A New Guatemala: Modernization and Urban Reforms in Guatemala City

Often referred to as “the ten years of spring in the land of eternal dictatorship,” the administrations of Juan José Arévalo (1945-1951) and Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán (1951-1954) encompass one of the most-well researched periods of Guatemalan history. Dominated by an emphasis on land reform and the overthrow of Árbenz in 1954, existing scholarship on this democratic interlude privileges the rural and agricultural while overlooking the significance of urban interests, in particular residents of the capital who contributed to the triumph of the October Revolution of 1944. Drawing upon the revolution’s ideals of social democracy and economic nationalism, a trend that occurred throughout the Americas in the aftermath of World War II, the revolutionary governments committed to developing both a physical infrastructure and bureaucratic organization that would reflect the country’s participation in a modern and increasingly globalized capitalist economy. Using sources from urban planners and social scientists alongside archival research of government ministries, this paper examines how top-down visions of modernity under the revolutionary governments informed efforts to modernize the capital through development projects and social aid programs. In addition to addressing a void in the literature on Guatemala by shifting the focus from rural to urban, this paper demonstrates how ideas about modernity created infrastructure and policies that perceived of the capital in a manner that did not fully address the realities of urban life.