During the second half of the twentieth century, two trends decisively shaped the historical trajectory of Latin American societies: explosive urbanization and the rise of authoritarian regimes. Between 1950 and 1990, the percentage of people who lived in cities in Latin America and the Caribbean went from 40 to 70. Through rural-urban migration and demographic growth, Latin America, historically a rural region, became predominantly urban. As rapid, often unplanned urban growth became a defining feature, cities became a crucial point of contact between Latin American states and societies. Similarly, the outset of the Global Cold War launched a new era of political authoritarianism that thwarted the incipient democratization of the mid-1940s; whereas five Latin American countries could be characterized as dictatorships in the aftermath of World War II, by 1954 there were only four democracies. During the following decades, with some respite, dictatorships became the norm. They often ruled for more than a decade at a time, implemented long-lasting visions of top-down development, and held deep sway in national politics.

Urban spaces were not only the sites of authoritarian politics, but also of popular and elite resistance, and everything in between. Cities were produced by these dynamics and deeply influenced them. Dense built environments have been central to the political-economic functions, cultural aspirations, and everyday life of elites, middle sectors, and popular classes. They have been the loci of power relations that reflect, reinforce, and challenge the inequities that characterize Latin American societies. From the construction and use of governmental buildings and critical infrastructure to struggles to control busy street corners, housing, and informal marketplaces, the urban history of Latin America is marked by deeply consequential, spatialized power contests in which dominance has often been exerted through force, or the threat of it, and contested through collective agency. Cities are the material manifestations of power structures, but they also provide opportunities to transform those structures.

Bringing together original work by a diverse group of specialists in urban Latin America, this panel explores cities as the spatial manifestations of authoritarian state formation in Mexico, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, and Peru. Focusing on the early phase of the Cold War, our panel likewise traces the concomitant transformations in political economy and urban restructuring.