© p96 Date Uninet Pras Allrigos raced Print tn the Ute Sexes of Ameri oma fee paper © Libr of Congres Cataloging 4 PubSnsion Date appear on the es printed page of ss book. “insane asi the sei Latin. Ameri tn Traltion Be ‘inj Trad, a aleboation bere he Ds Uninesy of Nort Carina Joa Progren in Lan Americ Suit ad the ives Due and he University of North rain, sapped by a grant fem he Arie WE Malin Fonsi CONTENTS Insvoduction by John Charles Chastezn vit 1 ‘The Ordered City 1 The City ofleners 16 ‘The City of Protocols 29 + ‘The Modemized City 50 s “The Polis Plicized 74 “The City Revelutionized 98 Notes 127 Indes 139REE John Charles Chasteen [NTRODUCTION Weiing, urbanism, andthe tate have had a special FF eeladonthip tn Lae America Toimpostorderpn vat trplc, die Toern mopar sates Sezoelau planned with pen and papes thar geomerial yout sandadized by deal wen Sons. Now cies hous bot delnsinadons GF sae powe! andthe sm Ne cio eae tramp i | Comespoodence tat held the emplre together. So began close, en {during links of large importance in Latin American life and literature, nous ofletesed cuneate power nd urban Joeaton thax Ar- {lama al The 7 a ‘ofthis relationship were a group of men called ema- “lettered” elite closely associated with the institutions of State the Spanish and Pornaguese empizes, ideologically and orgunicaly, tod their ability co write the oficial Ingrage of empie gave the leads piped gz t0 poner Tage them: beaded and 1 Rama chose the phrte la aed lara, dhe lemered cin, foc his key inceepretive conc insend of the alerasive lt cutad de a Us, the city of sates, “The cy ofleser” suggest ales ectsive mesropalis inhabiced by signs snd all chose who can manipula then. SigniScandy, Rama's ehoe of words ‘eraphaszes the ditinction berveen the “Tenered” and the merely “erate” Al- though generally pefeing “the lensed city” (eg inthe tie of the book), T hve allowed for considerable enyitie vast and wented the two phrases as ‘equivalent, Another taaslation worth 208g is John Bevis “the republic of lees? which effszively conveys the corporate sprit of the lerados but oes the ciel eeference to urbanism: John Baverey, Aguine Liters (Minneapolis “Univecsicg of Minnesota Press, 1993). ‘My thanks to Lucia Binot for help withthe reach and Taian passages.ws qe Yueh ; AUG { whose cars throw whole vilages into an uproar as they jot across a end oss we _grave, the letrados of the colonial period are privy to the theocratic mysteries of empire. They can prove surprising things by quoting ireefurable authorities in Latin or cut 2 quill o correspond with the ‘ministers of the King, The frock-coated lawyers of the nineteenth, cennary, who quote Engiish authorities more avidly than Latin ones daring their parliamentary perorations, ae the colonial letrados’ di- rect sucocssors as inhabits of the lettered city (whether or notthey ~, descended from the same families), s0 are the 1920s city slickers {an Amen county falar tem thn th sues of ‘Today, bundle after bundle of yellowed, fayed-edged archival documents iin dusty, sient stacks uasoughout what was che Span ‘sh or the Portuguese empire in Ameciea. If opiaal humidity and ‘Worms have been kep ou, seatdy paper has often withstood the txt of time faily well—-much beter chan electronic records will ever do (Careful cofumns of dark:ked script acc organized according vo stan. dardized protocols of spring, so thatthe main clua offen sands quite off center, ran up agins:therightedge ofthe page with awide margin on the lef for notaions as the document wends iss way cbrough bureaucratic channels, These ae intemal document, $0 to speak, ofthe cy of eters Tei apt leters with rand Sowsihes bespeak authority and the undersigned elaborate sgnamres errr a5 suarantes of documentary authentlcty. Here are the personnel ec. rds of fut (and unfacfal) bureaucrats and miltary men, pei dic reports produced bya vary of official ods and function aries, and petitions for pensions and for privileges of a thousand inds—to be considered white, o purchase a tle of nobility 10 avoid capital punishment. Then, of course, there are che records of notaries and ofthe many judge who handled so many functions of governs iin wil dvsions of nhac nde ‘As Rama points out, writing was an eveqay practice in the lenered ety. Adminitrative and judicial documens are the principal | Suiving embodiment of tae prarce, Othe vestiges are the parish vill Invroduetion registers of churches, where local curates maintained the only official [Tora f bis, mariage, anc deat. Thee were alto priv “ers ravelng back and forth across the Alani bythe hundreds and dhousands fom the very begining of colonization, but only a tiny portion of them survive. Despite poetic exercises aplenty and ten some long eases of various {most theological) Kinds, wre ing tended occult inexremely arrow, usualy oficial, channe's. “Those who wrote had special ccs oc powerof te colonial saz butalsodepeaded onthe sate fora ivlibood. i Ranaisdisisionofthelenerdciyofteconialpaiod bangs NS _postegolonml Continues and cooprat ato clear fons. Literacy and // 79 jueatiog expanded gradually bur remained the possessions of a} fu! uf (privileged few until the end of the nineteenth cen: Stil, national e enience brought a new bus to the tered cg, The pursuit and exercise of elecsve ofce had denly become a booming enter prise, and it was open only to the letered. The letrados would now © —— ive innumerably more speeches (asually ofa ponderousysetoriel Kind, ceflly writen out beforehand, appeating to history andro she most respected “eassil and modem author” to advance thee gomeats and they now would waite laws instead of mercy appiye | tng and incrpreting them as befere. The prestige of thr language, nevertheless, came fom ts connection to a leered exe entered th Burope, je a had been ue athe clonal pried, Meanwhile, ‘the letrados had also begun to exercise a new sort of influence as spokesmen ofthis or thar group n the new public sphere of debate on issues of there plo, Theres wa asian expansion | illsons of publishing, poscespeialy cat ofthe periodical pres. Ler ee Iusion ofthe letered cy particu inthe slow process whereby some lerados eventually made zhemsches economically indepen of th state Ephemeral publeatons of various Kinds mulled ‘Sardnglyin the wake of independence —not everywhere, of course, be especialy in capil cies where ltadoe congregred. Many | sheets were shorvlived production ofa single parson who simed 20 promote apolitea cause ther hanto provide news. Bren the more Introduction ixsubstantial newspapers did lite reporting of local events in the eazy) {nineteenth century, devoting vastly more space and emphasis to poli- \ tes, commerce, and afi of stat, witha novel published by install | ment at the bottom of the page. During the second half ofthe nine- teenth century, newspapers mulkiplied rapidly outside the capital ities, so that by the end of the century even quite small towns might havea couple of biweckies, single shees folded to make four