Both physical and symbolic spatial transformations attributed to residential tourism are correlative to sensations, thoughts, feelings and the belief of the actors involved; thereby, studies of the phenomenon should take them into account. The paper is based on an epistemological approach that emphasizes subjectivity, not only in the experience of a rural landscape, but also in its instrumentality. In Malinalco, the latter is led and driven by a wealthy set of actors whose behavior confesses a habitus (Bourdieu), which is approximated in this paper with qualitative methods. The imagery of that group includes "hacienda" as a representation of rurality, and ostentation as a political power and status symbol. Meanwhile, modernity and postmodernity shape their peripheries, which become embedded in the town.
