Gardens and public parks in Cuernavaca: transformations of a cultural landscape

Cuernavaca is the capital city of the state of Morelos, a region which was famous since prehispanic times for its exuberant nature and precious flowers. Here, Moctezuma ii laid out the famous prehispanic garden of Huaxtepec. Unfortunately very little is left of this beautiful Aztec garden. During the eighteenth century, Manuel de la Borda, a famous New Spain aristocrat, built his country-house and garden in Cuernavaca. The Borda Garden is regarded as one of the few still existing Mexican colonial gardens. Since 1971 it has been a property of the federal government and used as a public park, but the architecture of the garden has never been restored. In the nineteenth century a public park named Melchior Ocampo was designed around seven springs, part of the woods of Amanalco, the green heart of Cuernavaca. Nowadays this public park is abandoned and reputedly dangerous. This paper aims at promoting the rescue and restoration of these historical gardens showing not only their importance as part of Mexican historical and collective memory but also as forces that can regenerate urban landscapes providing green public spaces and human health.