The Metropolis in Latin America, 1830–1930: Cityscapes, Photographs, Debates (Getty Research Institute) charts this shift, drawing on the Getty Research Institute’s collection of books, prints, and photographs that document this pivotal point in Latin American history. These materials, largely unpublished until now, reveals the cities’ changes through urban panoramas, plans depicting new neighborhoods, and photographs of novel transportation systems, public amenities, civic spaces, and more. Using six capital cities as case studies—Havana, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile, and Lima—this work examines sociopolitical histories, town planning, art and architecture, photography, and film in relation to the emergence of the metropolis. Most importantly, The Metropolis in Latin America illustrates the transformation of colonial cities into the monumental modern metropolises that, by the end of the 1920s, provided fertile ground for the emergence of today’s Latin American megalopolis.
New Book Offers a Comprehensive Study of the Growth of Capital Cities in Latin America
Examines sociopolitical histories, town planning, art and architecture, photography, and film in relation to emergence of the metropolis
The Metropolis in Latin America, 1830–1930
Cityscapes, Photographs, DebatesAuthors
Idurre Alonso, Maristella Casciato
Body Content
From about 1830–1930, spurred by independence from colonial powers Spain and Portugal, a period of rapid growth transformed the colonial cities of Latin America. This growth was propelled by the new urban bourgeois’ investment in modernization and industrialization and was marked by the lower classes’ relocation from the old city districts to the outskirts.
Endorsements
“The authors shed light on the transformations that modified the colonial model of Iberian cities in America, from Mexico to Argentina, displacing the axis of viceregal power toward a circuit of cities that were able to expand and gather international prestige during the republican period. The book includes an unusual repertoire of topics in the field of research of history at the early stages of modernity in Latin America.”
— Gabriela Rangel, artistic director, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA)
“The Metropolis in Latin America is an excellent survey featuring the city’s key role in the conformation of the social and political order of the newly born republics, with enlightening essays that discuss a broad range of interdisciplinary approaches. A magnificent iconographic collection shows how Latin American urban development challenged Western architecture’s aesthetic canons, became an accurate laboratory for the newly constituted discipline of urbanism, and shaped the structure of its own image and identity, as we can see today.”
— Horacio Torrent, professor of architecture, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile