Entry Journal — 02 · Byron Gago · 2025
Guerrero
Viejo
A research project on memory, displacement, and landscape — tracing the submerged ruins of a border town beneath the waters of the Falcon Dam, Tamaulipas.
The following pages illustrate the key points of this ongoing project.
As a body of preliminary research, this volume proposes both a chronological and conceptual framework to document the themes. Composed of collected materials and fieldwork experience, it includes visual essays and short texts that reflect on the evolving landscape surrounding Antigua Ciudad Guerrero and Nueva Ciudad Guerrero in 2020.
Chronologically, the research begins with the case of Antigua Ciudad Guerrero, a town that was flooded and abandoned following the construction of the Falcon Dam. This event serves as a narrative pivot to understand the transition from the old settlement to the newly established Nueva Ciudad Guerrero.
Viejo Guerrero emerges as a hybrid project through visual, textual, and ethnographic methods — centered on memory, dislocation, and the residual presence of a place marked by rupture and change.
Distribution, Archive, Interface.
This research explores display strategies across printed matter, web-based platforms, and exhibition formats. The project seeks to redistribute photographic and textual content in ways that allow for expanded interpretation. These alternative platforms open new opportunities for context-building and critical engagement with the images.
In particular, digital archives are being built to house photographs, video interviews, and collected documents. These archives serve not only as repositories of research but as evolving public interfaces that invite reflection and interaction — designed to accommodate both complete narratives and fragmentary entries, including audiovisual materials such as oral testimonies, video documentation, and interviews.
Preliminary Research & Methodology
The initial phase involved online and textual research, including the collection of audiovisual materials, historical documents, and images. This effort aimed to contextualize the history of Guerrero Viejo and examine how its identity has been represented across different media platforms and digital spaces.
While Antigua Ciudad Guerrero is geographically situated on the frontier, it symbolically represents a deeper condition: a site of abandonment and unresolved memory, shaped by the traumatic consequences of the Falcon Dam's construction. The landscape itself, though quiet, echoes with tensions, forgotten dramas, and the residue of displacement.
Interpretation emerges not as a fixed outcome, but as a retroactive and cyclical engagement with recorded material and informal social interactions.
I initiated contact with local residents in Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, gathering oral testimonies that complement and challenge archival materials. These interactions are essential to understanding the ambiguity that defines Guerrero Viejo, where official history often conflicts with lived memory. Testimonies were collected with verbal consent and full awareness of the project's scope.
A Continuum
of Imposed
Displacements
The story of Guerrero Viejo unfolds through colonial urbanization, mid-20th century relocation driven by international infrastructure projects, and its present entanglement in the violent realities of the Mexican drug war.
My current focus on Guerrero Viejo extends beyond its historical evolution and architectural heritage. I am particularly interested in how the existing landscape reflects a layered tension between its colonial past and the aesthetics of deterioration — where colonial architecture now stands as a fragmented witness to decay, trauma, and transformation.
This setting reveals the stratified traces of multiple historical periods, rendered critical by large-scale industrial interventions that have disrupted both the ecology and the urban narrative.
Antigua Ciudad Guerrero represents a contested territory marked by its status as a historical and cultural heritage site, yet continually overshadowed by the frontier-specific crises.
Despite their symbolic significance, these cities remain deeply affected by territorial disputes involving organized crime groups such as the Zetas and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). The region also plays a strategic role in transnational networks of human trafficking, with cross-border dynamics that worsen its condition of abandonment and danger.
Although the town holds cultural and historical significance, its status as a protected zone raises questions. Institutional preservation efforts tend to separate the site from its social context, framing it as a static heritage landmark while ignoring the broader regional issues that continue to affect the area, including violence, marginalization, and border politics.
Founded in 1750.
Submerged in 1950.
