Bogotá, ciudad narrada: La crónica periodística del siglo XX como consigna histórica de aprendizaje sobre las transformaciones de la capital

Abstract

Bogotá has been told in different ways throughout history. The journalism, during the XX century, consigned the portrait of a capital that has been transformed until being as we conceive it at present. Those slogans were given from the journeys made by some journalists in the corners of the capital. They reflected in their chronicles and texts what they captured in that 'urban sea'. The description of the neighborhoods, of the big markets, of the dynamics of the population and of the practices in the peripheries of the capital remained as a record of the period in the written press. El Tiempo and El Espectador, for example, were two newspapers outlets that, from time to time, presented an urban chronicle for their readers. The urban chronicler made a detailed description of the scenarios and their inhabitants, as well as the architectural and idiosyncratic structures. He also emphasized how major episodes of the capital had various repercussions. The chronicles were consolidating an imaginary about the territory in which they lived. Even in the 90s there were chroniclers who prioritized their flâneur exercise in Bogotá to continue narrating the city. The comparison allows the establishment of parallels and the recognition of transformations in the capital that have not only drawn new architectural forms, but also new ways of coexistence, new notions of meaning and new dynamics of domestication of Bogotá.