ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the border conditions of Pan-American cities such as Santiago and the border towns of Arica-Tacna and El Paso-Ciudad Juarez-predominantly ruled by informal trade and illegal migratory flows alongside the largest land-transport infrastructure on Earth called the Pan-American Highway. It also reflects on the North-South border dilemma of two paradigmatic border towns ruled by specific formal vs. informal economies, which expand or constrain alongside a common land-transport infrastructure organised by differentiated control systems, passageways, gateways, checkpoints and trade zones. The Pan-American cities are characterised by a strong tension between formal and informal socio-spatial productions. It exceeds the structures of order, control and homogeneity found in consolidated urban tissues. Architecturally Ferias Libres are linear fairs with a central passageway supported by lighweight and mobile tent-like structures or marquees alongside. They are the principal marketplaces that activate the public and civic life of many neighbourhoods or barrios. Carretoneros are informal sole traders on wheels, and are truly urban junk recyclers.
