Mestizo Urbanism: Enduring Racial Intersections in Latin American Cities

TY - JOUR

T1 - Mestizo Urbanism

T2 - Enduring Racial Intersections in Latin American Cities

AU - Torino, Giulia

PY - 2024/3/21

Y1 - 2024/3/21

N2 - Across Latin America, there continues to be strong resistance to the claim that racism plays a role in the production of urban space. Deemed antipatriotic, this issue remains widely unaddressed in urban planning and geography. Based on qualitative research in Bogotá and secondary literature on other Latin American cities, this article explores the afterlife of mestizaje (racial mixture) as a racial–colonial project from the viewpoint of its materialisation in the city and society–space relations. In particular, it illustrates how racism in the city is transfigured as ‘always something else’ (e.g., culture, class, regionalism, displacement) through a variety of normative, discursive and operational devices. Thus, the article confronts the need to divest from the racial hegemony of mestizaje in urban planning and geography, suggesting that it is hindering the path towards more equitable urban futures.

AB - Across Latin America, there continues to be strong resistance to the claim that racism plays a role in the production of urban space. Deemed antipatriotic, this issue remains widely unaddressed in urban planning and geography. Based on qualitative research in Bogotá and secondary literature on other Latin American cities, this article explores the afterlife of mestizaje (racial mixture) as a racial–colonial project from the viewpoint of its materialisation in the city and society–space relations. In particular, it illustrates how racism in the city is transfigured as ‘always something else’ (e.g., culture, class, regionalism, displacement) through a variety of normative, discursive and operational devices. Thus, the article confronts the need to divest from the racial hegemony of mestizaje in urban planning and geography, suggesting that it is hindering the path towards more equitable urban futures.

KW - race

KW - mestizaje

KW - whiteness

KW - cities

KW - Latin America

KW - Bogotá

KW - spatial imaginary

KW - neoliberalism

KW - coloniality

UR - https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-latin-american-studies/article/mestizo-urbanism-enduring-racial-intersections-in-latin-american-cities/EFF8F1A094F986BEBE0A0F03992DAFEB

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85190145745&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1017/S0022216X24000063

DO - 10.1017/S0022216X24000063

M3 - Article

SN - 0022-216X

VL - 56

SP - 37

EP - 62

JO - Journal of Latin American Studies

JF - Journal of Latin American Studies

IS - 1

ER -