Lima, Peru, 1944
February 23, 2008
Before Lima’s explosive growth it was a small, quiet, clean and very modern city. This documentary video, funded by the United States Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs in 1944 shows us a time that many older Limeños hold in high regard and with great nostalgia.
So, what happened?
Lima had already undergone a period of growth before this video was made. The population of Spanish-descended ruling elite and mixed creole working class were supplemented by immigrants from outside of Peru and many more from rural regions within. This surge pushed some into a new middle class status and added more workers to the ranks of the working class.
Lima, a country unto itself in that time, was struggling but successfully providing public infrastructure to the growing population. The rich and the poor alike had healthcare and education. Homes were being constructed in new districts outside the city centre, creating areas such as La Victoria. This new urban growth necessitated the construction of large roads leading out of the city of Lima into neighbouring towns such as Miraflores. The infrastructure was being put in place in pace with population growth… but that all changed after this video was made.
From the late 1940’s mass immigration began from the mountains. The city of Lima and its population of only 600,000 had more than doubled by the 1960’s, and with this growth, any hope of organised expansion and provision of public services evaporated. Unplanned development filled the areas between the city’s of Lima and Callao. Having more than a million rural poor descending on them, the wealthy fled the city to greener pastures in the old holiday towns of Miraflores and Barranco and their large colonial homes were abandoned to become the slums of the poor.
Growth continued exponentially in the 1970’s and vast shanty towns started to develop around the city. There was no work to be had, and the new arrivals were not able to grow food in the arid sands of Lima as they could in the mountains. Poverty grew as millions of immigrants competed for minimal resources. The shanty towns, or the Pueblos Jóvenes, spread over a vast area along the Rimac river, north of Lima and into vast areas south of Lima, a metropolis of which parts like La Victoria were now very central and former seaside towns like Miraflores struggled to even be called Suburban.
As Maoist terrorists massacred the rural population and created famine in the 1980’s, the rate of growth increased and people fled the violence for the relative safety and abject poverty of Lima.
The city is now home to about 30% of the Peruvian population with around 7 million people. New arrivals continue to invade land surrounding the city to construct they shacks, heading into the city each day to scrape together a few coins that allow them to buy a small meal for the day… grown and imported from the fertile valleys in the mountains. It’s a confusing situation.
Comments (13)
Thanks for the post it is truly fascinating how Lima has changed even since the early 1990s … & the amount of change since the 1940 is mind boggling ..
The thing that all ways fascinated me about Peru specifically Lima is the ability of for lack of a better word slums or squatter community to develop into distinctive districts with municipal services etc … with plazas , parks etc
I realise that this transformation can not simply be spontaneous or organic & there is loads of community & municipal organisation behind he transformation …
Coming from a perspective of the United States , It sure feels that the average migrant to Lima , a campesino from the central Andes could teach a thing or too to regional & urban planing boards in the States …
Also of note “The Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs was penetrated by Soviet intelligence during World War II.
I feel this post brings into light the blatant xenophobia of the white Peruvian elite. Indigenous Peruvians of the Andes did not “invade” their own country! That is a very divisive term! The agriculture industry could not sustain itself in the a “free market” so many poor farmers fled to the big city instead of going hungry. This post did not discuss the mismanagement of the economy by the so-called educated class which caused this modern phenomenon. In fact many countries (from China to the U.S.) have had massive migration to urban centers. What is so wrong with trying to give your family a better life? Unfortunately the central government never cared to plan appropriately for all these new Limenos. Look at New York City today it has grown into a metropolis which embraces all people of all ethnic backgrounds. I am a Peruvian man of color and I resent that all the social-ills of Lima are being blamed on the poor indigenous community. I am sure the white upper class at one point wanted to hang a sign at the city gates saying “Whites Only”.
It’s really a shame that Lima went from “Modern” to “Developing.” I can’t even say that it “regressed,” b/c the indigenous inhabitants were very well organized throughout the millennia before the Spaniards arrived.
My husband’s grandfather (80+yrs old) still vividly remembers this by-gone era of the 1930’s and 40’s.
From what I have been told is that the agrarian reform of the 1970’s commenced the decline of Lima and that the uncontrolled growth was exasperated by citizens fleeing the terrorists in the 80’s.
As far as traffic is concerned that is the fault of Fujimori who did not regulate transportation when he allowed the Japanese to flood the market with their combis and taxis.
I certainly don’t believe that it was pure “economics” that pushed Peruvians into the capital.
The Peruvian government can alleviate the overcrowding in Lima by decentralizing, providing incentives to companies to locate to other major cities, and overhaul their transportation infrastructure in addition to ENFORCING laws and regulations.