La Forma gráfica como relato, del mito fundacional al desequilibrio territorial. El caso de Fiske Menuco en el AVRN.

Abstract

This work is born from the question about the possibility of building a graphic narrative — in the key of a diagram, we might add — about a town in the Upper Valley of Río Negro (AVRN from now on), understanding this territorial section as a historical territorial construct whose birth can be recognized with the 1879 Expedition to the Desert commanded by Gen. Julio Argentino ROCA; and the town of Fiske Menuco, the original name of General Roca City, is chosen as a case capable of being replicated in the rest of the towns in the AVRN.

We start from some basic assumptions. The first of these is that Patagonia recognizes one or more foundational myths, but these have changed as knowledge of that mythical land was gained. A brief tour of these images will allow us to glimpse the distance between imagination and reality.

The second issue is that each AVRN town must be thought of as a piece of the extended metropolis that is configured with the string of valley cities and the Metropolitan Area of Neuquén (Vapnarsky and Pantelides, 1987); but moreover, this microregion and its towns can only be conceived, understood, and managed insofar as the adapted environmental support of which they are a part is included.

This exercise in territorial thought and representation that we propose becomes necessary insofar as the AVRN is going through a stage of territorial imbalance (Pérez, 2020 and Basualdo, 2022) where processes are verified that clearly show the mismatch that exists between the current territorial model and social needs. Taking the town of Fiske Menuco as an example, we venture to build a synthetic territorial representation that serves as an input to discuss the path toward the necessary territorial reconfiguration.