pages, mostly ads on pages three and four. Today they slouch aguinst each other ia bindings weakened by age, andthe britle newsprint of the {ate nineteenth century —ironically much more fragile than the archi- val documents of the siteenth or seventeenth ceatury—has n0¢ lasted well. The huge format adopted by many of the period's major dhlles makes chem especially fragile. The pages of many collections ‘cannot be tamed without shattering, and many others have already crumbled into dust Z Whar abock took! Wha, ina word, abo tires} The same { letrados who drew up legal documents, delivered-péftiotie ha- \, rangues, and aired chic partisan opinions day afer day in the news- | paper also.wrore the essays, fcrion, and verse that compose the vari cong national lsrary canons of Latin America. The des of many of the fist books published n the region are indicative of the ltrados? activities in other venues. The Relation ofthe ease broughe against Cl. dom Fabio Test Maines for supposed insu inferd iy th pres gaint rhe omar of divide who weve oficos ofthe Volunteers for Liberty Bar salion (2040), for example, seems the wyerly sort of document that ‘might formerly have been sent tothe king but was now addressed to ‘the coureof public opinion. And, no matter how practical minded his ‘other writings, cach young Jerado.must.publish his own slender, ae SP cetinony ois coming ef age rwas noma forthe ame mana sometime elected representative and fede inhabiant ofthe ce tered cgy—to author « vide anay of books: sing ports of founding heroes and visiolic condemnations of tyrants pragmatic ueeatss on the advsbilty of planting alll, dredging harbors, requling vacinasons fr smallpor, or limiting the numberof pro. x Introduction a f fessional degrees granted each year; ficional works (novels cunning, the gamut from romanticism to nararalism, collections of short sto ries first published in the newspaper); and theatrical literarar, in- cluding plays thar caused a sensaton, plays that closed on the third. night, and plays that were never performed tal. Like the periodical press, the volume of book production rose markedly, if not hugely Jn the immediate aftermath of independence, then expanded more quickly, (along with liveracy ras) in the late nineteenth and easly ‘wentieth centuries. Tis precisely the peiod from 1880 to 1920 that Ramacraminesin est derail, During these year, the REALS. RACHEL OL iatO _the countrys to deste landsapes, document follaays, and co “Ge oralwaditions—all wef inthe caboraion of oficial nas alrares and Titratives, The lenced Gy thus ingorporated and ap- propriate popular culture more than ever before. Atthe same time, the advance of publi education ‘elisated the ineulcation of soc ‘nocms conceived by, and partculsly benefiting, che lesred elite Yet ‘Wider lteracy created a marke fopesiodials and books that ena rome weters—fouery held in thrall by wealthy prteansr-sate_ inecares—t0 sake of thei economic dependence on the sate and ‘Scape is ftelage, For the first ume, war cold eave the leered “BeeIS To SPEAK, and write from: ouside ic, Now they could even publish coovlematians nf the lerados? monopoly on the writen Wvord and pursue agendas that ledtoward more inclusive, more dem ‘erie definions of eatonal cemmunity. Theicfore, Rama aban- dons the bold, simple lines with which heakerched the ereation ofthe Ierered city and its succes in weathering the eaesiton from 2 colo- salto a postcolonial order to pain, i the losing chaprers, a flly textured. portic of the complex—sometimes conmadictory— cal tural everberatons ofmodemizaion” and nationalism. “The paradigmatic clarity of che inerpreation naturally wanes as Rama gives more arention © particular earents and counter currents. The sak initial view of writing aan faserament of state power, for examples party offset by an opumiscascssment ofthe berating potential of inclasive nationalism and public education. Introduction xi lesa) oly feedlotGin offersa conceptual reader's guide for virally everything writen in Latin America borweea 300 and 1920. slot he Leo Ct shoul bea equ exe paciclay for those explering te phosonenon otra hegemonyhe an aspect of |! rule, cltural hegemony implies en indreceess that differentiates ic fom the wtal dominance of superior coercive force. Often, heger ”_7 spony invoNesa vigorous gveard-ake berween those who exercise power and those who resi, Bit ic outcomes always somemea HONS sure of consent. Rule by the privileged few, characteristicofmostof ‘Latin America for half millennium, sekiom succeeds for long with- ‘out widespread consent. Recent, and for readily understandable _seasons, interpreters of Latin America have have prefered 19 dello athe ll ‘Indeed, the elitist citadel of lewers finally succumbs to an insurgency ] , conducted, atleast partially, in writin, Just how this occur is not Veal entirely explained, however. 2 ‘Rama makes most vigorous use ofthe concepe ofthe lemered city at the outset, when literacy was virtually synonymous with clevated ig the colonial period the letrados were a handful of power. Gradually, howeves, the dace of litetaty widened beyond a handful of Buropean adminisra- sors, and the social bousdaries of che lerered city become less pre: | _ Sse, By the nineteenth ecmuzy, there were some —not a large por {Gon of the population, by any means, but some—non-elite men and. women who had learned to read and wrice and yer lacked access to the power and privileges associated with the lerered city. Conversely, some who did gain power and infivence around the eur of the ‘sventieth century were engincers, physicians, or agronomists whose training emphasized appied science rather than shetore,lneraure, jes offer the sting and salutary message that the people of Latin “America have often tenaciously defied exploitative rule, Poplar re") oe sistance is inspiring, but iris nocthe whole story. The full annals of cultural hegemony make more scbering bur Tovess vital reading and history, or law. It becomes rather difficult, by the end, to know who ‘oblige us to contemplate the hes at operates at the ) should be included in theleered ey THis, aera, spastazsous es cl poh baer minis The a ating cc of | | altura hegemony occur when Kierarchies of race and cass, forex | / | ample are made t0 appear aspeas of the natural order eather than | TEBE epic of domination. The prong of ise? cae sprang precisely from such a hegemonic effec. Those outside the spel ofthe lenados’ language can easly sneer at their overblown shetoric, and twenticth-century ftion often satiizes it. On the other hand, whether in Mexico or Bra or Rama’ naive Unoguay, ares book, and Rama’s untimsy death may be responsible forthe iter pretation’ gradual laosering and relative lack of closure. : ! ‘Rama’s powerful interpretive construct nevertckss integrates ] the book, and it poreatialy integrates much els, aswell, by obliging F 1s to contemplate long term continuities and allowing us to perceive ‘unexpected relationships among, for example, 