Abstract

Robert West's (1948) work on the Sierra Tarasca (Purépecha) of Michoacán documented the cultural and physical geography of the region, provided a snapshot of cultural patterns at mid-century, and assessed cultural change from the pre-Spanish era to the twentieth century. A selection of landscape photographs from this work, and some of West's subsequent trips to the region, provide a baseline for documenting landscape change over the last 50 years. Comparison of repeat photography from the region reinforces some understandings about contemporary Mexico -- population growth and urban growth -- but also brings into question presumptions about change in the biophysical landscape. An assumption that deforestation is a leading cause of landscape change in Mexico is not supported from these photographs. There appears to be no marked decrease in forest boundaries between the 1940s and 1990s and in some cases former agricultural fields have forest regrowth. Some areas that West described as severely degraded appear to have more vegetation today. Accompanying urban growth has been an increase in the urban forest, yielding a visual impression of overall increase in vegetation. Field observations confirm, however, a more complicated picture. What appears to be intact forest is in fact degraded, in shrubby regrowth, or selectively cut. An overall decline in agricultural area results from urban growth but also from changes in agricultural policy. Comparison of landscape images over time offers an opportunity to assess our perceptions of landscape change and to formulate research questions.

Introduction

Social, economic, and political events in Mexico over the twentieth century have resulted in dramatic transformations of land use and 1ifeways. The Mexican Revolution and subsequent Constitution of 1917 ushered in the era of land reform resulting in redistribution of lands to communal landholdings known as ejidos. Improvements in transport over the century have opened up formerly isolated regions. Population has increased almost sixfold from about 15 million in 1910 to about 100 million in 2000. The neoliberal reforms of the late twentieth century have removed restrictions on ejido properties, allowing them to return to the private domain, and have also removed subsidies for traditional agricultural crops resulting in the abandonment of agricultural lands. Proximity to the U.S. has been another factor shaping the Mexican landscape, as the ongoing exchange of ideas, goods, and people affects economic patterns, material culture, and the built environment. These landscape changes include abandonment of agricultural fields, urban development, and degradation of forest resources.

A rich resource for analyzing the effects of these factors on the Mexican landscape is the photography archives of Robert C. West in the Geography and Anthropology Department at Louisiana State University. West spent his [end p. 139]academic life studying Latin America and traveled frequently to the region. Most of his travel was to Mexico and his photographs document a vast array of material culture and landscape features. In this paper we use repeat landscape photography to gauge landscape change in the Sierra Tarasca or Purépecha of Michoacán.¹ Repeat photography offers a valuable descriptive tool for understanding landscape change (see Bahre and Bradbury 1978; Veblen and Lorenz 1991). Whereas empirical and theoretical assessments of change in the physical and human arenas contribute to our understanding of change, repeat photography provides an important visual means of testing assumptions about the nature and quality of landscape transformations.

West's work on the Sierra Tarasca of Michoacán (1948) was completed as part of a job for the Smithsonian Institution where he worked as a cultural geographer on an ethnography of the Tarascan Indians (Anderson 1998). He returned to this area only in passing, not to do further research. As a result, his photographs of Michoacán are relatively few in number compared to the whole inventory of his Mexico photographs. We have tapped only a fraction of his work in our analysis of these photographs of Michoacán. In addition to the field work he did in 1946-1948, he traveled through the area in 1958, 1967, and 1970. The photographs that resulted from these trips are cataloged and labeled with series number, month and year, and a short description.

The Regional Setting

The Sierra Purépecha of Michoacán is a volcanic plateau in west-central Mexico (Figure 1). It lies to the south of the old Mexico City - Guadalajara highway, about halfway between the two cities. Elevation of the plateau surface is about 1830m, with volcanic cinder cones and peaks rising above the surface. The highest peaks define the western edge of the cultural and physical region and are over 3650m (Cerro Patamban at 3740m and Pico de Tancitaro at 3845m). The eastern edge of the region is framed by Lake Pátzcuaro and the core of the culture region falls roughly within the triangle formed by these physical features. As West documents in his 1948 study, the Purépecha culture region is much reduced from former times. This trend has continued over the 50 years since his work by mestizaje, urban population growth consisting mostly of mestizos, and by Indians who forgo their cultural identity with a move to the city.

