Cristina Hernandez Hurtado

Research Project

Project title:

From Honda to Portsmouth: property, commercial routes, and the shaping of the Magdalena River,1823-1927

Description of the project:

This research focuses on how the 19th century cartographic project silenced the cultural complexities existing along the Magdalena River in Colombia: what Colombian sociologist Orlando Fals Borda has called ‘amphibian cultures’. Importantly, the impact of this silence does not limit to the Magdalena River or Colombia. Bringing to the surface the ‘amphibian cultures’ silenced during this period give us an alternative understanding over spatial and legal assumptions that keep apart land from water, and about all the material universe that has been built around this differentiation in Colombia and beyond.