2 notarized deed, a | regionals shor story, ani the nomenclature of city streets. Ie shows hhow Literature is embed in history, provides a basic map of the the Literary depiction of a sei£important etrado that does not also historical sociology of writing, and abounds in paricular insights Indicate the ave generally arached co the language of power. about everything from cclonial gafii to the novels ofthe Mexican “Therefore, although “Latin America” i to large and diverse to Revolution. Any student of Latin American lierarure ot culraral bea useful eaegory for many sors of analysis, Rams has good reason, | studies must explore the implications ofthe leered city, as should to vse it here, Indeed, his emphasis on the Golonial origins of the anyone who wonders how Iberian empires were crested and main- leweredciry make such « wide view natural see the leads staffed tained, anyone mystified by the dyrtamics of postindependence poli- 1 colierene colonizing projec ofcontinental proportions. The paral tice, or anyone fascinated by the complex historical relationship be- lel developments highlighted by Rama for the nineteenth and early LL. tween European and Latin American culture In short, The Later ‘wentieth cencures also amply justify panoramic vistas, and Rama is, I >it Insroduction Inrodesion xi,' I properly attentive not oaly t0 consistent pattems but also 10 varia- tions within chem. Nevertheless, 25s probably inevitabe despite his impressive breadth of knowledge, he tends to understand the region Principal through the pars ofitthathe knows. Herakes exam ples most fnqucotly stom the Rio dela Pat, and there alsa sane thing Rioplatensein his general emphasis on sherural/urbaa dichor ‘omy, in the sues he lays on expanding literacy atthe beginning of “the twentieth century, and in the relatively minor roles played in his interpretation by indigenous populations. In addition, Rama's discussion of imperial urban utopias hardly applies co Poctuguese America at all Braiian serdements showed a greatec tendency t0 spring up inforinlly, where trade roots intersected or natura har- bors beckoned, and the checkerboard street plan typical of Spanish -Amecican cites did not govern the layout of colonial Brazilian iis, ‘The social exclustvity of the lereered city, on the other hand, was even. ‘more marked in Bra! than in much of Spanish America, making Ram's interpretation quiz relovaneto understanding Brazilian ier sure and history. - Alll generalizations have exceptions; but without generalizing one simply cannot get very fr in making sens of large, complex aspects of collective experience. Overall, Rama's interpretation gains much fiom its audacious assertions and is bold attempt to span centuries and embrace so much of the hemisphere. adhe been more timid, the levered city mighr have long remained a dimly perceived curt csi tentativelyremarkedin eference to isolated phenomena in one country or another, and nce at all what Rama has given us: abasic key to understanding thelteranure and history of an entire world region. Wnphorert, Lvclne ies wacko , onal avs mln de nobis. xiv Introduction (aes sittin THE [ETTERED CITYMendoza (Oiniscria de Edscasiin y Cult, Archive General de Indias) i | 1 THE ORDERED CITY wading ‘From the remodeling of Tenochuitin after its destruc tion by Hemén Comés in 1521, tothe 1960 inaugura- sion ofthat most fabulous dream city ofthe Americas, Licio Costs and Oxar Niemeyer Bras, Lan “American cities have ever been creations ofthe hummah mind. The 1 {deal ofthe city as the embodiment of social order corresponded to a ‘moment in the development of Wester civilization as a whol, but \( oaty the lands of the new continent afforded a propitious place for | | the dream of the “ordeced ciy” tobecome a reality ‘ ‘Over the course ofthe sstenth century, the Spanish conquerors ‘became aware of having left behind tie distribution of spac and the sway of life charactcistic of the medieval Tberian cites —“organic? rather than “ordered” —where they had been bom and raised. Grad- \ ally and with dificuly, they adapted chemsclves 0 a frankly a+ ‘onalzing vision of an urban fare, oge that ordained a planned and repetitive urban landscape a also required that its inhabitas be organized to mect increasingly stringent requirements of ol ation, administration, commerc, defense, and religion. ‘Upon crossing the Atlantic ovean, they had passed from an old, continent t0 a “new” one and had also entered 2 different ere, ani- sre by an expansive and coumerisl orf Spin SEL SEE J ‘witha medieval sense of mission. The avenues roward cisnew ra of Western culture had been opened by the Renaissance spirit of its sineenth-century designers but would be perfected only later by che absolate monarchies, The absolctist European nation states of the Soe tits snd fomsed ek power te royal cour, srk ligious ing to impose from there 2 hierarchical discipline on the Of 50"The points of unctuse benveen the ial ordering impulse and the existing social refy produced an enduring urban model: the cas ea relatively ite to transform the ‘old cities of Europe, winee the seubbomnly material sediments of, ‘the past encumbered the flight of a designer’s fancy, but it found a ‘unique opportunity in the virgin tezitory of an enormous continent. There, native urbanistc values were blindly erased by the Toerian conquerors to create a sup2osedly “blank sats” though the outright denial of impressive indigenous culzes would not, of course, pre- 17); vent them from surviving quietly to inGlerate the conquering euiare "later Having cleared the ground, the city builders erected an edifice ‘that, even when imégined as a mere transposition of European ante cedents a face represented the ‘of Spanish America were xe fre materia realization ofthat dream, siving them a central role in the advent of world capitairn.> Although the conquerors appended the adjective to familar regional names (New Spain, New Galicia, New Granada) in desg- nating porions of their recently acquired teitory, and though they ‘acllaced intally under the lingering influence of Iberian cities like those from which they had originally set our, they did not reproduce those cities in America Gradually, through tial and error, they filtered the legacy ofthe past through the clarifying, rationalizing, \ and systematizing experience of colonization, in the “sipping down process” described by Gecrge M. Foster.’ Thus, the patterns of ur- banization that they had known firschand at home were superseded in America by ideal model: implemented with routine uniformity in [= Pee py abet ag groraes 5 oboe ve Gt, gee activity? The imposition of these ideas in the sixteenth and sev- | 2 activi posit Zareenth centuries comresponds to that erscal moment in Western culture when, 28 Michel Foucault as sagaciously persived, words ¥ ‘began to separate from things, and people's understanding of episte- casey: ology changed from one of triadic conjuncure to the binary rla- | sonship cxprese nthe Zi of Prt Real, published inet theorizing the independence of the “order of signs?” The cities of ‘Spanish America, che socleries that were to inhabit them, and the “fetter” interpreters of chem developed together in a time when, signs became no longer “direct representations of the world, linked to it by scree, slid tes of ikeness or affinity wich what they repeo- ‘F seas? and began instead “to signify from within a body of know! | edge” and “to take from it their probability or certainty.