ABSTRACT
Cities in Latin America and the Caribbean are broadly defined by high levels of informality and inequality. This chapter departs from pre-Columbian cities and from an analysis of the principles that guided European colonization after the 16th century to demonstrate that patterns of exclusion are inherent to modernization processes and not just side effects, as they have been traditionally discussed. Based on new scholarship on the Atlantic world (Canizares-Esguerra, 2002; Padron, 2004; Herzog, 2015) and on decolonial theory (Escobar, 1995; Mignolo, 2005), this chapter uses maps and diagrams to link the present situation with historic patterns of urbanization, contributing to the construction of new theories that could better explain the cities of the region.
