Representations of insecurity and violence among the inhabitants of the fractionation North Pines Residential of Mrida, Yucatn

Fredy Antonio Aguilar *

Abstract: The following lines try to present the importance of urban imaginary as theoretical tools that permit to investigate in the spatial and social representations of the settlers of North Pines Residential close residence of the city of Mrida, Yucatan. Particularly, it centers on how a group of residents of a private urbanization build social and space representations about the security of their housing zone. Finally, theres a reference to the role the press as generator of images and imaginary which helps to consolidate the imaginary of danger. Key words: urban imaginary, private urbanization, insecurity, violence.

Representaciones de la inseguridad y violencia entre los habitantes del fraccionamiento Residencial Pinos del Norte, Merida Yucatn
Resumen: Las siguientes lneas intentan plantear la importancia de los imaginarios urbanos como herramientas tericas que permiten indagar en las representaciones sociales y espaciales de los pobladores del fraccionamiento Residencial Pinos del Norte de la ciudad de Mrida, Yucatn. En particular se centra en cmo un grupo de residentes de un espacio residencial privado construyen representaciones socioespaciales en torno a la seguridad fuera de su zona habitacional. Por ltimo, se menciona el papel de la prensa como generador de imgenes e imaginarios que ayuda a consolidar los imaginarios del peligro. Palabras clave: imaginario urbano, espacio residencial cerrado, inseguridad, violencia. Received: 23.06.08 Accepted: 21.07.08 ***

Introduction
Until just over a decade, the way how individuals think, represent and imagine their cities, was a little explored area by the social sciences. Acts, thoughts and individual and collective behaviors in the urban ambit have lead sociologists, psychologists and anthropologists to be increasingly interested in these types of studies. Given this, the concept of urban imaginary is a methodological tool to analyze how people give different significances to the city, its spaces and the individuals with which they interact. The concept of urban imaginary goes beyond being a mental construction due that through them the organization of society in a determined territory can be understood, express its social differences, desires and fears related to social-spatial elements of the social sectors that compound such society. In this way, it constitutes a dimension, through which the different city inhabitants represent, signify and give sense to their different daily practices in the act of inhabiting... a dimension in which different identities are established and ... differences are recognized. (Nieto Calleja, 1998: 125). The imaginary as social representations lead to the continuous and undetermined belief of figures, forms and images of the city. Through them it is seeks to learn and comprehend the characteristics and real and unreal attributes of the city and urban life, qualifying people and urban spaces as unsure, dirty, monotonous, opulent, miserly, indecent or dangerous. Urban imaginaries contain dynamic characteristics with the capacity of operating in the actions and re-making the social reality and the dimensions of urban culture (Aguilar, Nieto and Cinco 2001:165). Part of this reality concentrates in phenomena as insecurity and violence commonly related as a threat to physical integrity and material conditions of life. The diverse experiences with these phenomena create representations

about criminal events and its performers, constituting a real net that shapes the experience of inhabiting the city (Mandoky 1998). In this way, the imaginary enjoys full materiality and a reality certificate as settlers are effectively confronted by diverse elements and phenomena that happen in the geographic space in which the individuals act and take determined shapes in terms of the social strata to which they belong (Ibid.: 210211). During the field work for the thesis Representations and imaginary of urban insecurity and violence in the city of Merida, Yucatn: the colony San Jos Tecoh and the fractionation North Pines Residential, inquiring which were the spaces and personages considered as promoters of violence, the residents of both studied zones gave different significances to the social-spatial elements. The above allowed the elaboration of subjective maps of an imagined city, its use and enhancement of their area of residence compared to others. Following I present some of these representations of residents of fractionation North Pines Residential.