Agriculture is the predominant land use on the level portions ofthe plateau. Com is still the main crop in the Meseta, although orchard crops, oats, wheat, and potatoes are currently cultivated in some parts of the region. The hills and mountains above the plateau surface are largely forested, but extraction of forest products for a variety of uses including furniture making, timber for mining shafts, railroad ties, and lumber has been ongoing since the colonial era (West 1948). Deforestation of the Meseta forests has captured the attention of several researchers (cf. Alvarez-Icaza et al. 1993; Masera et al. 1998), yet little is known about their forest history or current forest dynamics. Regional variation in land use, vegetation change, and urban growth patterns within the Sierra Purépecha, and the difficulty of making generalizations about the region as a whole, are revealed by our comparison of photographs.

The photographs analyzed here come from three areas of the western Sierra Purépecha: 1) in La Cañada, a valley on the northwest edge of the region; 2) near Cherán, a market town on the main north-south route through the region; and 3) in the town of Angahuan, near the volcano of Parícutin (Figure 1). The photographs of La Cañada were taken in 1946 during the time of West's field work in the region. Some of the photographs that appear in his monograph are not available in the Louisiana State University files and are probably in the Smithsonian archives; however, there is a good selection of images for the La Cañada region. There are only a handful of photographs from Cherán and Angahuan. These were taken in 1958, 1967, or 1970 as he traveled through the area.

In retaking these photographs we located the general area noted in West's description, then looked for a configuration of landforms that [end p. 140] corresponded to the photograph and hiked until we found a perspective that matched that of West's composition. In most cases the photographs were taken from near a road or trail, or from a high point overlooking a settlement or agricultural valley, and we were able to come very close to sites of the original photographs in all cases presented here. Where vegetative regrowth prevented retaking the photograph from the same perspective as the original we moved to the nearest location that provided an accurate reproduction. We used 35mm cameras with 28-200mm zoom lenses for our repeat photography, resulting in a slightly different format and focal length from the originals.

The Photographs

La Cañada

La Cañada lies at the northwest corner of the Purépecha Plateau. It is bisected by the Mexico City-Guadalajara highway and experiences more traffic and outside influence than most other parts of the region. The region consists of 11 towns (locally referred to as the Cañada de los Once Pueblos) where agriculture and pottery production comprise the traditional economic activities. The valley has traditionally been cultivated in wheat and maize; now agriculture is concentrated in the eastern part of the valley and consists of specialty crops like strawberry “starter” plants for commercial agriculture operations to the [end p. 141] west and south of the region. Pottery and brick are still made in many of the communities; Huansito, Santo Tomas, Tanaquillo, Ichán, and Tacuro are particularly well known for their clay products.

[end p. 150]

Figure 10b. Photo retaken from hill in center of town, toward north-northwest, August 1999. The forests on the background slopes appear more dense in 1999 as evidenced by the closing of the open meadows or fields in the 1970 photo. The middle ground also appears to have had some tree invasion into former pasture or agricultural land. The summit of the hill on the left of the photo appears to have been logged or burned since 1970. The remnant trees on the crest between the two hills suggest recent cutting or burning to the ridge line. With respect to urban change, Angahuán has expanded in the direction of the photo. Trojes (granaries or barns) are still dominant in the center of town, albeit now with corrugated tin or tar paper roofs instead of wood shingles, and sometimes with satellite dishes. There has been in-fill of yards and fenced lots. Houses with a less traditional design are evident toward the right side and rear of the 1999 photo. The 1970 photo shows a more rectangular perimeter to the community which appears "breached" in the 1999 photo.

Near Cherán: Cherán lies along a main road connecting the city of Uruapan to the Mexico City-Guadalajara highway. The road was graded in 1937 and paved in 1940 (Beals et al. 1944). Prior to the establishment of the highway, Cherán was a large Purépechan town with an economy dominated by agriculture. Crafts and market functions were relatively unimportant. Since the road was completed, and especially since 1976 when another road connected Cherán to Nahuatzen, Pichátaro, and Pátzcuaro to the southeast, market and commercial functions have become more important. The lands surrounding Cherán remain largely agricultural (maize).

Angahuan: Angahuan lies off the main Uruapan-Cherán highway, at the western edge of the Purépechan region, near the newly formed volcano, Parícutin. Angahuan was not relocated by the effects of the eruption as was nearly by San Juan Parangaricutiro; it was, however, affected by ash fall. The town today is a very traditional place, with wooden trojes still common in the urban landscape. As the nearest town to the volcano, lava flow, and ruins of San Juan, it is also much visited by tourists and shows signs of influence by young migrants returning from labor stints in the U.S. (gang attire, rap music, graffiti).

