Latin American Cities: Social Tensions and Urban Forms

Geoffrey Fox | América Latina | Pequeña biblioteca |

Developed for a course for the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, New York University

Description | Topics | Bibliography

Description

Latin America's contested issues are manifested in their cities' built forms ­ architecture, street and road systems, and urban layout. These forms permit us to read repressed histories centuries later, and they continue to be arenas of conflict over race, class and gender, and foreign versus national interests. The course will focus on five of the continent's oldest and most populous cities, where these conflicts are intense and the outcomes will have intercontinental consequences: Mexico, Havana, Lima, Buenos Aires and São Paulo.

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Topics
1 Introduction

2 From Tenochtitlán to "Mexico." Sabloff, 1997. The Cities of Ancient Mexico.

3 Mexico: Becoming the modern metropolis. Davis, 1994. Urban Leviathan

4 Havana, from foundation to the Cuban Republic. Segre, Coyula & Scarpaci, 1997. Havana

5 20th century Havana, capitalist & socialist. Segre, Coyula, & Scarpaci. Havana (cont.)

6 Lima as colonial center. Hardoy, 1975. "Two Thousand Years of Latin American Urbanization."

7 Lima in the 20th century. Dietz, 1998; Lloyd, 1980.

8 Buenos Aires: 1536 to 1900. Fox, 1990. The Land and People of Argentina.

9 Buenos Aires in the 20th century. Foster, 1998. Buenos Aires

10 São Paulo and the Portuguese colonial project

11 São Paulo in the 20th century. Kowarick, 1994. Social Struggles and the City

12 Conclusions. Angotti, 1993. Metropolis 2000; Arrighi, 1999

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Readings

- . Patrimonio societal e intervenciones urbanas: trece experiences en América Latina, Colección Estudios Urbanos. Santiago: Ediciones Sur, 1996. 179 Case studies from Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala, El Salvador, Argentina and Chile.

Andrews, George Reid. The Afro-Argentines of Buenos Aires, 1800-1900. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1980. 286

Andrews, George Reid. Black and Whites in São Paulo, Brazil: 1888-1988. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991. 366

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Angotti, Thomas. Metropolis 2000: Planning, Poverty and Politics. London and New York: Routledge, 1993. 276

"Metropolis" is a new 20th c. settlement form, distinct from older city because it is much bigger (> 1 million pop.) & too economically, socially & geographically diverse to wither; 20% of world pop. live in such metropoloi. Potentially offers greatest freedom to individuals of all settlement forms, because of that diversity. Planning goal should be "integrated diversity"; US model is not sufficiently integrated (too many separate planning authorities, or no planning, causing great inefficiencies), Soviet model was highly integrated (top-down) but not diverse politically (because of lack of lower-level or distinct planning authorities with any autonomy). Dependent metropolis (primate city of a dependent country) is further distorted (some descriptive detail but not much of a theory about this that I could find, but considers Havana example to be the most positive). Some 20% of world population live in metropolises, most in dependent countries. 95.05.07

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Arrighi, Giovanni. "Globalization and Historical Macrosociology." In Sociology for the Twenty-First Century: Continuities and Cutting Edges, edited by Janet Abu-Lughod, 117-133. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.

Critiques 2 schools, Comparative & Historical Sociology (CHS, Charles Tilly et al.), & Political Economy of World Systems (PEWS, Emmanual Wallerstein et al.), & concludes: (1) contrary to Wallerstein, contemporary international financial integration is different in important ways from its predecessor world systems: 13c. Mongol empire that "created the conditions for the emergence of an Afroeurasian world trading system"; 16th c European colonization that connected Indian Ocean to the Caribbean; 19th c European imperialism over 4/5 of the globe. Mostly the difference is that this is imperialism w/o an imperialist. (2) Center of world financial power may be moving back to Asia, as in 13th c, though Western theory finds this hard to recognize precisely because all its terms are Western.

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Arrom, Silvia Marina. Containing the Poor: The Mexico City Poor House, 1774-1871. Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2000. 398

Bentin Díaz-Canseco, José. Enrique Seoane Ros: una búsqueda de raíces peruanas. Lima: Índice Editores, 1989.