™® ‘From that flow of knowledge sprang forth the ideal cities of the _ Texan snpte? American vases. Tick oding principle <=] vealed itself as a hierarchical socery transposed by analogy into @ | hierarchical design of urban space, Ievas not the real sociery thar was cransposs of cours, buts Orgmized form, jd not into the abi of the living cy, but merely into idea! Iayour, so thann the geo] ‘ trem often “ ‘Beonalaation. The useammeled onalliagurge demanded sin “Tr B&xlity in the order of signs. Rationalization also required a concentration of power to implement che dicectives of the rational- ies. That power was already visibly temporal and haman, although iecloaked and legidmaedtoefideologclyncelesislabwolues.as ,Powecwilldo, Such egitimation had ongbeenprovdedby reiion, | accordance with the vastness and systematic planning of the imperial of bur sentie religious masks ee: enterprise y owe? The ideas of The Repu revived by oot arrived in America through the same N ural chat 4 that guided the advance of Iberian capitalism, And with Neoplaronic | Tn ec ey to the ence imperil sysem was the Janus-faced idealism came the influecce of the quasimythical Hippodamus, | Greek father of the ideal city—espectally his “confidence that the * processes of reason could impose measure and order on every human ‘word onder, symptomatically ambiguous in grammatical gender (el orden or la onlen), 2 concept pursved equally by the church, the army, and the administrative burcauerasy of the Iberian empires. Accord- 2 The Onlered City 1 ‘The Ordered City 3ing to the reccived definitions of the day, order meant: “porting ‘things in their places; corcert and harmonious disposition among things; the rule or mode tobe observed in producing things? Pursuit ‘of order lay atthe heart ofthe systems of classification (like natural ‘history architcrure, and goomeny) thar then loomed so lange inthe corpus of knowledge, The word onder recurs obsessively in the in- structions imparted in 1513 by the king, or rather by his council of advisers, to Pedrarias Dévil, leader of a Spanish expedition that pushed beyond the conquistadors original foothold in the Carib- ‘bean once accommodaticn to the New World environment hed scadied them for further violent expansion and colonization. Ie is ‘worthy of emphasis, though hardly suepsising, chat the instructions framed the entire enterprise in terms of Spanish colonial interests, cstablishing from the very fist a coastal orientation and a string of Port cites that would, centuries Jeter, undermine attempts at na- tonal integration in not 2 fev independent states. Point mamber seven ofthe iqstructigns fied the following guidelines for cities to be founded on the new continent: Having acersined whar dhings are necessary forthe seclemenss and having chosen thesite mort advantagecus and sbuodanly provided will things seces- 10 those wi will seal therein, dissibute row ow forthe construction of houses, in oni fashio, scrorting othe quality of the recipients so that, once construed, te towa will appar wolhrdeed a egards the space designated for the central plaza, the locaton ofthe church, and he placement ofthe steess because where sich one are given from che outer, ndey sexs wil follow ‘without undue cost and effort and in othe places oer wil never be achived’® ‘Thus, beyond the immodiste needs of urban planning, ration- | alized cities reflccted a vision of the future, The(fransferencof an? idealized sosal ander into she pysiaL ain. of then dies bolic languages. The royal directives sought quite explicitly 0 pro- gram eventual social developmentin accord with the vision of ther ‘onalizers, and they were aided in this egdeavor by the period's most abstract symbolic anguageCnathemasis) The methods of analytial 4 The Ontered Ciy ra Sm he Pe stot _ geometry had recently ben exeded wo areas of man ty Desearss, Who fegarded ther: asthe only Gand ‘uncontaminated—r00l ofeason. ‘When applied mo urban planaing in Spanish America, the resule was the ubiquitous checkerboard grid that has endured practically ( » nal the present day. Other geomere designs might have afocsd the same transference of social idea! into urban reality. Circular plans constited a frequent option in Renaissance thinking, derived from the teaching of Viruvio and visble in the works of Leén Batis Alber, Jacopo Barozzi Vignola, Antonio Arvelino Flare, and An- deca Pallacio, among others The circular layout responded to the \ same regulating principles as the checkerboard: unity, planning, and rigorous onder reflecting a social hierarchy. Circular plans pechaps coaveyed even more precisely than square ones the socal hierarchy sired by the planners, with governing authority located atthe cen- ter and the living spaces assigned to respective socal strata radiating from the center in concentric circles. Both designs were simply vari ‘tons of the same conception, in which the application of reason imeposed a sprefic order on social reality through the engineers “tgut Kine and rule? asthe royal instructions to the advancing conquerors frequently specified verbatim, Ff ‘As Michel Foucaule observed, “what made the classical episteme possible as a whole, of course, was its relationship to 2 knowledge of ‘odes?! In the case of cities, that indispensable knowledge resulted ~ inthe prneiple of uaa planning The Felighteoment, that epoch of faith in rational operations, further strengthédéd and institutional- ‘zed the planning impulse, », and concer over the outcomes of urban planning elicited spirited commertary on its designs, its procedures, and above all, its guiding philosophies..2 ‘More important than the much-dliscussed grid design are the ‘general principles behind it, directing 2 whole series of transmitted dlirecsives (for Spain to Americs, from the governing head to the physical body of the city) so thet the distribution of urban space ‘would reproduce and confirm the desired social order. But even ‘more importants the principle pestulated in the quoted directives of The Onlerd City 5 imu demi Auc gt “Se ¥ te cg pny eh ye order to avoid circumstances that might interfere with its-ordined norms. The notion that statutory ordec must be constizute at the outset to prevent fure disorder alludes to the peculiar vireve of| f, Signs: to remain unalreabl despite the pasage of ime and, a last, 1 ©)" nypothecaly o constrain changing rely ina changels cational ag framework. Operating on these principles, the Iberian empires estab- lished rigid procedures fer founding new cites