Demolishing Legitimacy: Bogotá's Urban Reforms for the 1948 Pan-American Conference

Abstract

Traditional accounts of the 1948 Bogotazo - the riot in Bogotá, Colombia, sparked by the assassination of populist leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán - have overlooked the urban context that explains the extent of the destruction. Preparing to host the 1948 IX Pan-American Conference, Bogotá had undergone aggressive urban reforms that financially burdened and dispossessed residents. More than just a political figure, Gaitán was recognised as an urban advocate for the marginalised. They responded to his death by destroying reform projects and symbols of political authority. Informed by architectural journals, legislation and periodicals, this article shows that Bogotá's elite and dispossessed alike inscribed their political projects onto the urban landscape.