Overview of Landscape Change

Most areas in the La Cañada Basin have experienced some increase in vegetation cover. This cover includes trees, primarily oak and eucalyptus, shrubs, and in some cases herbaceous plants. The greatest increase in tree cover appears to be in the southern part of the basin near Chilchota. Small decreases in tree density were noted in some urban areas, but are rare. Most of the increases in vegetation have resulted from decreased agricultural activities and grazing. The decrease in these activities may be the result of several factors including changes in farming subsidies and support programs for small farmers, a change towards a migrant work force, and lower prices for basic agricultural products like corn and wheat as Mexico moves toward more specialized agricultural production. Changes in basin vegetation might also reflect changes toward a more humid regional or local climate. This, along with decreased grazing, might explain the increases in biomass that are apparent from the photo pairs. Whereas changes in the basin are clearly evident, the photographs reveal little apparent change in the vegetation of the surrounding mountains.

Urban growth is also responsible for the loss of some local agricultural land in La Cañada. This growth is most prevalent along the highway but can be observed in every community. Field observations indicate that most of the basin communities are experiencing many new housing starts, possibly reflecting money earned by migrant workers.

The photos taken near Cherán illustrate fewer changes in vegetation and urban growth than those encountered in La Cañada Basin. Figure 7b does illustrate urban growth in Chenin and rapid vegetation change near the highway. The other two photographs (Figures 8b, 9b) show little change in either of these landscape elements. This could be the result of less time between the photo pairs, differences in the photo locations, seasonal differences, or the lack of change. The photograph of the area around Angahuan suggests changes have occurred within Angahuan, as well as in the immediately surrounding area.

Comparison of the photo pairs for the three areas shows distinctive differences in the type and rates of landscape change. The La Cañada Basin appears to have experienced significant changes in vegetation cover. This area has also shown the greatest change in community growth (although perhaps exceeded at a local level by Angahuan). The photos for the area between Chenin and Aranza show the least change, although both these communities are experiencing high housing starts and rapid growth. The photographs document, overall, a general or regional increase in vegetation cover over the past 54 years.

Factors Affecting Landscape Change

Population Dynamics and Urban Land-Use Change

Among the more obvious changes affecting the region is population growth. Population in the state of Michoacán increased from 1.2 million in 1940 to 3.9 million in 1995 (INEGI 1997). The Sierra Purépecha has experienced similar rates of increase. In the municipio of Chilchota, for example, where the photographs from La Cañada were retaken, the population has increased over 300 percent, from 8,925 in 1940 to 29,233 in 1995 (Ramirez 1986; INEGI 1997). This has resulted in the expansion of urban areas [end p. 151] throughout the region.

Immigration from the area may have mitigated expansion of the urban area, but it has also had repercussions for the built environment.³ Remittance money from immigrants and from returning migrants has resulted in material changes to the urban landscape, with money being invested in larger homes, in satellite dishes, and in general improvements to family dwellings (Zendejas 1996). Only in Angahuan, the most remote of the photographed areas, are trojes still a dominant landscape feature. In other areas trojes are overshadowed by new construction (Aranza, Cherán), or are non-existent (La Cañada).

In La Cañada, expansion of the urban area and housing improvements have a further landscape impact in the provision of bricks for construction. Several communities of the region specialize in brick making; the most well known are Huánsito, Tangancicuaro, and Chilchota. Former agricultural and grazing land has been abandoned in some parts of the valley and has been replaced with excavations for clay for bricks and roof tiles (Gledhill 1995; field observations).

Changes in Agricultural Patterns

The most significant agricultural change is the overall reduction in area cultivated. Reduction in area under cultivation is due to: 1) urban growth; 2) abandonment of marginal plots on hillsides and; 3) abandonment of unirrigated lands. Abandonment of marginal lands may be attributed to migration and to changes in agricultural policies.

Over the last 25 years, Mexican agricultural policy has resulted in a steady removal of support for traditional and subsistence crops in favor of specialty crops for an agro-export market. The policy has also reduced subsidies to agriculture and created a system that favored irrigated ejidos over non-irrigated lands (Stanford 1994a,b). Public attention to structural changes in agricultural policies peaked during the Salinas years (1988-1994). Salinas' declaration of "food sovereignty," the ability to purchase needed foodstuffs with profits from exports, as the goal for Mexico brought about significant changes in Mexican agriculture. His successful effort to change Mexico's constitution to allow for the privatization of ejidos was further evidence of symbolic and substantive changes in the agricultural sector.

