Las guías urbanas: imagen e invención del espacio de la Ciudad de México

In the last section there is an interpretative integration in order to place the change of perception on a timescale. To achieve this, the guide published by García Cubas in 1891 and Gante's guide (a Belgian historian)in 1940, were considered. In the space of one day, in the morning and/or afternoon, these authors proposed itineraries that, when comparing both editions, substantially changed the space perception for travelers. While García Cubas's guide indicates a departure beginning at the majestic Plaza de la Constitución, to penetrate into the streets among religious and public buildings, and finishing at the corporal and visual experience of Chapultepec, that of Gante suggested several routes by automobile to those localities with pre-Hispanic and Colonial origin in the Valley of Mexico. Thus, the traveler experienced a space shrinking, because in the same time lapse proposed by both guides he reached a longer distance and broadened his view of the territory, to such a degree that the 1940 guide placed nationality features within the list of suggested sites in each route. Social dissemination of automobiles modified the space perception in time and its use was at the base of changes in awareness about Mexican landscapes.