AHA Session 98
Conference on Latin American History 23
Labor and Working-Class History Association 10
Conference on Latin American History 23
Labor and Working-Class History Association 10
Friday, January 8, 2027: 10:30 AM-12:00 PM
Studio 7 (New Orleans Marriott, 2nd Floor)
Chair:
Gonzalo Romero, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Papers:
Comment:
Diego Cerna-Aragon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Session Abstract
This panel examines state efforts to govern and remake Andean topographies in pursuit of economic and social modernity. Drawing on cases from Peru and Chile, the collective conversation traces how specialized state offices sought to reconfigure the ruggedness of mountainous landscapes as both a material and symbolic terrain of development. In Peru, the state mobilized the newly available commodity of dynamite to reshape Andean space and revive mining after independence. In the twentieth century, industrialization projects again targeted Andean geography, most notably through the construction of a hydroelectric plant in northern Peru intended to anchor a steel industry, an enterprise animated by global industrial imaginaries and the ambition to forge a “Pittsburgh in the Andes.” The Chilean case shifts the focus to urban infrastructure, showing how Andean topography was harnessed to meet Santiago’s growing demand for potable water through the diversion of resources from the Mapocho Valley. Together, these cases illuminate the tensions within state imaginaries of the Andes, envisioned simultaneously as a repository of tradition and as a foundation for industrialization, capitalist development, and urban modernity.
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