The Park as a Political Artifact: the Politicization Processes in the Creation of Three Metropolitan Parks in Mexico City

Abstract

This article analyzes the politicization processes in the context of the creation of three metropolitan parks in Mexico City:Parque Bicentenario, created on the grounds of a former oil refinery; Parque La Mexicana, created in an old sand mine; and the incorporation of a military camp as the Fourth Section of Chapultepec. By documenting the controversies surrounding its creation and analyzing the discourses of the promoters behind these projects, it is argued that the park has been mobilized as a discursive artifact to politicize social and governmental revindications of the city in the context of the decisions about what to do on a vacant lot. However, these spaces have also been selectively mobilized, using various depoliticizing modalities, to obscure and neutralize controversies related to their creation.