railroad as a factor of change: Transformation, assimilation, and social configuration in Yucatán, 1874 to 1928

Abstract

This article aims to reflect on the irruption generated by the railroad in Yucatan through the incorporation of its infrastructure in space, as well as the ways in which it was assimilated by society, from its arrival in 1874 until the third decade of the twentieth century. In other words, the text reviews how the arrival of the train weaved a narrative of development that went hand in hand with the laying of tracks and stations, elements that not only became evidence of the modernizing discourse of the time, but also a dynamic of assimilation and transformation of social life. The relevance of the review lies in exploring an additional gap to the studies that have tried to measure the footprint left by this means of transportation in the economic and political fields. The construction of the article was carried out through a bibliographic review, which was linked to primary sources: speeches, maps, and photographs. The confrontation of these materials allowed us to observe that the arrival of the railroad not only had quantitative effects in terms of transportation, but also inserted an industrial work system and with it a new language in a predominantly agrarian space, as well as a redefinition of places through the creation of buildings called stations, which were assimilated as new points of reference for localities and social life.