León, Territory of Urbanalization

Abstract

This article analyzes the city of León, Guanajuato, through the concept of urbanalization, understood as a process of banalization within contemporary urbanization. From a critical perspective, the author examines how present-day cities have ceased to be solely historical expressions of their inhabitants’ cultural identity and have become spaces shaped by global processes, urban branding, images of competitiveness, and large-scale urban interventions. The text brings together theoretical references from Baudrillard, Castells, Sassen, Augé, Virilio, and Francesc Muñoz to reflect on the city as cultural production, fragmented territory, and site of simulation. Within this framework, the case of León is examined as a city whose recent urban transformation appears to privilege the logic of the market over the logic of territory. The author identifies the coexistence of a hyperreal city, associated with emblematic projects such as the Guanajuato Cultural Forum, Puerto Interior, and new urban plazas, alongside a real city marked by segregation, dispersion, socio-spatial inequality, peripheral settlements, and the deterioration of community spaces. Finally, the article argues that large urban projects may be necessary, but they must be assessed according to their social meaning rather than only their symbolic, political, or economic value.