Pre-Hispanic “botanical” gardens? Nature as historical discourse in the cases of Tetzcotzingo and Oaxtepec, Mexico

Abstract

This research analyzes the historical narratives of pre-Hispanic gardens in Mexico as idealized representations of the management of nature in the scientific and nationalist discourses that interpreted them as «botanical». In the 19th century, national identity was based on the revaluation of the pre-Hispanic past, trying to establish the roots of the Mexican being, but without departing from European canons. The domestication of nature was no stranger to this way of interpreting history, as it resorted to the exaltation of the experiences of knowledge about the flora or vegetation of the societies of the past. However, the reading that was made did not necessarily consider the spatiotemporal context in which they arose and adapted a vindicatory discourse of gardens to the circumstances of Western scientism. To exemplify the above, two cases of pre-Hispanic gardens are used: Tetzcotzingo, state of Mexico, and Oaxtepec, in Morelos.