ABSTRACT
This chapter explains why the term ghetto is rarely appropriate in a Latin American context. It also seeks to explain temporal shifts in the "topographic lexicon" for designating "those stigmatized neighborhoods situated at the very bottom of the hierarchical system of places that compose the metropolis". The obsession with the ghetto and with the underclass in the United States is a reaction both to fear and to a feeling of failure. The Great Society of the Johnson administration was meant to encourage upward mobility that would allow anyone who tried to succeed. In Latin America, a lot of rich people share similar attitudes, but many others recognize that it is much harder to climb out of poverty in Latin America than in the north. Although there is little real social interaction between rich and poor in Latin American cities, at least the rich talk with their maids, gardeners, drivers, and security guards.
