Roads to Progress: Public Perceptions of Highway Construction in Peru, 1920–30

Augusto B. Leguía’s Patria Nueva government that ruled Peru between 1919 and 1930 introduced many lasting changes on the nation’s twentieth century development.  Perhaps one of the most enduring legacies remains the development of Peru’s highway network. Historians have examined Leguía’s highway projects citing them as a key moment when the nation’s interior became connected to global markets.  However, these investigations have overlooked that highway construction in Peru also emerged as a political and cultural project.  In fact, road construction often featured prominently in national debates over the changes sought by Leguía’s development goals.

This paper examines the growing public interest in highway construction in Peru during the Patria Nueva.  I argue that competing visions of the government’s investment in a road network formed a central point of political contestation during Leguía’s rule.  Supporters of highway construction emphasized the project’s role in elevating Peru as a modern nation.  Besides the potential economic benefits, elites and members of Peru’s middle class embraced automobile travel as a sign of progress.  Finally, highway construction offered Peru’s political leaders to legitimize the Patria Nueva as a revitalization of the nation’s Incan past which also constructed an impressive transportation network.  This paper also highlights how highway construction emerged as a point of political conflict and protest.  Opponents pointed to the use of corvée labor drawn from indigenous communities to construct highways.  Opponents argued that, instead of modernizing Peru, highway construction revitalized the abusive mitalabor system of Spanish colonialism.

 By highlighting the debates over the appeal and threat of highway construction in 1920s Peru, this paper expands on the existing historiography of the Patria Nueva.  My investigation also illustrates how questions of development in twentieth century Peru reached beyond economic questions to affect national political and cultural questions surrounding the challenge of development.