ABSTRACT

Urban Latin America explores the relationship between images, words and the built environment using an engaging variety of methods and sources, with a timely emphasis on comparative studies. The book brings together scholars with various disciplinary backgrounds and theoretical affiliations who critically approach urban experiences through visual accounts, texts and architectural elements. The reader is introduced to major theories, secondary sources and empirical references that have not been written about in English. Film and photography, fictional and historical writings, particular buildings and landmarks – all inspire fascinating glimpses into different moments in the biography of cities in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela.

chapter |11 pages

Introduction

Urban Latin América?

part I|78 pages

Images

chapter 2|18 pages

Antinomic-complementary landscapes

The beach and the favela in early-twentieth-century Rio de Janeiro

chapter 3|15 pages

Caracas and Mérida, Venezuela

Coloniality, space, and gender in the film Azul y no tan rosa 1

chapter 4|22 pages

A loud cinematic city

Recife’s motion condition in Neighboring Sounds

part II|34 pages

Words

chapter 5|15 pages

Homo porteñicus

The police and urban identity in Buenos Aires

chapter 6|17 pages

Sports urbanization and modernization of public habits

Santiago during the first year of Los Sports magazine (1923)

part III|48 pages

Flows

chapter 7|15 pages

The portable jazz age

Josephine Baker’s tour of South American cities (1929)

chapter 8|14 pages

From planned city to pulverized metropolis

The popular-informal scene in Brasilia

chapter 9|17 pages

Ways of dwelling

Location, daily mobility and segregated circuits in the urban experience of the modern landscape of La Plata, Argentina

part IV|79 pages

Built environment

chapter 10|15 pages

The walled Havana

Walls, urban space and slavery in Havana (1762–1812)

chapter 11|20 pages

Eradicating blackness from the ideal city

Urbanization, global spectacle, and Brazil’s centenary

chapter 12|21 pages

From unregulated growth to planned city

The Bosque Calderón Tejada neighborhood, Bogotá (1935–1940)

chapter 13|21 pages

Scratching space

Memoryscapes, violence and everyday life in Mexico City and Buenos Aires