My interest in Guerrero Viejo begins with its layered history — a site marked by successive political, cultural, and spatial transformations. Originally founded in October 1750 by settlers from Nuevo León at Rancho Los Moros, the town was later formalized by Don José de Escandón in the name of the Spanish Crown as Villa del Señor San Ignacio de Loyola de Revillagigedo.
By 1827, in the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence, the village was renamed in honor of Don Vicente Guerrero, becoming a symbol of the newly formed republic. In subsequent decades, Guerrero played a role in the Mexican-American War, which redefined the border between Mexico and the United States.
A major rupture occurred in 1950, when the construction of the Falcon Dam caused the flooding of the Salado River and led to the partial submersion of Guerrero Viejo. Approximately 3,000 residents were forced to evacuate. Since then, the site has remained uninhabited, still experiencing periodic flooding and institutional neglect.
1750 — Origin 1827 — Renamed 1950 — Submerged
"The Indio is disinterested, exotic, without illustration; he despises death, life, gold, morality, work, science, pain, and hope."Francisco Bulnes — El porvenir de las naciones latinoamericanas, 1899
Centuries of Transformation Shaped by Imperial Ambitions
Understanding the current U.S.–Mexico border requires looking at it not as a fixed line, but as the product of centuries of transformation shaped by imperial ambitions, geopolitical conflict, and regional dynamics. Spain's conquest of the Americas in the early 1500s set off a process of military, religious, and administrative expansion under the Nueva España project.
Small towns and settlements, such as Guerrero Viejo, were established primarily to extract mineral and agricultural wealth. These settlements were often imposed on indigenous territories, marking a long history of displacement and forced labor.
A pivotal moment occurred in 1845 with the annexation of Texas by the United States. This event directly precipitated the Mexican-American War and led to a radical redefinition of national boundaries, laying the groundwork for the contemporary border and the power dynamics still embedded within it.
In the mid-19th century, Texas unilaterally established the Rio Grande as the border between Mexico and the United States — a claim not recognized by the Mexican state, which maintained that these territories belonged to Tamaulipas. This border imposition escalated political tensions, reaching a peak when U.S. President James K. Polk proposed the purchase of California and other Mexican territories.
The border is not a fixed line. It is a scar — a product of centuries of conflict and negotiation, still open.
Walking Between
Architecture
and Ruins
Colonial architecture stands as a fragmented witness to decay, trauma, and transformation. The stratified traces of multiple historical periods — rendered critical by large-scale industrial interventions.
The landscape of Guerrero Viejo presents a bleak environment where traces of historical moments overlap — forced relocation, economic exploitation, and institutional neglect. Prior to fieldwork, much of my understanding was shaped by online content, institutional narratives, and warnings from various sources.
However, once on-site, it became clear that many of these expectations were incomplete. The situation on the ground was more complex and unstable than anticipated, and this realization influenced both the research approach and the framing of the material collected.
Part of the project involved organizing conversations and working with people involved in shaping the development of key themes beyond surface-level information.
"The displaced community was relocated to Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, around fifty kilometers away, on the banks of the Rio Grande — the same river that now marks the geopolitical boundary between Mexico and the United States."Byron Gago — Guerrero Viejo Research Dossier, 2025
Transition from Guerrero to Nuevo Guerrero
The process of transition from Guerrero to Nuevo Guerrero was not merely logistical but deeply intertwined with cultural and emotional ramifications. The residents of the old city experienced a profound sense of abandonment, as their lives were closely tied to the history and identity of Guerrero.
Forced displacement not only disrupted their physical environment but also undermined the social fabric that had defined their community for generations. Judith Butler's work on the psychic life of power is particularly resonant — institutions and cultural forces tend to impose hegemonic values at the expense of individual identities.
Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, designed with a modern American aesthetic, became a symbolic "container" for progress, yet it lacked reference points to the community's past. Built for industrial efficiency and situated near the Falcon Dam, it was more about serving the economic and strategic interests of the states than addressing the cultural and social needs of its residents.
The transition was marked by an emotional and cultural rupture — a modern, industrial vision imposed on a community whose identity was rooted in something else entirely.
