Geographing La tierra pródiga

Abstract

The main purpose of this text is to revisit, from the literary work La tierra pródiga by Agustín Yáñez, a geographical space that has its “real” existence in the state of Jalisco and within one of the regions where the discourse of progress is inserted and documented through the process of electrification, the construction of highways, and the incorporation of diverse infrastructure in the place, between 1960 and 1990. Through the interrelation of the referred documents, such as CETENAL's cartography (1974-1976), governmental reports, bibliography, and specialized hemerography, as well as the realization of field tours, participant observation, and interviews with the locals to make landscape readings, the objectives of the work were established: to expand the knowledge of the area and motivate the interest of the specialized public to know it better and to continue studying it. Thus, we seek to interact with what the literary author specified as an area in constant conflict, relating the meanings of its natural resources and the little public intervention. In this sense, “geographizing” here is understood as the use of the elements that the novel offers us through a geographical language, where the places to which it refers become relevant and are recognized as “real” territories through sustenance with elements of literary valuation.