and then extended them methodically acros vast sretches of time and space. ‘Before their a5 material entities, cities had to be con- siricted as symbolic representations. Therefor, the pesmanence of the whole depended on the immurbity ofthe sign themoaves- ‘on the words that transmitted the will build the cryin accordance ‘with the stipulated norms—and also on the diagrams tha translated, ‘the will into graphic terns, Without drawn plans the mental image ‘created by the yritten directives was more likely to Suffer perraura- _ tons owing tol conditions oto incxpert execution Thinking the f {_ciy was the function of these — sixras abl tis og. ipulasions ‘TBE conquerors sill asserted teritoral claims ¢hrovigh siruals impregnated with magic, but now they requized d water &f some sort (ascribe, a notary. a chronicler) to cast ther foundational actin the form of imperishable signs. The resulting scripture bad the high af faneion reserved 10 notatal docamenss, which according v0 the Spanish formula, give witcess or “ith” to the acs they record. The «/ pzestige thar could only derive fom the writen word thus begiais Porc iipireron the Anesean oon Tn Latin Amer, he writen word becme the only Ging) ns . -—in contradstinction to the spoken word, which belonged to realm of things precarious and uncertain. It even seemed plas \" See ny on ea Sorel sane, ‘tea language rather than aspera, Writing boasted’ permanence, a Kind of ronomy fom the matecl word hamid cremityand appeared free from the vicissitudes and metamorphoses of history. 6 The Onlered City Above all, writing consolidated the politcal order by giving txigor- ‘ously laborated culzural expression. Over the framework provided by linguistic discourse, the planaess stretched the canvas of graphic design. Notaubjeceto the semantic multiplicity of words, this second layer of sigs surpassed the virtue of the first as an instrument of urban planning, Drawn diagrams fused the thing represented (the Sty) with the representation (the drawing) in heughey indepen- ‘dene oun Mca Tealides, a6 Seviod descriptions reveal. Of the 1535 founding of Lima by Pizarro (so criticized among thinkers of a later independent Peru), we learn that the city “was laid out and csablished according to the plan, and the drawing of i, which had been done on papex” Drawn plans have always been the best examples of operative cultural models, Behind their ostensible function as neutral registers of reality ies an ideological framework that validates and organizes that realty, authorizing all sorts 0” intelleecul extrapolations on the model. Clifford Geerer makes recourse t0 this example to define ideology as a cultural system, end it may be traced. back to the seventeenth-cenrary Lagique of Pox Royal, which sought to establish a difference between “the ideas pertaining to things and those per taining to signs? thereby codifying the modem notion, The Laine ‘dso appealed to the model represented by maps and draw plans, in which reality is somehow absorbed by the signs that stand for it: ‘When one onside an objet in and of self, within its own being, without teansterrng the view of he spirito that which could represent, the deaone bas isthe de ofa thing lik the idea ofthe arch o the un. Bur when one looks asa cerain objets merely refering to another one asthe dea of sign, 2 oie say be called, Ordinary, hs the way one regards maps or tableau, Thus, 2 ign contains wo eas — one ofthe thie represented, nd che ches of the thin In order to sustain their angurcent, the Lopigue’s authors Arpauld and Nicole must first suppose that the object will be perceived as a sign, a basic thought operation that does not depend on the dia- The Onlend Cty 7x i ltd hows. 2 %, a sh ‘grams themselves. Furthermore, che authors donot admirthe degree 10 which the diagrams—along with thei function of representing something else acquire a certain autonomy of theis own, Among the principles they derive ixom the discussion, Amauld and Nicole conclude that signs posses a permanence remote from the limited lives ofthings. As long as asign exists its immurabilir is guaranteed, even though the object represented may have been desoyed long since —hence the unsherablity of the, universe of signs, not sub- ject to physical decay but only to the operations of hermeneutics “One could conclude thatthe nature of sgas consists in stimulating, Within the mind, the image ofthe thing represented by the applica tion of the thing doing the representing. As long asthe effec: con- ‘Snues, chat is to say, as Jong as dhe double idea is evoked, the sign ‘endures, even though the thing represented may itself have been estroyed.® From here, iis easy to inver che proces: instead of| representing things already exiting, signs can be made to represent things as yet only imagined —the ardently desired objects of an age |! shar displayed @ special fondness for utopian dreams. Thus, the ma nipulasion of signs opened the way to afururism characteristic ofthe modem era, an artinade that has atained an almost delirious apothe- sis in our own day. The dreams ofa future order served to perpent- ate the reigning politcal power and is attendant socal, economic, and cultural structures, In addition, any discourse raised in opposi- tion to the reigning power was required, henceforch, 10 establish credibility by presenting analternatve dream of the fur. Accordingly, from the tme oftheir foundation the imperil cites fla ath ed de ie on ooh mai Contrary impulses ofzesorction and renovation, and the crcumsan- “Geinerenon ofhunan geneyon he otes hand smbobelie — crof signs, which enjoy [srabilisyimpervious to the:ccidents ofthe physical world. Before be- coming a material realty 0° houses, streets, and plazas, which could ‘be constructed only gradually over decades or centuries, Latin Amer- ican cities sprang forth in signs and plans, already complete, in the 8 The Ordered Cty documents that lid their starutory foundations and inthe charts and plans that established their del designs. These visions rarely escaped the pitfall of rationalized furures, the {ual principle of mechanical regularity that Thomas More exemplified and closed in his owa Trapia of 1516: “Fle who knows ane of the cities will know them dhe ‘ature of the ground ho "the Sams of achiteats (Alter, laces, and Virvio) and designers of utopias (More, Campanella) came to litle in matecal ‘eran, but they forfed che onde: of 5 cal capacity of his in Seder on spring , age he iuence of thse wrbaini designs far ousted ft Such’ | the naturc of the order signs that itprivileges potentiality over: creating ramcwous thet not ermal, hve lasted at eat und the late twentieth cerry Even more rooted has been che capacity of the onder of signs, in moments wha ts old formulas appear exhausted, ro rearticnlate itself, preserving and even strengthening its cena principle ofhicrarchy amid new hioria circumstances. “This capacity of the order of signs to configure the fra wes ‘complemented. symmecrically_by.an_ability to erase the past. The feenh and sitcench cence, far fom effing realsance of clasiciam, sansponed i 0 th universeof pure fo. and thus coablished the splendorous St cultural model of moderiry,bar- Dinger of the grander tansubstntation of the past that would be propagated by cightoeth- and nineteenth-cenury histori. Renaissance palingenesis facilitated European seabome expansion snuch as, few hundred years lates, Enlightenment palingencis che foundation of European world doatinaion, In their rewriings of the past, according to Peter Gav's sympathetic description, histo- dans ofthe period consributed to ager systematic efor “ro senate rational contol of the worl, reliable knowledge of the pat, freedom, from the pervasive domination of myth?"