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Urban Squatter Settlements in Peru: A Case History and Analysis*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Henry Dietz
Henry Dietz*
Affiliation:
Stanford University
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Extract

One of the most important developments in Latin America since the end of World War II, has been the rapid growth of all major cities, generally at a pace well beyond the rate of growth of the rural areas as well as the countries as a whole. The expansion due to normal growth (high birth rates coupled with declining death rates and increased longevity) is at times high. However, such growth has often been augumented sharply due to a seemingly irreversible flow of migrants from the rural areas. And among the many problems and difficulties raised by such migration, the very large squatter shantytowns are perhaps the most obvious as well as the most misunderstood developments that have resulted. Both popular journalists and academic social scientists have commented at length and in lurid terms about the "belts of mushrooming misery" and the "festering sores" which these squatter settlements supposedly comprise.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Inter-American Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , July 1969 , pp. 353 - 370
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1969

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Footnotes

*

This study was originally carried out during the summer of 1967, and was made possible by a grant from the Center for International Studies at Indiana University, whose assistance is gratefully acknowledged. I would also like to thank Dr. Paul Doughty of Indiana University for aid received during that summer, and for comments concerning a first draft of this paper.

References

1 This statement refers to the adult population. As might be expected, the average age in the barriadas is very low (median less than 15 years), and often all the children in a family have been born within the city. Thus, while more than half of the barriada populace can claim Lima as its birthplace, probably more than 80 percent of the heads of families are migrant in origin.

2 Mar, José Matos, “Migration and Urbanization: The Barriadas of Lima” in Hauser, Philip, ed., Urbanization in Latin America (New York: International Documents Service, 1961), p. 179 Google Scholar.

3 John Turner, a British city planner with a decade of work in Peru, produced a film of an actual barriada invasion with this title.

4 The Social Progress Trust Fund Report of the Inter-American Development Bank is an example of a narrow viewpoint. The 1961 Report states that only 11 percent of all dwellings in Peru could be considered as meeting “minimal standards,” while 89 percent were either “badly substandard” or in need of “rehabilitation.” This evaluation, based on some undefined scale, gives little recognition to the possibilities for improvement through self-help; furthermore, it assumes that any housing within a squatter settlement is by definition substandard and therefore inadequate.

5 At the time of field work (June, 1967), the Peruvian sol was worth 26.82 to US $1.00. The sol has since undergone further devaluation.

6 It could be argued that since Segundo now lives in an area planned by the Junta, he is not a barriada resident. Yet more than half of Pampa de Arena is inhabited by families who arrived through invasion, and the area is referred to in the offices of the Junta as a barriada.

7 See, inter alia, Mangin, William, “Latin American Squatter Settlements: A Problem and a Solution” in Latin American Research Review, II, No. 3, (Summer, 1967)Google Scholar; Stycos, Joseph and Dobyns, Cara R., “Fuentes de la migración en la gran Lima” in Dobyns, Henry and Vázquez, Mario, eds., Migración e integración en el Perú (Lima: Editorial Estudios Andinos, 1963)Google Scholar; Ernesto Paredes, “Fuentes de la población de la barriada Fray Martín de Porras” in ibid.

8 Stycos and Dobyns, ibid., p. 38.

9 See Mangin, ibid., and also Mangin, “Urbanization Case History in Peru” in Architectural Design (August, 1963).

10 See the case studies by Richard Patch in the American University Field Staff Reports, West Coast of South America vol. XIV (1967) nos. 1, 2, and 3.

11 See note 6. Pampa de Arena had, by the end of 1967, some eight zones, six of which had been formed by invasion. These six account for roughly 80 percent of Pampa de Arena's population of 20,000.

12 See Turner, John, Architectural Design (August, 1963), p. 377 Google Scholar.

13 Charles Stokes, “A Theory of Slums” in Land Economics (August, 1962).

14 See Richard Patch, “La Parada, Lima's Market: Part I—A Villager Who Met Disaster” in AUFS, op. cit.

15 See Patch, “La Parada, Lima's Market: Part III—Serrano to Criollo, A Study of Assimilation” in AUFS, op. cit.

16 See Caroline Martuscelli, “Some Characteristics of Personality Related to Upward Social Mobility in an Unstable Environment,” United Nations E/CN.12/ URB/8, for a discussion of squatters in Rio de Janeiro. Martuscelli's findings provide a good description of personality traits of individuals such as Segundo; the primary characteristics are (1) the ability to function with relatively little support from the environment; (2) a strong capacity for initiation and organization; and (3) the ability to overcome successfully social and other environmental hurdles.

17 Since the 1966 elections, when Pampa de Arena was able to participate in electing a mayor for the whole district of Pampas de San Juan, this association has no longer enjoyed the power and prestige it once had.

18 See Mangin, Latin American Research Review, op. cit.

19 Francois Bourricaud, “Lima en la vida política peruana,” in América Latina (October-December, 1964).

20 See Mangin, , Architectural Design, op. cit, p. 370 Google Scholar; see also Caretas (Lima), August, 1967.

21 Germani, Gino, “Social and Political Consequences of Mobility,” in Smelser, N. J. and Lipset, S. M., eds., Social Structure and Mobility in Economic Development (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co., 1966), pp. 364-94Google Scholar.

22 Merton, Robert K., Social Theory and Social Structure, revised ed., (New York: Free Press, 1957), p. 72 Google Scholar.

23 Ibid., p. 72.

24 For a detailed description and analysis of this law, see Kenneth Manaster, “The Problem of Urban Squatters in Developing Countries: Peru” in Wisconsin Law Review, vol. 23 (1968), no. 1, 23-61.

25 Karl Deutsch, “Social Mobilization and Political Development” in American Political Science Review, LV, no. 3 (September, 1961), 493 ff.

26 Ibid., pp. 494-97. More specifically, the indicators which Deutsch employs include: percentage of population exposed to modern life; percentage of population exposed to mass media; percentage of population living in an urban environment; percentage of population in nonagncultural occupations vs. percentage gainfully employed; percentage of population literate; and growth of per capita income per year.

27 Ibid., p. 494.

28 Aníbal Quijano Obregón, “Notes sobre el concepto de marginalidad social,” CEPAL (Santiago, 1966), mimeo.

29 Deutsch, op. cit., p. 499.

30 See Goldrich, Daniel, Pratt, R. B., and Schuller, C. R., “The Political Integration of Lower-Class Urban Settlements in Chile and Peru,” delivered at the American Political Science Association Meeting, New York, 1966 Google Scholar.

31 Deutsch, op. cit., pp. 499-500.