Emergence and diffusion of the residentials in Latin America and the city of Mrida, Yucatn
In the last years, diverse cities of the north, center and south of Latin America have presented a tendency towards urban space privatization and the construction of closed areas for the housing. During the 1980s, this phenomenum is developed with remarkable regularity in various developing countries. During the 1990s, this type of buildings spread throughout cities such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico (See works as those developed by Caldeira 2000, Svampa 2001, Carballo 2002, Rovira Pinto 2002, Hidalgo 2004, Cabrales and Canosa, 2002, Mndez and Rodrguez Chumillas, 2004), what has called the attention of wide academic sectors who have been envolved in a wide debate about the arising and consolidation of these spaces in each one of the above mentioned countries. These closed spaces also have diverse forms of being named, as for example the cases presented by Blakely and Snyder, (1999) in the United States and Roitman (2005) in Argentina, are called Gated Communities. Svampa (2001) on his side, calls these areas as Countries or closed quarters. In the case of Chile, Hidalgo (2004) gives them the name of Hurdled City. Caldeira (2000) in his studio in Brazil, calls them City of Walls or Fortified Enclaves. In the case of Mexico, such zones are named as closed or fenced fractionations (Cabrales and Canosa 2001 and 2002, Giglia, 2002 and 2003, Mndez, 2002, Safa, 2002, Lpez Lev and Rodrguez Chumillas, 2005). However, the common denominator of these residential forms is that they are adopted by the upper and upper middle classes, who fold in these housings in an attempt to opt for a greater security, comfort, high quality of life and social homogeneity. It is important to note that the construction of closed areas to live is not a phenomenom of recent creation1. Janoschka and Glasze (2003) and Hidalgo (2004) in an attempt to identify the genesis of these inhabitable zones, propose to consider some variables that sustain the apparition of these residential spaces. Among the principal thesis are: 1) the globalization and transformation of urban space, 2) the increase of criminality in the city and 3) the real estate promotion and the search of distinction by the groups that have access to closed residential spaces. The emergence of these spaces is associated to diverse causes which may correspond to each of the above items separately, but also be linked.

Globalization and transformation of urban space

Globalization has played an outstanding role in economical and social transformations of much American cities. The impact of this phenomenon has led to development opportunities for a great number of latinamerican cities but at the same time there has been a process of dual division that includes the socialspatial fragmentation of the city, which has been appointed by Janoscka (2004) and Fuentes and Sierralta (2004). According to Da Mattos (2002) quoted by Fuentes and Sierralta (2004), from Argentina to Mexico, there have been economical restructuring processes since the 1970s through the constitutive process of globalization. Neoliberal politics by which some latinamerican countries have passed through, have contributed to the liberation of the soil market that has been profited by private investments for the

commercialization and promotion of closed residential spaces, principally oriented to social classes with a greater purchasing power.

Increase of criminality in the city

Criminality has been a thesis to sustain the apparition of closed residential spaces in diverse cities (Valenzuela Aguilera 2003, Sez Capel 2005, Lina Manjares 2004). Davis (1990) has offered interesting references to the phenomenon of closed urbanizations in communion with these phenomena. This author makes emphasis in the analysis of the increase of criminality and the fragmentation processes in Los Angeles, USA during the 1980s. This generated an increasing privatization of public services, included the housing, for certain sectors of society seeking to protect from the loss of security, both physical and material. On his side, Caldeira (2000) makes reference to the building of fortified enclaves in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. His study highlights the correlation between insecurity and a new type of residential pattern that promotes a greater urban segregation. Criminality is one of the factors that may have incidence in the preference of these housings, however, it should be noted that civic insecurity is variable in each city so that not all cases can be generalized to argue that crime leads to the construction of private spaces for housing.

Real estates production, consumption and distinction

As a product of a new urban model globally divulged (Janoschka and Glasze, 2003), the initiatives undertaken by real estate agents contribute to the emergence of more and more varied types of exclusive residences according to the urban context and the social and economical situation in which they insert. Residential promoters implement diverse strategies to consolidate in each one of the countries in which these sites are promoted, and to generate its consumption. In the management of different advertising speeches, images as exclusivity and security are exalted, with the firm objective of attracting buyers. The commercial provision of these zones has created a sector-divided settlement pattern, thereby establishing a kind of social-spatial segregation. The intention is to bring together people with similar capital and consumption and propitiate a functional delimitation of space, of activities and of the contact with those outside the residential area. Given these developments, these urbanizations establish a clear distinction and separation through the use of fences, controlled access systems and other control devices. To acquire an ownership with the above mentioned characteristics, establishes a symbolic inclusion/exclusion relation with those who have or not access to these housings (Gobantes, Peirano and Tapia 2005, Giglia 2002 and 2003)2. According to Campos and Garca (2004) quoted by Hidalgo (2004), to live in these residences goes beyond the discourse about insecurity and violence, and can be analyzed as a way of consumption and status associated to good life, security and social-economical similarity.