Bonduki, Nabil. Origens da habitação social no Brasil. Arquitetura moderna, Leido Inquilinato e difusão da casa propria. São Paulo: FAPESP, 1998. 342

Bourdé, Guy. Buenos Aires: urbanización e inmigración. Buenos Aires: Ediorial Huemul, 1977.

Buschiazzo, Mario. La arquitectura en la República Argentina, 1810-1930. Buenos Aires: Mac Gaul, 1971.

*Burian, Edward R., ed. Modernity and the Architecture of Mexico. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997. 220

Canevacci, Massimo. A cidade polifônica. Ensaio sobre a antropología da comunicação urbana. Translated by Cecília Prada. São Paulo: Studio Nobel, 1997.

Cardich, Augusto. Civilización andina: su formación. Lima: CONCYTEC, 1988.

Caveri, Claudio. Los sistemas sociales a través de la arquitectura. Organización popular y arquitectura latinoamericana. Buenos Aires: Cooperativa Tierra, 1976.

Cela, Jorge. La otra cara de la pobreza. Santo Domingo: Centro de Estudios Sociales, P. Juan Montalvo, S.J., 1997.

Ciudad Alternativa, ed. Antología Urbana de Ciudad Alternativa. Vol. I. Santo Domingo: Ciudad Alternativa, 1996. 470

Dalto, Renalto. Missões Jesuítico-Guaranis: Unisinos, 1999

*Davis, Diane E. Urban Leviathan: Mexico City in the Twentieth Century. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994. 390

*Dietz, Henry A. Urban poverty, political participation, and the state; Lima, 1970-1990: U. of Pittsburgh Press, 1998.

Escardó, Florencio. Nueva geografía de Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires: Americalee, 1971.

*Ferguson, William M., and R. E. W. Adams. Mesoamerica's Ancient Cities. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2001. 296

*Foster, David William. Buenos Aires: Perspectives on the City and Cultural Production. Gainesville: University Press of Gainesville, 1998. 231

*Fox, Geoffrey. The Land and People of Argentina. New York: J. B. Lippincott (HarperCollins), 1990.

Fraser, Valerie. Building the New World: Studies in the Modern Architecture of Latin America. London & New York: Verso, 2000. 280

Frúgoli, Heitor, Jr. Centralidade em São Paulo: Trajetórias, conflitos e negociações na metrópole. São Paulo: Editra da Universidade de São Paulo, 2000. 254

García Canclini, Néstor. Consumidores y ciudadanos: Conflictos multiculturales de la globalización. México: Grijalbo, 1995. 198

Gonçalves, Maria Flora, ed. O novo Brasil urbano. Impasses. Dilemas. Perspectivas. Porto Alegre: Mercado Aberto, 1995. 358

Gutiérrez, Ramón A. Arquitectura y urbanismo en Iberoamérica. Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra, 1983.

Guy, Donna J. Sex and Danger in Buenos Aires: Prostitution, Family, and Nation in Argentina. Lincoln NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1991. 260

Hardoy, Jorge E. "Two Thousand Years of Latin American Urbanization." In Urbanization in Latin America: Approaches and Issues, edited by J. E. Hardoy. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1975.

Higgins, Michael James, and Tanya L. Coen. Streets, Bedrooms and Patios: The Ordinariness of Diversity in Urban Oaxaca. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000. 312

Kowarick, Lúcio, ed. Social Struggles and the City: the case of São Paulo. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1994.

