Technology and industrial heritage. An overview from the Latin American West.

In this paper we highlight the technological and Industrial Revolution in Latin America from the very end of the Spanish Rule (Late XVIII century). We try to understand the original paths to an industrial society in México and some South American regions with some similiarities and divergences with the well known North Atlantic Europe. Archaeological, architectural and historical evidences show the many stages of agro-industrial processes and vertiginous take offs in the second half XXth century in some countries and a huge variety of industrial heritage sites that remember some european industrial prototypes still in use or retooled in the Americas. The mainstream of this paper is to discuss how and why Latin America was never separated of the global industrialization and in some cases, precocious attempts to industrial towns were remarkable up to date.