* “Modern historians, economiss, and philosophers increasingly recognize the tremendous impact shat the “discovery” and colonia ‘The Ondorei City 9 giao gave, vee vinuahe/ loop, aw Y ntemes pel ue emtion of America had on the development of Europe—not merely in , socioeconomic but also in culcural terms. One could say that the {| American continent became thefexperimental Geld for the formula- ‘ "anew Barogie calture, The firse methodical application of | Baroque ideas was carried our by absolute monarchies in their New J, | Song and sysematzaion —and opposing allloa expressions ofpar gy" 3S. ‘icularity imagination, OF Envencion. The overbeating ing Power of thee (Onder of signs Became most intense in those regions that much later received the name Latin America, Gathered together and cloaked by _theabsolute concept called “Spire” the signs allowed their mastersto disregard the objective cocstraints of practicality and assume a supe- sor, sellegitimating position, where unfettered imagination could require reality to conform to abstract whimsy. This notion did not stem merely from the need to bul cities, of course, although cites ‘were its privileged settings, the artificial enelaves in which the auton- ‘omous system of symboli: knowledge could funesion most effca- ously. The planned urbanism of America was simply the most ows rmeated the socal life abjecs. “The style ofthe Spanisa Conquest contributed to the Heestand- ing character of the resulting urban centers. In the words of Pierre Chaunu, the mainland was “opened, explored, and roughly seized uring the thre initial decades ofthe siteenth century xan insane rhythm, never equaled?” Quite contrary to the pattern of an incre- mentally advancing frontier of settlement (asin the early coloniza- toa of Brazil or in the expansion of the United States) the Spanish Conquest was a frenetic gallop across continental immensities— slong nearly ten thousand lilometers of mountains, rivers, and opi- ‘al forests—leaving in its wake a scattering of cities, isolated and practically out of communication from one another, while the rere tory between the new urban centers continued to be inhabited al- ‘most solely by the dismayed indigenous populations. A mere thiryy ® years elapsed between the founding of Panama City by Pedrarias x0 The Onlered Cixy sf \ Wold ‘empires, applying -igid principles —abstraction, rationaliza- he f q ‘Dévila and the founding of the city of Concepcién (in the south of Chile) by Redro Valdivia. Inthe mechanism of military domination, the urban network functioned t0 provide, frst, bases for successive forays of conquering forces, and then, relay stations forthe ransmis- sion of subsequent imperial direcives. By 1550, colonial govern- ‘ments centered in Mexico and Peruhac already begua ro implement the orders of their zespective viceroy, charged with the dy to “pre- serve in the New World the charismatic characte of royal authority based on the belief chat the king ru by the grace of God?” The conquest tumphant'y imposed is cities on a vast and un- zB / keoxen hineviand, cerfying and reiterating the Gzeek conception | . That contrasted the civilized inhabitants of the polis to the barbarous 0b cence fe county The aasizan of Spanish ere, (rid not recapitulate the process thit had constitated the Europcan orm, however. Instead, that process had been precisely inverced than stemming ffom agrarian groweh that gradually created an urban macket and trade center, aural developmnent here followed | the creation of the ciny, which, though initially iny, was often situ } ated in a fertile, well-watered valley with a view to cacouraging agri | 1 culture “admit my fascination? declared Femand Braudel, “with 4 the history of these [Spanish] American towns seed before the countryside ora east simultaneously with ie! Having insisted | these rowns and cities according to preestablished nocms, Spanish imperial designs frequently resulted in the forced urbanization of settlers wh, in their Iberian homehind, had been rural people, many of them never more to retum to agararian occupations. From the tie, then, urban ie was the Spanish Amexcan ideal, a0 matter how insignificant the setelement where one lived. All now aspired to be bidalges~minor nobility wih the tie dn attached to their names — dsdaining manual labor and lordingit over their slaves and over the indigenous inhabitants wio had been entrusted to them by ’ the crown. These urban dwellers had the ssponsibilnof organising heagrcutural production ofthe surrounding countryside, and they Soughe wo generate wealth as quicty as possible through merciless exploitation of thir coerced labor force. Urbanization and nouveaux Die OnteredCiy 1 he la gett cto Ra Re, Ae 2ech V- ee riches went rogethes, and smaller centers (especialy mining towns), 100, had more than ther share of conspicuous consumption. Vieere- gal dis officially restricting the use of cariages, horses, and silken garments fled to check theraging appetite for haxures that, once set 28a cultural model by the opulene conquistadors themselves, con- tinued to be imitated by the whole socien including the poorest among the city dwellers, 38 colorfully described by seventeenth- century traveler Thomas Gige® “TAY fplatip! ZA. “The Baroque cites crested by this inopportune expansion did not, of course, function in 4 total vacuum. Fernand Braudel points ‘out in his notable work outlining the excly development of wosld capitalism that “capitalism and economy marched together and inter- penetrated one another, yt remained distince?