In a general sense, these changes are evident in the landscapes of the repeat photographs, but are complicated by two factors. First, the photographs do not allow for an assessment of the time framework in which these changes took place. Second, most of this area is designated as comunidad indigena land, not ejido land so the impacts of ejido reforms in the Meseta are not yet clear.⁴ La Cañada (the municipio of Chilchota) is the only photographed area with ejido holdings. There are ten ejidos in the municipio, none of which had initiated the first step toward official titling as of 1997 (INEGI 1998).

Changes in La Cañada

This area is influenced both by a major arterial and by proximity to the Zamora Basin, an area of commercial agricultural production. In the areas around Cherán and Angahuan, agricultural land remains devoted to com cultivation and the most apparent change is in urban growth and in changes in the built environment. In La Cañada, however, not only has the extent of agricultural land changed, the crop mix has also changed.

La Cañada is unusual in that wheat cultivation was introduced early in the Spanish Colonial era and was a dominant crop until late in the twentieth century. West (1948) suggested that the peripheries of the Meseta Purépecha, such as La Cañada and the Lake Pátzcuaro region, became important wheat -growing areas during the Spanish era; he cites a reference to wheat cultivation in Chilchota as early as 1540 (West 1948:43).

Over the twentieth century, the area devoted to wheat cultivation has declined in La Cañada. Beginning in the early 1970s, Mexican agricultural policies offered support for the cultivation of fruit trees such as avocado and guava, as well as ground crops such as strawberries (Ramirez 1986). Ramirez (1986) notes that wheat cultivation was on the decline prior to the government initiatives that encouraged fruit cultivation in the [end p. 152] valley. Although wheat cultivation formerly dominated the irrigated lands of the valley, it is now found mainly on unirrigated land. Today, strawberry seedling cultivation for transplant to commercial production in the Zamora Basin is the dominant crop on irrigated lands (see Figure 5b). This land-use transition contributes both to the increase of trees in the urban landscape and to the abandonment of former agricultural lands.

Changes in La Meseta

In addition to the population increase, urban growth, and impact of immigrant remittance money noted above, abandonment of hillside plots is the most apparent change affecting agricultural land use in the Meseta. West (1948) noted that hillside plots were long considered favorable sites for cultivation because of cold-air drainage, but these photographs and field observations confirm that cultivation of these locations is on the decline. It is difficult to say when these plots began to be abandoned; abandonment could date to the withdrawal of government subsidies for basic foodstuffs in the 1980s. However, it could also be related to the availability of other economic opportunities in urban areas or in the growth of commercial agriculture between Mexico and the United States. Abandonment could also be due to the fact that the current generation is opting out of the hard labor of subsistence com farming on marginal plots. Zendejas (1996) comments that people are growing up outside ofthe cultural milieu of the ejido (and the comunidad) and do not have the same commitment to agriculture as previous generations.

Changes in Forest Cover

Abandonment of hillside plots and an increase in tree cover in urban areas lends an appearance of overall increase in vegetation for the region, an observation that runs counter to the prevailing assessment of significant deforestation for the Meseta (e.g., Masera et al. 1998). However, this visual impression masks the fact that what appears "reforested" after agricultural abandonment of hill slope plots is often shrubby regrowth, not trees, and that areas that appear as forested on both sets of photographs are now selectively harvested and degraded. This apparent re-vegetation often masks selective cutting and de facto degradation of forest resources. Most of the wood cutting in the region occurs by high grading, not clear cutting (the exception from these photos is the case of Angahuan); this can be seen in some of the threadbare silhouettes of trees along ridge lines. Ultimately, this makes estimates of deforestation speculative, but degradation of forest resources is certainly more severe than what is revealed in these photographs.

Conclusions

These photographs reveal dramatic change in urban growth, agricultural land use, and vegetation cover for the Meseta Purépecha of Michoacán. They also challenge several assumptions about the nature and direction of landscape change in Mexico and raise questions that merit further investigation. One set of questions centers on changes in agricultural land use. What is the relationship between changing agricultural policies and abandonment of agricultural lands? What is the specific time frame in which these changes occur? Are different factors affecting abandonment of hillside plots in La Cañada versus the Meseta? What role does international migration play in changing agricultural patterns?

Another set of questions concerns vegetation change. What species are establishing on land recovering from overgrazing? Do these differ from those now found on abandoned hillside agricultural plots? What are the cultural practices causing an increase in forest canopy in the urban areas of La Cañada? What do these changes signify for the vegetation communities of the region? Questions also remain concerning the health of these forests.

