La Antigua: Mapping Religion
A Tourist's Map of La Antigua
This map reminds me of the ones we saw in class where they only drew the churches. It also sketches important figures on the bottom–famous Antiguans–and in the lower right–the cucuruchos who carry the processional floats each year during La Semana Santa. It also draws certain statues amusingly out of proportion in order to emphasize them. The only difference would have to be the gridded roads. Except the maps we saw in class were from the 1500s, and this is from August 2006. Literally 3/4 of the attractions are churches, convents, or monasteries. This map is obviously trying to use the draw of history and religion for tourism purposes. It enlarges all the churches, hotels (Las Casas), and major statues, and on the bottom lists all the processions during the Semana Santa parade, which are the primary source of tourism to Antigua. Most of the buildings have dates listed on them, showing pride in their antiquity (there is also a little historical sidebar on the left that goes back to the colonial period.) Also to the left of the “Antigua” sign is a bag of coffee, which is the second largest source of income in La Antigua, and may be interesting to tourists as well.
If we think about maps as a way of shaping information, it is clear by the building displays, the advertisements, and the informational bits what the creators of this map want you to see. Also important, though, is what they don’t want you to see. Everything between the buildings is a patch of red–does this reflect the color of the buildings? or is it just an arbitrary neutral color? It highly downplays the attraction of the common people, who make up as much of Antigua’s culture as the religion. Also, (this may be overspeculating), but there is no mention of the volcanoes that are so important to Antigua’s landscape. Many tourists come to climb the volcanoes as well, so it is interesting that they are excluded from the map. As Anna mentioned, this map was made recently after a volcanic eruption, which led to an increase of tourism to the area. However, religion still holds hegemony over tourism in Antigua.
I think this map suggests that Catholicism in Antigua has become more of a show than a meaningful religion. It is not only one of the major attractions, it is the major attraction. If your church and your religious year’s most important celebration is swamped with people who are not necessarily part of the religious community, but want to “check it out”, doesn’t it devalue your sense of what these rituals mean? Catholicism then becomes very public, instead of remaining the personal experience it is meant to be.
Hi Jenny,
Obviously, I’m also intrigued by the absence of volcanoes from this mapping. There may be a perfectly benign explanation—this seems to be a map strictly of Antigua and things to do within walking distance from the center of the city. As the volcanoes are several miles outside the city, perhaps the cartographers did not deem it necessary to include them. I looked up volcanic eruptions around the time that this map was created (2006) to see if there was an eruption that the tourism industry was eager to cover up. Interestingly, according to Wikipedia (always a reliable source of knowledge production), in 2006 lava rivers begin to flow down the slopes of Pacaya which actually increased tourism to the area. Presumably, those tourists would have stayed in Antigua which is only about 20 miles away. Based on this information, I am surprised that the volcanoes don’t make an appearance in the background somewhere as they clearly are an icon of the city and an attraction that draws tourists in.
I’m not sure what the interpretation for this absence is. My first inclination was that it was strictly a map of churches and thus was to be kept free of non-religious markers. However, I quickly dismissed that idea when I saw the advertisements for restaurants and tool stores lining the edges. Do you have any other thoughts as to why certain things are included or excluded from this map? For instance the Mercado is labeled, but there is no visual interpretation of it. Also, the Mercado de Artesanías which, if I’m not mistaken, is one block South of the Mercado, is not labeled at all.
Anna Gravier said this on April 28, 2011 at 6:24 PM
Hi Anna,
I agree, the volcano thing may have been a bit of a stretch. I do think it is interesting that religion has such hegemony over tourism in Antigua, because this is not a map of churches, it is a map of attractions. It seems that the only secular attractions drawn are the houses/hotels, the hospital, the Governor’s palace, and the university. Two of those are necessities for tourists, and the other two seem to be such central buildings. You point out that the mercados are not drawn; I think this shows that they want to advertise the religious aspects rather than the actual cultural lives of the people (and this is also shown in that no houses are drawn, only solid blocks of red.) But, by separating religion from the people, they are alienating those who are supposed to be the ones that build the foundation of the church. I think this is what I take most out of this map, and I may edit my little piece about the volcanoes with what you said–I think it is valuable to point out what image the creators of the map are trying make of Antigua.
Jenny
Jenny X said this on April 28, 2011 at 8:36 PM