De ciudad-huerta a pueblo boutique: Turismo y transformaciones materiales en Purmamarca

Abstract

With the beginning of the 21st century, the Andean town of Purmamarca (Province of Jujuy, Argentina) has undergone a profound transformation. Until the 1980s, the area had the character of a "garden city", as defined in a local government ordinance. Several events in the 1990s allowed the area to be transformed into a major tourist destination in Argentina. Thus, this small rural town in Jujuy began to change, both in its material and symbolic practices. In this article we will focus on those changes that occurred in the material plane. We will see how the village of Purma-marca expanded and increased in density, and how its historical footprint was modified. We will also describe the new land uses that appeared and we will pay special attention to the emergence of a boutique concept, applied to both the construction industry and aesthetic activities, not only in tourism ventures, but also in public services. Finally, we will make a brief reference to the emergence of a bedroom-town, which was the result of the processes outlined herein. The empirical material used in this article comes from the systematization of official sources, analysis of site descriptions made at various historical moments and our own field records.