™ Similarly, these “aorea? cities, more than slightly detached from the surrounding landscape, nevertheless took advantage of indigenous socal nct- works — ther agricultural zones, their market centers, and above al, Wf TT nei abor power. By abet inserting thelr new posession amo 4 Ma [ a indigenous market ee which-coptinued té fine capicalise economy, the Spanish did nor completely obliterate the tion in the background for ceitariés/wichering ally, feed that economy was © be be af souse ofc Sonia nos \ ‘egieGive sccumalaions wealth and resources, revealing the ex: ee eke ak ees | Se The priority of urbanism within the colonizing ject can be ‘\ a re ace ea thee ‘centuries after the conquest, in the early years of the region's inde- pendent iations, Domingo Faustino Sarmicnto's Fasindo (3845) / continued to present cites 2s ivilizing nodes in a countryside capa- bis_of engendering only_barbarism..Jo Sarmic ities were the si oe ca eee amen ae ech ee meen TE cetrio whore Set tig nino te cucsrandd by ening nie ee ace 32 The Oniered City a Coors on their savage surroundings. The frst of these norms was an education centered on literacy —a true obsession of Sarmiento, who devoted much of his life to seeing instinuted in his naive Argen- ) una, Te was only half 2 cenmry later, in the midst of urban Bra- ail's frontal assault on the culture ofthe countryside, that Euclides da Cunha began to question the Eurocentric premises that he had previously shazed with the Argentine chinker. The result was Os Ser tis (1902), da Cunha’s pessimistic account of the butchery at the raillearian serdement called Canudos in the Brazilian backlands, {where military force that relied on imported European technology barely prevailed over the sewlemene’s rustic but determined defend » ers, The other side of ctyled “modernization” had revealed itself aakedly and disagrecaby. c Yar from being mere sading poss, then the cites created by the L unbridled sixteenth-century conquest aspired ro become focal points ‘of ongoing colonization. Atfis, they faneioned —_more defensively than offensively ~as formesses, walled precincts where the spitc of the polis could be distilled, proteced, ideologically elaborated, and prepared co undertake the superio: cvilizing responsibilities that it ‘was destined to ful6ll. Not infrecuently, lierary toms transported ities to 2 “divine” plane. The sixtsenth-cenrury Mexican priest For- (2 fn Gonzllez de Eslava provides an crample in his Colas ‘pirituales y szoramontales when. he describes t | Mexico City © the Zacitecessilvermines ( {anspor of mineral wealth to the Wercogal capital) in te | | ecansform them into nothing less than the seven sa Catholic faith ~ Tsolated amid vas, alien,-and hogtile spaces, the cites never theless undenook first to “evangelize? and later ro Tedusae? she \SSS ‘ural hinterlands. Aldnough the fist of these verbs was conjugated through religious energies andthe second by a secular and agnostic spirit, both referred to essentially tne same enterprise of Eurocentric ‘sansculeuration. In order to accomplish these ends, Latin American ‘itis became the residences of vicroys, governors, and archbishops, the seats of universities, high cours, and inquisicional tibunals, be- ‘The Ordered City 33 ens. the Porn,fore bese hone othe pee oe gh of indeps- presen draenei barat poceseni 7a prone p pear wrap Gigaltcnaas aoe ea Gee tae ete tay es ee philology of Pere Coromines. ~ ‘By definition, all order sn ies perfectly isc lined hieragchy./ ee ek heen ce ae omit erences eae ana cata Wh eet ach cht ora ae oe erent (ania, Mexico Gry, and Riode Janeiro chief among them: atthe next oti fevel, the porccities visited egulrl bythe flees that provided com- eee eismisss were crac pene: eae cones aa acme clase i 5 ‘the empire flowed ia descending order, forming a sor of pyramid. eas emai se nee cee a ley and cach carumonam, nd vied nono soca behavior fo the ack below Brome lo that Maas Tegiadcom vtuoniew ae esa ae practically no one ruminated that, at least in economic terms, other ‘European cities ike Genoa of Amsterdam might stand higher still, | cicatuar pun apa ppie pula Fame shi ens ibaa eens eae ee ke Ser eaeeyiuinne Seee eay e Scaahaaa seedy aa fe eae ‘er, so that an Iberian capial like Madtid already functioned as an. eta aaa ke ae rope ten th lof Ln Arta conttned the pen of tec? Awe ated son cu oops ooge Tees i ea oe oe reoellpels power tw themace bot cx appeeriyin the service of higher powers, only dimly glimpsed. Our chief interest ok cee oe eaae ae Ane Hine ff 14 The Onierat Cixy ceredon msl ondary weston slook economic rel res yuleural production was affecred a cvecy by Sores imperfesyunderstoad by-peo- plein ig atin Ameria, even people ia postions of authori, charged With executing ocders of obscure logic and distant origin, Local authorities must often sin a phantasmagorie shadow play, disconnected from the immediate realities of matezial life, responding, and appealing fo: justification, solely to the dic- “Gates of the order OF signs. Speaking of something as concrete as “Slavery and other forms of servitude, Braudel has pointed out that they ae “inherent in the seduasor of a continent ro the condition _of prin, ngosed by a fara: foree, jndiferent 2, soe logic of a ya wea Cholsm®y wig “The cultural structures of Latin America flogted above this econ- { omy, reproducing it in subtle ways. The mos lucid minds of the “Yherian colonies tied to unveil the hidden workings of the system by secking its ulkimate origins beyond the colonizing metropolis, though ther efforts were often condemned by institutional dicetes masquerading as public opinion. In his 1624 prologue, Creole au- thor Bernardo de Balbuena shows that his ife’s work, EE Bernanla, fad an Traian model despite its Spenish subject. Two centuries later, aother Mexican, Justo Siem, suggested avoiding the figurative war ters of the “Spanish aqueduce” to draw inspiration instead from French licerary sources (the fountaihesd not only of modernism but ‘ofrmodernity ise). [Like the huge majocity of Latin American intellectuals, both Bal- bbaena and Sicrca were men of urban voeation. Both proctuced the {< sort of literary texts that served as tact plans for urban development | ~ in an impeccable universe of signs where the ideal city could be imagined into existence—a model ofthe order that the urban cit zenzy should strive to incarnate, Mi vstig : & Conttio's paren Mpoe Ba redlurcion M be groukan'on 79 to Sieewieacie oelisin dal Teoria cagnheatiras catch, My Ra velen Ue freaeriin wakslifiecats om B atdhlo Caite Nine bedtetire manfatate did Fetada2 ‘THE CITY OF [ETTERS ‘To advance the systematic ordering project ofthe ab- solute mosarches, to faclitate the concentration and 1 hierarchical differentiation of power, and to carry out EH the dling missioa assigned to them, the cites of. \ Latin America required a specalized socal group. Like a priestly ‘ast this group had to he imbued vith the conscousnes of softy sinister. TF t lacked acess to che metaphysical absoluss of other pres cates, this one a leastenjoyed dominion overthe subsidiary! absolutes of the univer of signs, organized in HERAT OP the tronaschis beyond the sea, We wll eal this grouscthelenere ci” Yq ‘The une of sans pedapped he shes oicapiyes fora / tong die, and udesafae ponnel sled an iporate paso ingellecuals unl surenderag that role w laymen profesionds “forthe owt part over te couric OF the eighteenth. conecy/Tvo arn ge ov cms of tap. The tar en he i ees cease nee ee aloe) ea ye cexpeled from Spanish-contolled tertory BY Geder of Chaves TH, having already been eecte from Brail a ew years previously. The “American mision of te Socery of Jesus, according to