A monumental project: the central station in the city of Mérida, Yucatán (1920–2020)

Abstract

This article gives a review of the history of the old central railway station of Mérida, Yucatán. The research was done with the reports of the company Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán (FUY) and the files of railroad workers that I found in the General Archive of the State of Yucatán (Archivo General del Estado de Yucatán/AGEY). These sources allowed me to discover how much money was required for the construction of the train station and the people who worked on it. For a better understanding of the study, I divided the text in four sections. In the first one, I share information on the general context of the history of what I call the iron roads of Yucatán. In the second section, I provided data related to the construction of the building and the names and positions of some of the workers. In the third, I ellaborated on the abandonment period followed by the rescue and establishment of the School of Arts of Yucatán, Escuela Superior de Artes de Yucatán (ESAY).