Summary and Discussion of "Spatializing Culture"

What follows is a report I wrote on an article on two open spaces in downtown San José, Costa Rica, which may very well have bearing on Spokane's culture. --Brian

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Two open spaces in downtown San José (see Map 1), Costa Rica, are compared by the way they were constructed and by the way they are used in extracts from an article by Dr. Setha M. Low in "Theorizing the City: The New Urban Anthropology Reader," published in 1999 by Rutgers University (CUNY Graduate Center PhD Program in Anthropology).


Map 1: Parque Central and Plaza de la Cultura, San José, Costa Rica (Google, Inc.)
Parque Central is marked, Plaza de la Cultura is one block north and three blocks east,
adjacent to the blue roofed building.

Parque Central

The Central Park ("Parque Central," see Figure 1) was established shortly after the founding of the city in 1751. Like many plazas of its time, the park was surrounded by civic and religious buildings and operated as a center for the exercise of political power. The cultural histories of Europe, expressed through elements of medieval bastides, and Mesoamerica, expressed through elements of plaza-temple complexes, can be seen in such colonial constructs. The very way they are constructed is a social statement made manifest.


Figure 1: Panoramic Photo of Parque Central from the southeast corner. The 1944 kiosk is on the left, Catedral Metropolitana is on the right (Redondo, Panoramica Parque Central San Jose Costa Rica image by delpierocr on Photobucket).

The park maintained its form into the mid- to late 19th century when an English fountain, iron fence, and wooden Victorian kiosk ("kiosko") were added. Apparently, however, some changes went too far: a protest ensued when a single tree was cut down in 1902. At this same time, a transition was underway. While there was still the perception that the park was populated by the elite, photographic evidence shows that workers and members of the middle class are evident.

The conflict between the elite and common folk is ongoing, as evidenced by the controversy over the removal of the original kiosk in 1944 in favor of a giant cement replacement. "The citizens who are attempting to reconstitute Parque Central in its elite turn-of-the-century image are not the daily users or the municipal designers but professional and middle-class residents who yearn for an idealized past" (Low, 2010, p. 286). The conflict is not over the physical structure itself, but over "the meaning and appropriate use of public space" (Low, 2010, p. 286).

Upper class families have left the urban environment, so Parque Central is left to the poor and working classes. The "informal economy is very visible in Parque Central" (Low, 2010, p. 287) with shoeshine men, vendors, salespeople, day laborers, sex workers, and fencers. The sign of what Low refers to as "middle-class businesspeople and nonusers" (2010, p. 287) is seen through increased police presence.

Different groups possess different areas of the Parque Central, but the geography does change slowly over time. The shoeshine men are located in the northeast corner and though they have no legal standing to do so, they intend to pass their locations down to their heirs. Real estate agents take up space on the benches. Pensioners spent their days in the southeast corner, but moved to the inner ring because of the odor from the buses. There are clowns, but they spend less time in Parque Central as the conditions at the Plaza de la Cultura are more conducive to receiving tips.

Plaza de la Cultura

The Plaza of Culture ("Plaza de la Cultura", see Figure 2) is a newer space, having been constructed after the demolition of a number of other privately held and, in some cases, historically significant buildings. The plan was to site a pre-Columbian gold artifact museum ("Museo del Oro") in the block adjacent to the National Theater, the Gran Hotel, and the Arcades (a shopping structure). In order to create a grand space, the gold museum was built underground (the gold and chrome pipes on the left side of Figure 2 are adjacent to its entrance).


Panoramic photo of Plaza de la Cultura from the northeast corner (Redondo, Plaza de la Cultura image by delpierocr on Photobucket). Note the blue-roofed National Theater on the left.

Again, the functional design of the space was a result of the culture of its time, that is, Costa Rica, 1982. "When the plaza was conceived, global capital was already fueling the Costa Rican economy" (Low, 2010, p. 289) and its development reflected the influence of North American money through the status of the Gran Hotel as a North American tourist residence, the National Theater and gold museum as tourist activities, and "McDonald’s, Burger King, and Sears" sited on the plaza.

The Costa Rican government employed three architects to design the space. People who visit get an "ambivalent experience" (Low, 2010, p. 290) due to the conflicting forces: the lack of a single architectural vision, street performers, religious expressions, politicians, teenagers, and gay cruisers. Unlike the Parque Central, vendors here are licensed and "the intensity of social and spatial control" (Low, 2010, p. 290) is more obvious with the presence of uniformed police and guards. Tourists and users of the space seem comfortable in its use, but nonuser media consumers believe it to be unsafe.

The Plaza is a place of culture, but much different from Parque Central. Whereas Parque Central is a place where the relationships between different classes of Costa Rican culture play out, in the Plaza de la Cultura:

North American culture is "consumed" by Costa Rican teenagers carrying radios blaring rap music, and North American tourists "consume" Costa Rican culture by buying souvenirs, snacks, theater tickets, and artworks as well as the sexual favors and companionship of young Costa Ricans. (Low, 2010, p. 284)

Even with these significant differences, both locations have a physical construction that expresses the culture of the time and a social construction that expresses the daily culture of the people who inhabit is. These spaces are both contended between the people who use the spaces, and the nonusers who consider them a threat in their current form and demand concessions to make them safer.

Discussion

Presumably, both locations experience the same overall social and economic pressures because of their location in downtown San José, yet the differences in the geography of these two locations are striking. While they are nearly adjacent, they take on a very different character due to the surrounding uses and the development of the local culture.

A similar contended space exists in downtown Spokane: the STA Plaza. The building was conceived as a 20-story multiuse tower including the transit center, urban park, retail, hotel, and condominiums. However, a lawsuit challenged the public/private partnership. While the court found the partnership to be legal, the resulting structure nevertheless included only the transit center, park, and a minor amount of retail. The urban park has some "usual characters" amongst the thousands of passers-through utilizing the surrounding transit center. Security is uniformed and highly visible, and the non-user businesspeople in the nearby businesses complain about the park’s users. This appears to be another example of the social conflict between users and nonusers over the proper use of public space.

References

CUNY Graduate Center PhD Program in Anthropology. (2010, July 27). Setha M. Low | Ph.D. Program in Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center. Retrieved November 29, 2010, from The Graduate Center, CUNY: http://web.gc.cuny.edu/anthropology/fac_low.html

Google, Inc. (n.d.). San Jose, Costa Rica - Google Maps. Retrieved November 30, 2010, from Google Maps: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=San+Jose,+Costa+Rica&sll=9.932985,-84.077618&sspn=0.009025,0.021136&ie=UTF8&hq=Parque+Central,&hnear=San+Jose,+Costa+Rica&ll=9.933096,-84.078197&spn=0.002124,0.005284&t=h&z=18

Low, S. M. (2010). Spatializing Culture: The Social Construction of Public Space in Costa Rica. In G. Bridge, & S. Watson (Eds.), The Blackwell City Reader (2nd ed., pp. 284-292). Singapore: Wiley-Blackwell.

Redondo, V. (n.d.). Panoramica Parque Central San Jose Costa Rica image by delpierocr on Photobucket. Retrieved November 29, 2010, from Photobucket: http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z223/delpierocr/100_2933pano.jpg?1291096605

Redondo, V. (n.d.). Plaza de la Cultura image by delpierocr on Photobucket. Retrieved November 29, 2010, from Photobucket: http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z223/delpierocr/100_2924.jpg?1291100657