Gilbert, Alan. The Latin American City.
Gilbert’s book provides a basic overview of the characteristics of the “Latin American city.” For my purposes, I focused on his chapters concerning urban growth, migration to the city, urban work, housing, urban management, and protest.
According to Gilbert, the majority of Latin American cities “look alike.” Major urban cities were not only colonial centers of administration, but they also tend to be relatively young in terms of rapid urbanization. Urban primacy is another characteristic of many Latin American metropolitan areas; as Gilbert points out, it is important to understand primacy in terms of colonial history as well as current implications. While the shared traits among these cities tend to be very broad (such as the internationalization of consumer tastes and histories of international production), these commonalities should be useful in terms of thinking about the relationship between Lima and a border town in the U.S.
Referencing the 1940s as the beginning of rapid urbanization, Gilbert explains the nature of rural life and the reasons behind migration. Claiming that individuals are better of in the urban cities, he claims that rural-to-urban migration is not a result of dire necessity, but rather a matter of calculated choice. Furthermore, young women and individuals with higher levels of education tend to be among those who migrate the most often. Contrary to Gilbert’s assertion that migrants are educated and adaptable, many officials during the 1950s saw the new migrants as “displaced persons” and worried about dealing with their incorporation into urban life. While I appreciate Gilbert’s interpretation of migrant agency and adaptability, I question his claim that migrants learn Spanish and change their style of dress because there is not other alternative; it seems as if he is accepting this rejection of traditional culture as a wholly positive change.
Also, in terms of my focus on social mobilization and protest, he claims that historically migrants did not aim to riot nor did they want to “cause trouble.” Instead, they were politically conservative and wanted “to be inconspicuous.” He goes on to address this issue of urban protest in chapter seven, where he attempts to explain why the urban poor tend to be relatively passive in terms of protest. Conservative community attitudes, the time-consuming nature of political participation, domestic obligations and the fact that most communities tend to become less homogenous as they develop are all factors. He also points to the presence of clientelism, government co-optation of community leaders and repression as additional reasons behind limited protest. These concepts are helpful in terms of thinking about why and how community members organize and petition within Villa El Salvador and the colonias. Furthermore, Gilbert mentions a number of important theorists, such as Manuel Castell, Alejandro Portes and Michael Johns and Burns, who will be helpful in looking at the development of opposition groups as well as the changing attitudes towards social movements within Latin American cities.
Gilbert’s section on urban work was helpful in that it introduced concepts such as the theories of tertiarisation, marginality and over-urbanization. In addition to describing the mutual dependence between the formal and informal sectors, he addresses the gendered division of jobs and the undervaluation of women’s work.
Perhaps most directly linked to my research, chapter five on urban housing provides a detailed history of home ownership and the evolution of self-help housing in Latin America. Much like other researchers, Gilbert cites insufficient housing stock, poverty, unequal wealth distribution and the monopolization of land as factors that lead to self-help housing. However, he highlights the complexity – and uniqueness – of self-help housing in Latin America by pointing out that the poor in other developing cities (in West Africa and India) tend to rent instead of constructing their own homes. In order to make sense of this difference, one must include the development of mass transportation, changing attitudes of Latin American governments towards informal methods of land occupation and the increasing ability of the state to provide advanced services and infrastructure. In addition to these interpretations of self-help housing in Latin America, Gilbert addresses the debate about self-help housing as either a solution or exploitation. I plan on researching theorists such as Charles Abrams, William Mangin and John Turner who argue that self-help housing works, as well as individuals who argue for a deeper, more severe restructuring of society such as Burgess and Pradilla.