Closed residential spaces in Mexico

I agree with Cabrales and Canosa (2001) that despite of being this a relevant and present issue of Latin America cities, its study is becoming increasingly important in Mexico. Some authors have inquired the dawn of the first residential units, among them, the work of Guerrien (s/f Internet) who indicates that the first closed housing projects have appeared in the 1960s with the construction of the Olympic Village in the city of Mexico3. For his part, Valverde mentions the construction at the beginning of the 1970s, of fractionation Country Club San Carlos, considered as an exclusive space for the population of high revenue in the contiguity of Metepec in the city of Toluca. Works as those of Safa (2002) and Giglia (2002 and 2003) realize the projects undertaken at the Delegation Tlalplan, at the end of the 1980s. It is in this decade when a greater consolidation of these type of residences in the city are presented and grows gradually until the early years of the 1990s. Guadalajara has also been an important place to study the establishment and diffusion of closed

fractionations. One of the first housing complexes crystallized with the development of several closed residential areas at the end of the 1960s and beginnings of the 1970s. Their emergence was stimulated by the processes of territorial expansion or the urban area as well as by the population growth driven by migration flow from rural areas to the state capital. Since the second half of the 1980s, the metropolitan area of this city was incorporating fractionations of hermetic characteristics. Actually, its acceptance has been so high that even its initial directionality towards the upper classes has changed to benefit the occupation of these houses by the middle classes. Northern border cities of Mexico have been no exeption, and the work as of Mndez, Rodrguez and Lpez (2005), Lpez Lev and Rodrguez Chumillas (2005), realize the close units in Tijuana and the city of Nogales Sonora, respectively. For the case of Mrida, Yucatn, the study of the private fractionations is practically null. The few approaches to the issue have been elaborated by anthropologists and architects, who have appointed a series of economical transformations in the State since the 1970s. Such economical growth implied a space structuring in the city of Mrida that brought within the adjustment of zones which were endowed with greater infrastructure. In such dynamics, an apparent residential segregation was given through the apparition of specialized spaces and with greater urban spaces propitiating an exodus of people with middle and high purchase power towards the closed residential areas. In this way, these complexes are beginning to emerge as an architectonical form of preference between the middle upper and upper classes. An example of this is the fractionation North Pines Residential, whose construction dates back to around the year 2000, as the first residents of this place say. In the fractionation North Pines Residential currently live diverse people with middle and high economical profile. As every residential area, this uses diverse protection systems to prevent the access of people that do not live there. However, these disposals suggested to the bodies of contracted monitoring, as well as devices to prevent the passage are violated, leading to discomfort among the neighbors.

Recognizing the enemy. Imaginary and stereotype of individuals and dangerous spaces
Rodrigo Pl (2007) in his film The zone, narrates us how a group of residents of the high society lives in a fortified place, walled and watched in the presence of the criminal threat that the external world offers. However, its apparent peacefulness is converted into paranoia when one of the protection walls tumbles down and a group of thieves attain to cross it, leading the neighbors to adopt protection disposals beyond the imagined. I would not like to continue commenting the rest of the film but to invite the reader to have a time of distraction and at the same time, of reflection with this work. The important to what concerns us is how people of a residential zone adjust their representations from those spaces and individuals considered as dangerous. Reguillo (1998) appoints that ilegal activities as thief and delinquency are being invested of a discourse that attempts to point out the responsible ones. Among them are appointed individuals with certain physical attributes or even phenotypic as a form of stigma that in terms of Goffman (1996) makes reference to certain particularities with a deeply discrediting load spatially associated to some individuals. Among these personages there can be mentioned the prostitutes, druggists, youngsters, delinquents, immigrants, vagabonds, beggars, homosexuals, foreigners. All of them are lined with features that help to build and reinforce stereotypes, discriminate against, dismiss, segregating and restricting the relationship of those individuals. Representations found in the discourses of neighbors of fractionation North Pines Residential make reference in a first level to youngsters. The vesture, the way they fix their hair, the tatoo as well as how to have certain phenotypic features are transformed into distinctive marks that operate as dangerousness classifications. Among the main aggressions they are frequently imputed of, are the lesions, vehicles thief, vandalism, damages of property and homicide. Frequently, the youngster is seen as the main promoter of violence and insecurity. Other level of the hazard representation is referred to the presence of any person not a resident of the

housing. Thus, the foreign agent takes on a negative valuation and represents the other even this is not necessarily linked to criminal activities. Such is the case of the gardener, the house employee, the messengers, the advertising agents and the preachers. In the first and second example, some of the fractionation neighbors contract the services of people to fix the garden or the house. The messengers enter by a previous identification and motive of the visit, their presence is due to the charge of some payment or letters delivery to the families. Finally, there are families belonging to some religious congregation and, in certain cases, they celebrate meetings with the members of their confraternity, what also generates discontent. Despite these infringements in the access, there prevail the discourses that allude to the little or null existence of insecurity and violence inside the fractionation. The greater degree of insecurity and violence is settled out of the place of residence. The idea of an isolated and self-contained community breaks up daily when the neighbors move out of the complex to perform diverse activities. Thus, each individual widens the geographic map where he situates those spaces or places where urban violence and the threat of physical and material integrity settle with major force. The streets, bus stops, parks, squares and sports-courts figure as insecure and violent spaces. Commonly they are attributed diverse significances and negative valuations due to their characteristics as for example being dirty, with lack of vigilance and unprovided of public lighting. Surrounding residential areas and public adjoining spaces conform the first ambits out of the residential, that represent a greater indicator of crime. An example of it is the popular colony Santa Mara de Chuburn that is localized around the fractionation and is conformed by families of scarce recourses. Some of its streets have no public light and vigilance. In the presence of the lack of this public infrastructure, the neighbors of the residential zone establish in their speeches a clear differentiation with the external spaces. Comments such as there is no light, or they assault constitute an element of social differentiation that is shaped in the distinction and localization of a determined geographic area. Another space even more distant from the fractionation is the Historical Center of the city4. This last concentrates a greatest commercial offer in the area of the municipal market, public administration offices, commerce and services, and gathers a great amount of people of different places that displace to develop labor activities, to consume and acquire basic products or to displace to other points of the city. However, some zones, in special the surroundings of the municipal market, are with scarce illumination or there is no police vigilance, what generates constant thieves on the transients at any hour of the day but even more by nights 5. The residential neighbors do not frequent this place much, given the characteristics by which they feed their imaginary, so in order to supply themselves of diverse basic products, they opt for the nearest supermarkets. An important element that reinforces the imaginary of this and other places, as well as the characterization of dangerous individuals, are presented in the discourse generated by the meridan press. The images and information portrayed in the media about places and individuals may conform diverse representations, despite that the territory(ies) is not being physically experienced.

Violence and insecurity in the meridan space through the press

Press information about the criminal incidence in the city makes possible the geographic location of the zones that present greater criminal events. In Mrida, determined sectors or geographic areas constitute themselves as examples of high criminal incidence. The reiterated divulgation of these news leads to the elaboration of imaginary that also affect the settlers that reside in such places. To identify the criminal zones is also to attribute negative characteristics on those who live in those urban districts. Thus, the settlers of these places are classified as violent and are stereotyped as the others, widening the social distance among Mrida citizens. The press may generate different wombs of opinion and representation around the news they publish. Aguilar Daz (1998) had already appointed that the press gives the material to imagine and valuate the city at the same time it convokes the reader to relate in a mediated way with the others and increases the social and symbolical differences already present among the citizens. Loyal on his side, he mentioned that the diffusion of the very high levels of ilegal events, that commit against life and the patrimony of people, by the media and, even more, the written press, is essential piece in the existing feeling of insecurity in citizenship (Leal 1999:393). Thus, the written media reinforces latent stereotypes, and the messages divulged by them

influence the representations and imaginaries that the public forms about a city and in the ways how they relate or stop relating with public spaces and individuals of their surroundings that they consider to be dangerous.