Empire of Terror
Drug trafficking roots in the border territory date back to the Prohibition era — a network that would evolve into the Cartel del Golfo, shaping the entire geopolitical reality of the region for decades.
The roots of drug trafficking in the border territory date back to the Prohibition era in the 1930s, when Juan Nepomuceno Guerra established the first smuggling networks in Tamaulipas to facilitate whiskey access to the United States. This early network would later evolve into a family business — the Cartel del Golfo.
The situation escalated significantly in 2006 under Mexican President Felipe Calderón, who deployed 6,500 military personnel to Michoacán. This intervention had an unintended consequence: it fractured existing criminal groups into multiple factions and intensified territorial disputes, leading to the "Noroeste War." This violent conflict spanned several states including Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, and Coahuila — infamous for public executions, civilian murders, and torture.
By 2010, cities such as Miguel Alemán, Mier, Camargo, and Nueva Ciudad Guerrero were under the control of the Mexican military, federal police, and navy — reclaiming the area after years of forced exile.
An atmosphere of constant threat became part of daily life, as expressed by local residents and business owners. According to Mr. Rodrigo Oliveras, a longtime resident of the region, many families, including his own, relocated during the most violent years of the conflict. Restaurants and hotels were closed for more than five years, during which many people were threatened, kidnapped, or harmed.
In June 2010, Los Zetas threatened to detonate the Falcon Dam as a means of asserting dominance over the Cartel del Golfo. This created panic — small amounts of dynamite were discovered near the dam. Civilians were warned of the attack by members of the cartel, illustrating the deep ties between organized crime and the manipulation of public fear.
The media as a tool for intimidation and power.
The experience of freedom of expression and action in Nueva Ciudad Guerrero highlights a complex intersection of media manipulation, censorship, and the control of public discourse by both the government and organized crime groups. During my time at the Proyecto Timba cultural space, discussions with Carlos Lara revealed how media in the area not only faces government-imposed censorship but is also heavily influenced by criminal organizations.
The most striking manifestation of this was the propaganda used by criminal groups, which increasingly takes on an aesthetic and official appearance. PVC billboards hung along highways display messages of economic security and protection, featuring images of men in military gear with covered faces — paired with a phone number and WhatsApp logo.
Those unwilling to collaborate with the cartels face severe repercussions, including the possibility of disappearance or death. Some photographers, lured by promises of protection and rewards, willingly work with the cartels — arriving first at crime scenes, ensuring that the cartels' brutal acts are covered in a way that amplifies their authority.
In one case, a young man who was taking photographs along a river was kidnapped that evening. It was later discovered that his actions had inadvertently exposed a kidnapping operation happening nearby.
The fear of being seen — potentially by cartel members or informants — becomes a limiting factor in how individuals operate within these territories. I was repeatedly advised not to take photographs of people, vehicles, or buildings in public spaces. I often sacrificed valuable opportunities for documentation in favor of personal and group safety.
"The landscape, in this context, is not just a physical space but a crucial element in shaping identity and social structure."After Crumley — Landscape as socio-geographic map
Relationship Between Economy and Landscape
When examining the transition from the old Ciudad Guerrero to the new one, the Falcon Dam and its impact on the landscape highlight the complex relationship between economy, identity, and the environment. The dam, which flooded the old city, submerged not only the physical structures but also the intangible cultural and emotional heritage of the community.
What once was a thriving community now lies submerged beneath the water, and the landscape has since shifted from a place of habitation to one of abandonment and — paradoxically — new forms of interest and tourism.
Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, which grew around the Falcon Dam, has experienced significant economic shifts. The dam became a source of employment for many locals, particularly in the fishing industry. Events like fishing tournaments bring in tourists, creating new social dynamics.
The Falcon Dam serves as a symbol of how large-scale infrastructure projects can both unite and divide — a physical manifestation of how human control over nature can extend beyond national borders, creating new boundaries in terms of access to resources and territorial control.
