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Archaeology and nature: hyblean cultural landscape and territorial ...

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environmental capacity” (16). In this light, it is reasonable to underst<strong>and</strong> preservation as the action that<br />

allowed the manifestation of the spirit, as established by the Foz Do Iguaçu declaration (2008).<br />

3. Mirador de los Nevados Park<br />

Fig. 1 Fig. 2<br />

Mirador de los Nevados Park is a metropolitan urban ecological park located a few blocks away from the<br />

downtown of Suba District in Bogotá <strong>and</strong> belongs to the Muisca Indigenous Reservation Area. The Park was<br />

created in 2002 as an attempt to give recognition to the Muisca Indigenous culture <strong>and</strong> its efforts to survive in<br />

the face of colonization <strong>and</strong> urbanization in Bogotá during the last century. It was built in a place that for<br />

more than fifty years served as a quarry <strong>and</strong> now is an environmental <strong>and</strong> ecological protected area. The<br />

park’s name literally means “Snow-capped Mountains Watch point”, due to the fact the place is the only spot<br />

in the city from where it is possible to appreciate three of the most important snow-capped mountains of the<br />

Colombian central Andes ridge: their names are Tolima, Ruiz <strong>and</strong> Santa Isabel.<br />

The site is one of the <strong>cultural</strong> <strong>and</strong> natural heritage places of the city <strong>and</strong> its architectural design is based on<br />

the Muisca Indigenous cosmology. Because of it historical, <strong>cultural</strong>, environmental <strong>and</strong> scenic values, the<br />

Mirador de los Nevados is an icon of the public space of the city. Furthermore, because of this minority’s<br />

<strong>cultural</strong> beliefs regarding <strong>nature</strong>’s protection, this park also became a platform for environmental<br />

conservation <strong>and</strong> education of the citizens. The development of non-formal environmental education<br />

strategies through the implementation of the program “Environmental Classrooms”, aims to empower the<br />

citizens <strong>and</strong> make them able to intervene <strong>and</strong> promote social actions on behalf of the improvement of their<br />

life quality <strong>and</strong> the environmental conditions of their territory.<br />

Is important to underst<strong>and</strong> the context within which the park Mirador de los Nevados was created. This site<br />

has a direct relation with the first inhabitants of the city in the district of Suba <strong>and</strong> their memory of the region.<br />

The historical <strong>and</strong> the socio-<strong>cultural</strong> dynamics that infuse the park are expressions of its Spirit of Place. The<br />

advent of a broad <strong>cultural</strong> heritage preservation ideal was the key to make the park part of the city’s<br />

sustainable development process.<br />

3.1. The context of the Park: Suba District history, Muisca community <strong>and</strong> their cosmology<br />

The district of Suba is located at the northwest border of the city. It dates back to pre-Hispanic times when<br />

the great Muisca family of tribes inhabited this place. These groups subsisted through an agri<strong>cultural</strong>-based<br />

economy, in which a commercial bartering system helped them exchange their products with other<br />

communities within the region. Their territory had a rich natural environment covered by forests, rivers <strong>and</strong><br />

lakes. In 1537, during the Spanish colonial period, the economic <strong>and</strong> political structure of the native<br />

population was dissolved <strong>and</strong> their l<strong>and</strong>s were expropriated. Centuries later, in 1954, Suba became a district<br />

of the city of Bogotá <strong>and</strong> six years later, due to its location, one of the engines of city’s development. During<br />

the 1980s, Bogota suffered a strong influx of immigrants <strong>and</strong> people from all over the country came over to<br />

Suba looking for better opportunities. This created a great <strong>cultural</strong> <strong>and</strong> ethnic diversity, but also the<br />

exacerbated complex social, <strong>cultural</strong>, economic <strong>and</strong> political tensions. Additionally, this area has the largest<br />

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