Final thoughts
Representations about insecurity and violence have been converted into a symbolic operator that modifies the use of the city and the interaction with its users. The real or imaginary danger about crime creates diverse imaginaries about urban space and those individuals who inhabit it. Thus, certain social sectors or geographic areas are appointed as examples of urban violence and insecurity and turn to be stereotyped with negative attributions. The identification of stereotyped figures is possible due to the characterizations made on them by prejudices through components taken from reality, but also of fantasy (Nio Murcia 2002) Regarding the social dimension, the youngster is seen as the principal promoter agent of violence. The vesture, the hair dressing or the tatoos become the distinctive marks that operate as classifications of dangerousness. References towards this group by age underline its link with groups of delinquents and gangs. These classifications have a social effect in the behavior and interaction of the individuals with those who have such characteristics. In the same way as with the prior group, the projections of the delinquents figure among the neighbors of the residential zone has an impersonal and instrumental presence, so it may be attributed to any person who generates unconfidence. In the discoursive level, the delinquent has no face, the delinquents face is referred to his mere impersonal and instrumental existence/presence (Martn Barbero 2004: 301). Thus, representations are concreted in personages that, in a generic manner, erect themselves as specially dangerous with multiform aspects. In the spatial dimension of representations, each individual maintains a type of relation with the spaces of his city. This interrelation makes possible the construction of a wide fan of symbolic representations over urban spaces. This supplies orientations to the inhabitants of the city and its relation with them; nevertheless, not all the places are symbolized and constitute the same to the individuals, in such way that some of the spaces more than others erect with attributes and significances. As I have appointed, the frequency of criminal activities, the concrete experiences with these events, the accounts, the livings and the information spilled by the media, adjust diverse representations and imaginaries that reflect themselves on the forms in which people relate to spaces and individuals of their near surrounding and with the rest of the city. Phenomena like insecurity and violence have become one of the principal preoccupations in the notebook of all the political parties, of social sciences and of common citizens (Adorno 1997:1) that are not defined exclusively by the reality offered by the statistical digits, but also are socially constructed ambits. From this optics, to analyze the representations and imaginaries of each social group, helps us to observe how each one of them performs a symbolic construction of the city and of the individuals that inhabit them.

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Filmography
Pl, Rodrigo (2007), La Zona, Alta Films, Espaa- Mxico.

Notes
* Universidad Autnoma of Yucatn, Mrida, Mexico. E mail fredyaguilarcanche@yahoo.com.mx 1 Authors as Delumeau make realize close cities in Europe in the XVI century, as a system of protection in the presence of the fear generated by the insecurity caused by the night. According to Cabrales (2003) there have also been documented data of close spaces in the United States since the XIX century up to the 1940s 2 The work of Svampa (2001), Carballo (2002), Chevalier and Carballo (2005), for the argentinian case; Mndez, Rodrguez and Lpez, (2005), Giglia (2002), 2003) for the case in Mexico, offer references about how medium and high groups have begun to adopt these forms of consumption and distinction. 3 The construction of this complex was to shelter the entire worlds gymnasts participants in the 1968 Olympiad. 4 The distance between these two places is little more than 10 kilometers. 5 This data was taken from information obtained for the project Fear, violence, risk and insecurity in the public space of Mrida initiated by Dr. Jos Fuente Gmez, as well as for the thesis project. In both cases there were registered the reports of assaults and gangs delinquency of 2001 and 2004 respectively in the city of Mrida . (Source: Yucatn Newspaper and For This!) In such studies the historical center obtained 32% of the total crimes that ocurred in the city.