The Railway as a factor in the construction of urban-architectural identity

The Railroad as a factor in the construction of urban-architectural identity. The case of Ciudad Juarez.

Abstract

This paper focuses on the relationship between the arrival of the railway to the then Villa de Juárez (1884) and its subsequent designation as a city in 1888, a situation that began as an institutional recognition but would become a fundamental part of the identity-building process for the most important border city in the national territory. The identity generated and developed through the introduction of the railway system was further strengthened by the creation and appropriation of new needs, which shaped and transformed urban and architectural spaces, paving the way for collective identities. These identities were layered and composed by the arrival of diverse people, ideas, news, images, traditions, objects, concepts, values, and an array of elements essential to the identity formation of what would become Ciudad Juárez, all of which traveled through the train.