The tram depot was on the old street, at that time called Calle de la Reforma. The map shows the routes of this means of transport; one went towards Morales along Av. Carlos Díez Gutiérrez and to the south, following Calle de Independencia, went as far as Miguel Barragán. To the north, the route went towards El Saucito along Avenida Libertad (now Damián Carmona). In contrast, to the south, the route followed Calle de Morelos to the Jardín Colón and continued along the Calzada de Guadalupe until it reached the Sanctuary. Another route to the southeast of the city also started from the Escontría Garden, continued along Constitución Street to the Lerdo de Tejada Garden (San Sebastián), and then along Sevilla and Olmedo. A tramway to Soledad Díez Gutiérrez departed from the side of the railway station along Porfirio Díaz Avenue (now 20 de Noviembre).

The streets acquired a new meaning: Callejón de Rocha, behind the church of San Sebastián, changed its name to José María Arteaga on April 3, 1903, and the street of Cabrera was also renamed Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada. In 1906, Federico Meade proposed to the municipal council the name of Corregidora for the new street that had been opened to the public between 7th de la Zanja (Reforma) and 1st de Zacatecas (Pedro Moreno), which was approved and remains.

On January 14, 1908, the name Nejayote was changed to De Herrera Street, between Simón Bolívar and Manuel del Conde streets. In the city center, Apartado Street changed to República (now Francisco I. Madero); Alegría Street to Pascual M. Hernández; Alfalfa became Damián Carmona (now Primero de Mayo); in the area near the Alameda, the streets whose names were changed at the suggestion of Francisco de Asís Castro were Hospital Civil for Negrete; Esperanza for Lanzagorta and Progreso for Parrodi, among others.

Furthermore, as part of the Independence commemorations, the municipal President Rafael Rodríguez proposed to name Maltos Street Centenario Street. This measure would come into force on September 15, 1910, but it would not be until February 1916 that the name Centenario would be adopted for the entire length of Díez Gutiérrez Avenue.

Thus, the General Plan of 1914 shows a renewed city of San Luis Potosí, with monuments and newly constructed buildings in line with the idea of progress and modernity that prevailed at the time, with traditional neighborhoods integrated into the city, expansion and opening of streets and avenues, modern nomenclature, lighting, new neighborhoods, squares and refurbished gardens, expansion of telephone and telegraph lines, trains and trams as means of communication; but despite these advances, it would not fail to bring with it the urban problems of any growing city.

CONCLUSIONS

At the turn of the 20th century, the period in which Maldonado’s two plans were published, the capital of San Luis Potosí underwent a rapid process of urban transformation; the engineer’s work shows the growth, development, and modernization of the urban structure in 1898 and the changes it underwent by 1914. In this context, streets were beautified, avenues widened, the mansions of the Potosi bourgeoisie were built in Ignacio Zaragoza and Mariano Arista, new neighborhoods were built on Díez Gutiérrez Avenue and Calzada de Guadalupe, and squares and new gardens were renovated, such as Escobedo, Escontría, and Villerías, among others.

The change in street names is also noteworthy, moving from a generic nomenclature that alluded to the conditions of the place itself (of the irrigation ditch, the stream, the waterwheel, the plain, the alfalfa, orange trees, and flowers) and even repetitive (there were several streets called cemetery) to be gradually replaced by the names of people associated with the Independence and the Reform.

The changes in urban infrastructure were very evident. In the cultural sphere, in addition to the already existing Teatro de la Paz and Teatro Alarcón, the Teatro Manuel José Othón was built on 1st Calle del Centenario (now Calle de Venustiano Carranza), and the Teatro O’Farrill on 2nd Calle de Juárez (Álvaro Obregón). In the economic sphere, Hidalgo Street became the most important commercial thoroughfare in the city. On this street was the La Exposición department store and the Palacio de Cristal, a shopping complex built in 1909 on the former Beaterio de San Nicolás Obispo site. On the fourth street from Hidalgo, the Palacio Mercantil de Eduardo y Gerardo Meade, a building used for housing and commerce; on the next block, there was the Alhóndiga building, which had been sold by the state government by 1912.

The modernity and the idea of progress materialized in the city can be perceived in the change of the urban structure between both plans (1898-1914), the extension of Díez Gutiérrez Avenue, Juárez Street (now Obregón), which had been widened after the demolition of the old Beaterio, on this street was the Banco de San Luis (now the headquarters of a Citibanamex branch). We must also mention the modern railroad workshops built in a large area belonging to Montecillo and the unification of the railroad station located on the north side of the Alameda designed to improve passenger service.

New constructions that gave a new face to the city of San Luis Potosí, such as the Palacio Monumental on the corner of Aldama and República (now Francisco I. Madero) streets, as well as the expansion of Sociedad Potosina La Lonja, a luxury building. In addition to the Ipiña Building, the work of the engineer Octaviano Cabrera on Calle del Centenario; the Federal Palace (formerly Palacio Martí) opposite the Teatro de la Paz; the Escuela Modelo, the building of the Escuela Industrial Militar, the Cuartel Militar and the Cuadra de Policía on Calle de la Reforma, formerly Corriente.

To show a modern image of the city that would give an account of the progress achieved, works were planned to commemorate the Centenary of Independence, for example, the clock in the Jardín Colón (donated by the city’s Spanish colony); the Monument to the Heroes of Independence in the Jardín Escobedo, the Alameda Lighthouse, the north tower of the Cathedral and four flying buttresses in the Hidalgo Garden. In addition, a “monumental arch” was planned for Avenida Díez Gutiérrez, a project that failed to materialize in 1908 due to lack of funds.

For the city’s inhabitants, the plans represented an approach to and knowledge of the city and the buildings shown on them. These constructions had such significance, both for the inhabitants and for outsiders, that they became points of reference that served to identify spaces and places and give a sense of appropriation and identity. (Pérez Salas, p. 109)).

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

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FUNDING

None.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTION

Conceptualization: Tomás Gómez Mata.

Formal analysis: Tomás Gómez Mata.

Writing - original draft: Tomás Gómez Mata.

Writing - revision and editing: Tomás Gómez Mata.