Takes the story from the protests against the high cost of living and rent strikes by immigrant workers of 1912-15, up through the first Partido dos Trabalhadores administration of Luiza Erundina, 1989-91. The PT emerged from the failure of the massive strikes of metal workers (especially auto workers in São Bernardo suburb) against extremely aggressive repression by the military government, and the realization by the metal workers union (now led by Luis Inacio da Silva, "Lula") that they could win only if they organized politically. The huge strikes had mobilized community-based groups, which for the first time organized pickets and other tactics learned during the strike, and made political, community-based action an obvious strategy for the left. The PT had no ideology of its own beyond its workerist demands, and so was open to communists, trotskyists, anarchists, religious radicals and any other group seeking to advance an agenda of better wages and conditions. The internal conflicts in the PT can be fierce, and created serious problems for Erundina, who represented some of the more radical sectors but needed the support of other PT members of the city council. (As president, Lula will have to contend with all these forces, but has the advantage of the great prestige from his leadership in 1979 and his obvious skill at managing factions.) Essays in this book by Laís Wendel Abramo on the metalworkers' strike in São Bernardo, Silvio Caccia Bava on neighborhood movements and the trade unions in São Bernardo, and the essays by Kowarick and Nobil G. Bonduki are especially helpful in understanding the dynamics and success of this mass urban party. 02.11.23

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Lemos, Carlos A. C. "Ecletismo em São Paulo." In Ecletismo na arquitetura brasileira, edited by Annateresa Fabris. São Paulo: Nobel/Edusp, 1987.

León-Portilla, Miguel. The Broken Spears. Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico. Translated by From Nahuatl into Spanish: Garibay K., Angel María; English translation by Lysander Kemp. Boston: Beacon Press, 1962. 157 pp. + bib, index

Levy, Evelyn. Democracia nas cidades globais: un estudo sobre Londres e São Paulo. São Paulo: Studio Nobel, 1997. 231

*Lloyd, Peter. The "Young Towns" of Lima. Aspects of Urbanization in Peru. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.

Low, Setha M. On the Plaza: The Politics of Public Space and Culture. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000. 274

Magnani, José Gulherme C. Mystica urbe: um estudo antropológico sobre o circuito neo-esotérico na cidade. São Paulo: Studio Nobel, 1999. 143

Martínez, Rubén. The Other Side: Notes from the New L.A., Mexico City, and Beyond. New York: Vintage, 1993. 170

Martínez-Vergne, Teresita. Shaping the Discourse on Space: Charity and Its Wards in Nineteenth-Century San Juan, Puerto Rico. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999. 235

Morse, Richard M. From Community to Metropolis: A Biography of São Paulo, Brazil: Univ Florida Press, 1958. 341

Paternosto, César. Piedra abstracta: La escultura inca: Una visión contemporánea. México-Buenos Aires: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1989. 206

Quantrill, Malcolm, ed. Latin American Architecture: Six Voices. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2000. 212 Eladio Dieste; Christian De Groote; Ricardo Legorreta; Rogelio Salmona; Jesús Tenreiro-Degwitz; Clorindo Testa

Roberts, W. Adolphe. Havana: The Portrait of a City. New York: Coward-McCann, 1953. "A Short History" and "Havana Today": commercial sex & other amusements of the prerevolutionary urbs.

Sachs, Céline. São Paulo: Políticas Públicas e Habitação Popular. Translated by Cristina Murachco. São Paulo: Editora da Universidade de São Paulo, 1999. 277 Analisa as políticas públicas do regime militar, 1964-1985.

Sampaio, Maria Ruth Amaral de, ed. Habitação e cidade. São Paulo: FAPESP, 1998.

Schultz, Kirsten. Tropical Versailles: Empire, Monarchy, and the Portuguese Royal Court in Rio de Janeiro, 1808-1821. London: Routledge, 2001. 325

*Segre, Roberto, Mario Coyula, and Joseph L. Scarpaci. Havana: Two Faces of the Antillean Metropolis. Chichester - New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997. 399

Segre, Roberto. América Latina find de milenio. Raíces y perspectivas de su arquitectura. La Habana: Editorial Arte y Literatura, 1999.

Torre, Juan Carlos. "La ciudad y los obreros." In Buenos Aires, historia de cuatro siglos, edited by José Luis Romero and Luis Alberto Romero, 275-286. Buenos Aires: Editorial Abril, 1983.

Torres Ribeiro, Ana Clara, ed. Repensando a experiênça urbana da América Latina: Questões, conceitos e valores. Buenos Aires: CLACSO, 2000. 250

Wirth, John D., and Robert L. Jones, eds. Manchester and São Paulo: Problems of Rapid Urban Growth. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1978.

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