The recent trend toward reforestation illustrated in these photographs is a reflection of political, economic, and social change and does not reflect an overall improvement in regional forest health. In this respect, the use of repeat photography documents forest expansion but does not reveal the more important structural and [end p. 153] compositional characteristics of forest cover. These changes need to be substantiated by additional observations and sampling (Veblen and Lorenz 1986).

Clearly, internationalization of the economy and work force are important factors shaping the landscape and lifeways in small and remote communities. Also, changes in agricultural land use and urbanization reduce the importance of traditional farming and increase field abandonment, which could have important environmental ramifications. Repeat photography offers a way for geographers to understand the character of these landscape changes and to pose questions for further analysis.

Notes

1. The terms Tarasca and Tarascan are now considered to be Spanish colonial constructs. Purépecha is the name of the language and is generally used today to describe the people and the region, as well as the language. West used "Tarascan" in his work; however, we will use Purépecha in our discussion.

2. These are the catalog numbers for the West Photography Archives at the Map Library, Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University. The Michoacán images are in three separate series of photographs; each series is organized by either the year the photo was taken or by area.

3. The State of Michoacán is one of the main source areas for Mexico-to-United States migration. While there is regional variation within the state (Gledhill 1995), the Sierra and La Cañada have among the higher rates of migration, with estimates that up to 15 percent of the economically active population resides outside the country at any one time.

4. Comunidades indigenas are official municipal entities that have communal control of their lands. They are comprised of indigenous populations and their identity as separate entities predates the establishment of ejidos.

Acknowledgements

We thank the National Geographic Society, Committee for Research and Exploration, for funding that supported this field work. John Chase, graduate student at Portland State University, helped with the field photography; Deb Tolman and Craig Revels helped secure prints of the original photographs; Jason Clark made the map: our thanks to all of them. Many thanks, also, to Bill Davidson and Robert C. West of the Department of Geography and Anthropology at Louisiana State University for help and access to the original photography.

References

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Anderson, Katharine. (1998) Introduction: Bob West, Geographer, pp. 1-18 in Latin American Geography: Historical-Geographical Essays, 1941-1998, by Robert C. West. Geoscience and Man, Vol. 35. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Geoscience Publications.

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Beals, Ralph L., Pedro Carrasco, and Thomas McCorkle. (1944) Houses and House Use of the Sierra Tarascans. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, Institute of Social Anthropology, Pub. No.1.

Gledhill, John. (1995) Neoliberalism, Transnationalization and Rural Poverty: A Case Study of Michoacán, Mexico. Boulder: Westview Press.

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Masera, Omar, Diego Masera and Jaime Navia. (1998) Dinámica y Uso de los Recursos Forestales de la Región Purépecha, Michoacán. Michoacán: GIRA.

Ramirez, Luis Alfonso. (1986) Chilchota: Un Pueblo al Pie de la Sierra. Zamora, México: El Colegio de Michoacán.

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Resumen

El trabajo del Robert C. West (1948) sobre la Sierra Purépecha (Tarasca) de Michoacán, México, documentó la geografía cultural y física de la región, dío una vista de los padrones culturales a la mitad del siglo, y evaluó el cambio cultural desde la época pre-hispánico hasta el siglo XX. Una selección de fotografías del paisaje de su trabajo, y de sus viajes subsiguientes a la región, da un base para un estudio de cambios en la zona durante los fines del siglo. Una evaluación de la fotografía repetida da fuerza a ciertos entendimientos sobre el México contemporáneo, pero también presenta unas preguntas sobre el cambio en el medio ambiente biofísico. La suposición que la deforestación es la mayor razón del cambio en el paisaje de Michoacán no es apoyado con estas parejas de fotos. No es aparente que los linderos del bosques han disminuado desde los anos 1940s y en algunas casos las milpas ahora tienen arboles. Algunas zonas que West describió como deteriorado ahora tienen más vegetación. Con el crecimiento de zonas urbanas también hay un crecimiento de un bosque urbano dando, sobre todo, una impresión de una aumentación de vegetación. Las observaciones del campo, sin embargo, confirman una escena más complicada. Lo que parece como un bosque intacto es, en realidad, deteriorado, en revegetación arbustivo, o cortado selectivamente. La disminución del area en agricultura resultó del crecimiento urbano pero también de los cambios en la politica agrícola. Una comparación de las escenas de paisaje sacados sobre un periodo de más de 50 años nos ofrece una oportunidad para asesorar nuestras percepciones de los cambios en el paisaje mexicano y formular nuevas preguntas para las investigaciónes.