(click map to enlarge)
The work of this map? Explain to potential tourists where La Gran (the Greater or Great) Chiquitanía is located, and communicate an image of a region that is well worthwhile to visit.
The location of this strongly rural and sparsely populated region is defined in several complementary ways:
First, I created a spatial metaphor. Since the region is close to the centre (the heart) of the continent (see inset map), I refer to it as 'the heart of South America', in the sense of representing its essence: a region where you will get an authentic experience, and where as a tourist you may even (innocently?) believe that you're not a tourist but, as in colonial times, a real traveller.
Second, the region is situated with the state of Bolivia, and the state's name is shown together with the name of bordering countries to inform the map reader.
Third, the region is situated as belonging to the Department of Santa Cruz. This is not only a matter administrative hierarchy, but also of regional identity. The label 'Departamento de Santa Cruz' therefore
clearly enters the Gran Chiquitanía region.Moreover, the city of Santa Cruz is, unless you enter from Brazil, the gateway to the Gran Chiquitanía.
Fourth, the region is situated in terms of ecological zones and mayor landscapes. The Gran Chiquitanía is enclosed between the rain forests of the more humid Amazon basin at the north, the forests and savannas of the dryer El Chaco region at the south, the world's largest tropical wetland El Pantanal (The Swamp) at the east, and finally the highlands (Altiplano) and mountain range of the Andes (Cordillera de los Andes) at the west.
Different lettering styles (font, colour, etc) make it easy to distinguish for example natural regions from the countries.
Since the map above all wants to present the Gran Chiquitanía as a region, its subdivision in provinces is symbolized in a discrete way. The provinces are not labelled with their names, but by discrete numbers, and their borders are visible, but draw little attention. The information is on the map for who needs its, but not as to distract the reader from the idea of the Gran Chiquitanía as a region.
Since nature is an important part of what the Gran Chiquitanía offers to tourists, I chose a bright but not screaming green for symbolizing the region. Not only does this colour combine well with the earth tones of the rest of the map, it also clearly stands out and thus helps to visually emphasize the region. The custom-made church icon at the centre of the Gran Chiquitanía was inspired by and represents the characteristic churches of the Jesuit Missions that are also figuratively the icons of the culture-nature tourism that the region is promoting.
This map as a whole has what I call an Indiana Jones-look, evoking a sense of adventure. Earth tones dominate the map; this was not a free choice, but resulted from the tones of the background image that I used to depict the relieve that is so fundamental to the map area. I opted for custom made church icons that refer to the colonial churches found in Bolivian cities, and that often symbolized cities on colonial maps. To reinforce the map's 'old' and informal look these church icons were placed slightly rotated. The 'antique' wind rose, functionally redundant, further reinforced this old feel, and help to graphically balance the map by adding visual weight to the 'empty' upper left corner of the map.
The map has also quite some diplomacy incorporated. This may not be noted unfamiliar with the political situation in Bolivia, or even be of interest for most tourists, but may important to many Bolivians. The (partially) rich lowland province of Santa Cruz is demanding far-going autonomy, and also calls for independence are not rare. Lowland Bolivians, 'cambas', traditionally preceive themselves as culturally very different from the highland indians or 'collas' (pronounce coias, a term that often used in despicable way by the 'cambas'). The city of Santa Cruz has surpassed the national capital La Paz not only by far in economic importance, but also doubles it in population (1.7 million inhabitants, versus 835,000). The popularity of colla President Evo Morales in the eastern lowland of Bolivia lags strongly behind that in the western highlands, and is still less among the entrepreneur elite of the both the city and of rural Santa Cruz. They complain that the fruits of their prosperity, based mainly on natural gas and the soy industry of the province, are abused by taxation to subsidize the unproductive collas of the highlands.
In the light of this sensible political background this map has opted to depict the Gran Chiquitanía (and the Department of Santa Cruz clearly as a parts of a single Bolivian state, but such in a non-provocative way. The centrality of the Bolivian nation state is first confirmed by the map's subtitle, but also by the country label for Bolivia that starts in the highlands near La Paz, crosses through the centre of the Department of Santa Cruz to end in the heart of the Gran Chiquitanía.
The role of La Paz as the national capital is emphasized by a big and dark church icon and larger and capital letters. However putting Santa Cruz at the same level as the other department capitals (e.g. Cobija only has around 35,000 souls) would be without doubt an insult for most cruceños. The city of Santa Cruz is therefore symbolized by a bigger church that recognizes the economic power and the pride of the city; this however without questioning La Paz's role at the apex of the national administrative hierarchy.
By means of the text at its left margin, the map explicitly confirms that the Gran Chiquitanía is part of the Department of Santa Cruz. Moreover, this is the only department whose limits are on the map. I chose to make the borders of the Department of Santa Cruz clearly visible both because of its functional importance for the map, but also to confirm its regional importance in Bolivia and its identity. This however was done in such a way that the impression of 'a state within the state' is avoided; the clearly visible border of the Santa Cruz department is therefore both thinner and of a softer tone than the national border.
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