The Cultural Heritage Built without a Face: Diagnosis of Citizen Perception, The Case of San Pedro Sula

Abstract

The purpose of this research is focused on the description of perceptions and attitudes of the citizens of San Pedro Sula, about the loss of their built heritage. Years of indoctrination in the national educational system in admiration of the Mayan civilization of the West and the legacy of the Spanish colony, make everything belonging to the twentieth century anodyne and therefore not worthy of pride and much preservation effort. This research was conducted by bibliographic compilation, fieldwork, surveys, in-depth interviews; the author's hope is that this initiative will generate a multiplier effect and awake the desire to protect a worthy visual legacy throughout the old "banana corridor", the port of Tela, Cortés, La Ceiba, Trujillo, the old railway stations Potrerillos, Villanueva, Pimienta, Choloma, El Progreso, Olanchito, San Manuel, and that this heritage may be held by the country folks, on equal grounds with the colonial and pre-Columbian ones.