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identity of the Latin American city
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The identity of the cities in Latin AmericaWeek 2 - Latin American cities
Most (rapidly) urbanized region in the world
Latin America is by far the region with the most rapid transition to urban life, the structure of
the city and distribution has changed since the colonial period. During the colonial period
Latin America was divided in 4 kingdoms: Granada, Perú, Río de la Plata, Mesoamerica. In
the last 50 years there has been an urban explosion. Latin America has the widest explosion of
mid cities, every country has over 10/20 million metropolitans.
Urban transition
From colonial nodes (knooppunten) in the Transatlantic world
To primary cities in young republics in the 19th century
Real urban transition in the 20th
century.
Today’s Latin America is an urban society
How much the cities in LA have changed
remarkable: EU-LA contrast, EU is
small and crowded, LA is bigger, but
people are concentrated in the big cities.
Latin America and the Caribbean went
from being rural to urban in less than
50 years.
Urbanization in 20th century: 4 phases
each phase explains a moment in which
a city has changed, and the transitions
from highly populated and crowded
cities.
1900 – 1950: Transatlantic
migration to cities in southern cone
1950 – 2000: Rural-urban migration whole region
1970 - 2000: Megacities and metropolitan regions; limit to growth
Since 2000: Rapid urbanization intermediate (tussenliggend) cities
Rural = countryside, plattelands
Urban = cityside, stedelijk
1900 – 1950: Transatlantic migration to cities in southern cone
, Europe’s world wars had a massive impact on cities in the southern cone.
There was a huge migration from Europe to
Latin America during this period. Italians
would go to the south, Spanish people as well
(franquismo). A lot of Irish people (UK)
migrated to the states.
This first migration was interesting because it
divided Latin America into 2 countries, the
southern cone had open migration policies, and
in the northern they were really closed to this.
*Colombia: really close to migration (also in
the constitution)
When the city becomes a ‘problem’
Utopic ideas
City regarded as entry point to modernity, to become a ‘modern’ nation
Moral discourse part of political project
^ What is meant by this??
Reality feeds dystopic ideas
Overcrowding in inner cities
Inner city slums / conventillos
The idea of modernity, EU culture in Latin America due to migration, with that came the idea
of ‘high’ culture. The cities started to change, and the idea of what was supposed to be also
shifted. Governments started to point out that they wanted to reach the same goal as the EU
with the Marshall plan, some people had a different idea of life.
What did the Marshall plan have to do with this????
Changing urban patterns
What started to happen is that the centers of the cities
(initially inhabited by the rich), started to spread out
(1950s). This was a different city than the one in the
colonial period (rich people in the center and poor in the
outsides). People started migrating to the centers because
there’s where you find work, a place to live, and other
opportunities.
The compact city
what happened in this first period of growth in the city, is that the high class didn’t just move
to the periphery, but to specific areas to make it exclusive. It’s a process from people starting
to move away (from the center to the rest of the city extendedly, because they want to belong
where they feel at home)
,https://www.google.com/search?
q=conventillo&client=safari&rls=en&sxsrf=AOaemvIldDIrS6L_1rAASiIBvfXePBryGg:1638554074885&source=lnms&tb
m=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwie-M_Mmcj0AhVEC-wKHfYmABkQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1440&bih=795&dpr=1
Conventillos ^
Colonial patio houses in inner city
Large families living in small rooms
Informal income generating activities (vendors, odd jobs such as laundry washing,
prostitution etc)
Discrimination based on race and ethnicity, social class, type of work, customs and habits
related to poverty.
= An adaptation of a colonial house in the center. When the high migration started increasing
is when this patios became the common spaces for the families. Other homes were made in
the patios. Conventillos started discriminating by race, origin (mainland/EU). It was a huge
mix; it was a populated area that was not supposed to … so many people. When you have this
high migration there is not enough work, space, etc. this happens nowadays in Latin America,
cities have not been able to overcome this. The elite left the center because of the pressure of
the migrants. The idea of a society by this time was different.
The elite and its European dream
, People leaving due to the ‘European dream’. Marshall plan = cause. US plan to lend/give
money to EU to fix the problems after the war, in turn they would not become communists.
Latin America was the largest provider of goods/trades at this time, but the only one who had
a relationship with the US were the elite. The ideas of evolution (Darwinism e.g) and how
people can be organized, should dress, cultural values, etc. started to grow in society.
Dominant ideas about ‘culture’, ‘civilization’, ‘progress’, ‘development’ and ‘modernity’.
Often referencing to antique European (Roman and Greek) histories.
Dominant (scientific) ideas about ‘successful’ civilizations, Darwinism and race theories
City as laboratory for testing these ideas
1929: civilization was
France and England
Solutions imported
from France:
urbanismo
In the 1920s these
countries where the
model. Cities should
look like these cities,
barrios should all go to
a specific place, they’re
planned to go in a
certain way (mostly to
the center).
Plan by Le Corbusier:
Metaphor 1: city as an organism
French architects and urbanist as advisors of Latin
American sanitary and urban institutions.
Donat-Aflred Agache visits Rio in 1927 for lecture
on the ‘sick city’ and to develop master plan.
Le Corbusier visit Latin America in 1929 and 1936
for various lectures.
The view from the airplane inspired their ideas.
Different conceptual metaphors: one of them is seeing
the city as an organism, the second one the city as a
machine. the city as an organism means you are able to
clean/intervene the city as if you were a doctor. There
are filthy parts who don’t count here. Le Corbusier had
specific ideas on how to enter the city and the ideas of
organizing it was, cleaning the city from its filthy parts.
This became particularly relevant for Brazil: late 1920s
Le Corbusier made lectures, in his biography he says that
when he saw Rio de Janeiro from above, he had a big
image of how to clean Rio and get rid of the favela.
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