Urbanization and Modernity in Latin America’s Secondary Capital Cities: Guatemala City, Caracas, Asunción, and San Juan
AHA Session 33
Conference on Latin American History 8
Conference on Latin American History 8
Thursday, January 5, 2017: 3:30 PM-5:00 PM
Room 502 (Colorado Convention Center, Meeting Room Level)
Chair:
Bridget M. Chesterton, State University of New York, College at Buffalo
Papers:
Comment:
The Audience
Session Abstract
This session will consider how governments in Latin America and the Caribbean worked to bring modern ideas about cities and urbanization to Latin America's lesser studied capitals: Caracas, San Juan, Guatemala City, and Asunción. The works in this panel expand our understanding of Latin American urban history by considering how "secondary capitals" were also invested in urbanization in the mid to late twentieth century. Significantly, these papers will move away from the trend in the historiography to view Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Brazil's economic capital, Sao Paulo as the only cities experimenting with urbanization and modernity in the era. These papers will consider trends in the arts, modern planning, housing, transportation, and infrastructure to consider the broad and significant changes to these cities inhabitants as a result of growing urbanization. Because the historiography of these “secondary capital” cities in English has been traditionally weak, these papers will add a level of understanding to about how citizens viewed these changes, how they managed these changes, and the overall impact that these changes had on their lives. The papers see to bring a broader understanding of what urbanization in Latin America meant.
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