The Urban Railroad of Tepic (1881–1890). Coexistence and convenience of animal-drawn tramways on a provincial city’s urban structure

Abstract

The article studies the incorporation of the animal-drawn tramway into Tepic’s urban structure by consulting various local and regional newspaper sources. This study focuses on the period that followed the arrival of the railway in Mexico in the mid-nineteenth century, during which the country sought to modernize its communications. It starts from the premise that, within this milieu, urban trams were gradually attached to the structures of Mexican cities. I argue that its subsequent incorporation into the provincial capitals – Tepic, for example – consolidated the presence of the tram as a means of public transport. I also discus particularly the demonstration of the interests of national and foreign oligarchies and how they seem to have focused on the concept of mobility as an object of desire and aspiration, and, above all, on profit gain.