Other Submerged Communities
These previous factors are interrelated, and their impact on communities is compounded when multiple scenarios are at play simultaneously. In the case of the Taxhymai dam and similar locations, local residents had faced forced displacement as a result of both infrastructure development and the broader context of economic and political interests.
The following documentation was made in February 2020 in the Estado de Mexico at the Taxhymai dam — a parallel case study that illuminates the recurring pattern of communities sacrificed to infrastructure projects across Latin America.
"What we call our data are actually our interpretations of others' interpretations of what they and their compatriots do. Already at the moment of exposing the actual facts we are giving explanations; and what's worse, explanations of explanations."Clifford Geertz — The Interpretation of Cultures
Doubt as a Structural Method
This research aims to interpret and construct a personal yet partially objective understanding of the place and its context, delving into the origins of its conditions and the transformations it has undergone. The process is rooted in doubt, which plays a critical role in the structural approach.
Doubt challenges the obvious, preventing it from becoming crystallized. This condition denies any notion of absolute truth, recognizing the subjectivity inherent in both empirical and non-empirical observation — aligning with the perspectives of Clifford Geertz and William Labov, who emphasize the limits of observation and interpretation.
Regarding subjectivity, I view myself as both a medium and a tool for exploration. My choices permeate the entire research process — from the selection and exclusion of material to the pursuit of both pre-established and emerging objectives throughout the work's development.
The conceptual categories formed from the data I've gathered serve as a lens through which the viewer interacts with the material — a form of knowledge capable of generating consciousness, inscribing itself in the culture of its audience.
The surplus of information from various sources highlights a tension between local and global representations. This tension is intensified by the homogenizing forces of mainstream media and cultural forms, which often overshadow local experiences. By presenting this "depression" as a form of spectacle, I open a space for ethical reflection on the implications of my research.
References
- L. Gutiérrez De Lara, Los Bribones, Novela Mexicana De Actualidad, F.H. Arizmendez, 2016.
- William E. Doolittle, Oscar I. Maldonado, Guerrero Viejo: Guide to the Field for a City Found and Lost, Casa Editorial Hace Poco, Austin, 2008.
- Carlos Rugerio Cázares, "Guerrero Viejo History Suspended In Time," Voices of Mexico n.68, 2004.
- Beatriz de la Garza, From the Republic of the Rio Grande, University of Texas, 2013.
- Carlos Tello Díaz, El exilio: un relato de familia, Cal y Arena, 1993.
- Lilia Treviño, Guerrero Hoy Desde El Ayer, Monterrey, 2003.
- Ortega, Liliana, Autoconstrucción de vivienda, espacio y vida familiar en la Ciudad de México, Flacso, 2016.
- Kumar, Krishan, Utopia and Anti-utopia in Modern Times, Blackwell, Oxford, 1987.
- Rem Koolhaas, Constant, New Babylon, Hatje Cantz, 2016.
- Rem Koolhaas, Junkspace, Quodlibet, 2006.
- Z. Bauman, Liquid Modernity, Polity, Cambridge, 2000.
- Mark Wigley, Constant's New Babylon: The Hyper-Architecture of Desire, 1998.
- Etienne Turpin, Architecture in the Anthropocene, Open Humanities Press, 2013.
- Robert Smithson, "Tour of the Monuments of Passaic, New Jersey," Artforum, 1967.
- Chris Marker, Commentaries, Éditions du Seuil, 1961.
- Robert Smithson, Hotel Palenque 1969–1972, Alias, 2010.
- Gilles Clément, Manifesto del Terzo paesaggio, Quodlibet, 2015.
- J. E. Miró, M. y Herrera, H. (1993) Tamaulipas Una historia compartida. UAT, Ciudad Victoria.
- Historia Breve de Tamaulipas, O. Herreras Pérez, Fondo de Cultura México, 2011.
Guerrero Viejo
Byron Gago · 2025