Nowadays, when we revisit the spaces of the Central University campus, we are obliged to ask ourselves if it is possible to perpetuate so many notable achievements. Why should it be so difficult to preserve this eminently successful search for the sublime?

The campus was designed for a wealthy and secure nation, but at present we are suffering economic hardship despite the country's privileged source of income, and the insecurity that characterizes our urban centers causes tragic losses for the University. The precarious mechanisms of security, improvised from one day to the next, have affected the conception of a fluid urban space linking the inner and the outer, this environmental continuum through which the inside communicates with the vegetation and the nearby mountain, or which relates the earth to the sky and speaks to us of one unique space, a totality, only conceivable in the tropics. Now, railings have appeared in the pools of light, and the multiple entrances have been shut off, including important means of access such as exterior ramps which were intended more to enhance the pleasure of our walk than to facilitate circulation.

The original conception of a place in constant flux, like the living mutant organism which bore fruit during Villanueva's life, has become the campus's own worst enemy because of the lack of acceptable limits. The opening up of our universities and the resulting growth in student numbers have generated internal pressures which require new spaces of all types; and despite efforts to bring the student population under control, the demand for places is hard to satisfy. The preservation of an open space as a fundamental formal value is one of the most difficult objectives to make people appreciate, especially the present authorities whose initiatives have led to the most astonishing appropriations. The greed for usable space has encroached on the open covered areas, which are a unique feature of this miniature city. The generous roofed common areas, such as the ample passageways and small squares, are being invaded for various purposes, and their existence is constantly threatened by those who have a utilitarian concept of space and who find it hard to conceive of any exceptional value in these covered urban settings and in the subtle atmospheres of the Central University campus. At the heart of the problem lies the lack of appreciation of the basic value of the campus as a whole, which was exacerbated by the multiplicity of entities which were allowed to intervene in the physical facilities in the past.

The transparency and charm of the veils also present maintenance problems. Not many can appreciate the subtle screens by which the interior and the exterior are kept in contact, and which permit the veiled glance and the premonition of the inner mystery from the outside, a heritage from Islamic culture passed on to us by Spain and rescued in a modern language by Villanueva. Rather, the rupture of the delicate lacework by air conditioning units is an everyday occurrence.

The declaration of the Central University campus as a World Heritage site can be seen as a sign of hope in a context in which it is difficult to arrive at agreements, but are external solutions the only answer? Do we have to rely on others' norms in order to preserve our own monuments in Latin America?

The world of the Central University campus is a complex one, but the main threat to preservation is the lack of understanding of its subtlest wonders and the lack of awareness of the historical value of an exploration in time. It is vital to appreciate and preserve not only the loftiest achievements themselves but also what made them possible, the long and winding paths that reveal ambiguities and steps backward but that are also full of simple mysterious beauty, and which tell the story of the search for and attainment of the sublime. << PREVIOUS