El lugar de los Animales Silvestres en la Ciudad de México: Reflexiones Cartográficas de la Museología del Zoológico de Chapultepec “Alfonso L. Herrera”

Abstract

The centenary Chapultepec Zoo “Alfonso L. Herrera” in Mexico City has created a place for animals considered wild in the popular imagination through zoological museology, because since 1924 representative specimens of Mexican and worldwide fauna have been exhibited for recreational and educational purposes, guided by the exploitation of the charisma of animals in favor of the regime in power. Under this premise, we seek to contribute methodologically to the history of animals through the use of zoo plans as a documentary source, evidence of the changes in material culture on the arrangement of fauna in the exhibits, where the contrast between the representations of nature allows us to identify museological criteria guided by political and scientific imperatives. The historical analysis of zoological museology is a powerful tool to observe the adoption of animals in the ideology of the nation project, since through public exhibition symbols are distributed that juxtapose epistemic, aesthetic, economic and ecological valuations of nature. In this way, a cartographic casuistry is proposed to locate the representations of wildlife in public spaces, a useful heuristic for interdisciplinary discussion on the social relations behind animal captivity.