an ealy de scxipcion by the Jesu fther Juan Sinchez Baquero, dered from the mission of the mendicant orders who worked at evangelizing indigenous people. Although they dd have some missions among the indigenous inhabtans, the Jems sought above allo attend the needs of che white “youths bom ia tis land, with fcliy and apt- sade gplensy, P Because ofthe ile habit of hese Se eI tc cleny at nis cao of or nase in, te exercise of leters” and “the schools were es well atrended than the public squares? Sincher Baquero went on © Pro- ( ‘This administrative function established the norms for urban expan- vide an objective descipton of the wealthy young men whom »] hoped to orient toward the srady of philosophy and theology” “They grow up amid the ay abundance of thelr parents houses lulled by an excessively benign climate, and numbed by constant idleness (venom enough fo _desoy any gresteepublic as history eachs) Ta his land, dhe soourge ofdleness has reached it highest going, beause al exercise of arms concluded wih the conquest and raccason, and at for oosapsion in dhe mechan ees, both inappropriate for such young men (vhosejustcaimsto mobility est in heir father? deeds o each back father sll) and unnecessary, 25 wel, because of the cadyavaabiliy of and to provide them with livelihood? ‘The educational achievement ofthe Jesuit order constituted a small ‘buznot inconsequential part of the arculation of power inthe colo- nies following the decine of millenrianism among early evange- lizecs like the Feanciscans. The Jesuits trained specialists in the max ipulation of symbolic languages to staf. ee des ia direct sibordination to the metro sion and determined the material caracterstcs that framed commu nity ite “The urban centess of Spanish and Poruguese America were for- ‘ness dies, por cites, pio of civilias ‘but most importantly, they were seats of administrative authority, ‘Within each visible city stood another, gurative one, that controlled ‘and directed it, and this less tangible “letered city” was not less _Bitded by defensive walls nor less aggressively bent on a certain kind ‘of redemption. The letered city acted upon the order of signs, and the high priority ofits funcrion enc ita sacred aspect, feving it from subordination to ordinary circamsances and confering, implicitly, the priestly quality mentioned earlier, The order of signs appeared as ‘the realm of the Spirit, and thanks co them, human spirits could ‘speak to one another. This was the sultufal dimension ofthe colonial 258 seacuze, whether oF not the people ofthe time conceived or a ‘experienced itas such, ‘Atte center of exch colonial cry, in greater or lesser scale accord- TieCiyef las x7 Hu Gprwik ts cuoryubee anal wiequbley obictulniel i,ing to the place of each in the hierarchy of urban centers, nest ‘consesponding version of the city of let mecha | nisms of political power, The viceregal capitals housed a myriad of administrators, educators, professionals, notaries, religious person- rch and other wielders of pen and paper—whom Georg Friederici ge/. thoughta model of bureazcatic development? From the time ofits Comelnion noe a abe shan coma, hanes ety ot oi penn Gly aon ane es poss hs cul ead ll ‘writings —unselated, even, to is specie adminisuative or judicial fangtions and the high social rank of its “lettered” functionaries, theJetrados| naturally made them large consumers of the colonies’ Ss ccondinic Gurls. Most ofthe lewados were involved in tansmit- ‘ing and responding to imperial direcves, so they could be found clustered around the royal represcaracves atthe top of the social pyri “Three centuries of colonial experience illustrate the astonishing smagninode ofthis cadre ofletrados. To rake an example from the field oflitraure (only one expec of che letados? work), the number of poets appears extremely hrge in all che avaiable soures. Balbuena ‘mentions 300 poets partipating ina late-sixteenth-ceamary contest, held in Mexico City, and Sigdenza y Géngora collected the work ofa similarly large numbera ory leer. Te producers and consamers Of this terarare were largely the same individvals, and their verses , moved in a closed ciraut tha originated ia viceregal power and constantly retumed to flaver i in Aousishes of fulsome praise. This \, voluminous producton—in an gssnatonsand sagged iit tion of contemporary European style —-represents the leisured favor~ seeking characteristic of viceregal cours in colonial America, since \ it obviously did not finé remuneration in the marketplace. Many scholars have attributed the artic shortcomings of Latin American coloalal teraure tothe small number of licrary artists at work in the colonial setting, but chose shortcomings have more to do with the spirit of colonization self 4 Resentful Creoles felt themselves deprived of their just portion of 38 The City ofLattrs ‘New World wealth, but contrary to the image of deprivation that chey created, the highest levels of colonial society landowners, | merchants, and lrados — absorbed plenry of economic surphus and } exjoyed living conditions often superior to those of Spin or Porau- | gal Herewat the “nolerblechierofliving athe expense of the /- coerced labor of indigenous peopee and Afvicans,acdly denounced by father Mendice? afer the appaling indigenous hecaromb that we commonly euphemize as the “demographic catastrophe” ofthe si \ teenth century, At century’ ead, Mendieta found only ¢ milion re | maining ofthe eximated ten 10 >wengy-ve milion inhabitans of preconquest Mexico. The riches apaciously extracted from the in digenous population not only allowed the construction of sump- uous churches and convents tha: sill stand in mote restimony 10 7, cede pene. Those sane hs suppor ban Soa 7 27 | iards and Creoles, allowing the lerados the leisure ro engage exten- sively in theeplendd epic of Baroque cule. Vasious factors contsbured 10 the srengh of the letered city dling its ealy phase. First ameng them were the adminisrave A requirements ofthe vast colotal entepsse, 2s the monarchy multi plied jes puneilious—though pepewally and notorious infec tive —coatiols designed to safeguard against faud and abuses. The lettered city derived importance, secondarily, from its cently 10 2. the project of erangelaing and ovecsxing the wanscalmation of an indigenous population numbering a themlions. Intheuniveneot yieee gas theratve people could be made acnowledg,withsatfice 1B KO, | oryformalsm, European values tat mevembeaced SOI rapidly and ‘may, at das, bal | | suation and evangelization demanded che soaring numbers ofleta- L dos, almost all of whom cesided p:eferentially in urban centers. Bur there was a thied sourer of infuence accruing to the cty of i José Antonio Maravall has pointed ou that the Barogue pe- Dies sod of European history was the fro use masscommunicatonsin od ‘an attempt to ideologize the masses with full programmatic igor 4, ‘There has been considerabie debate concerning the degree of infla- ‘ence exercised by the Council of Trent (one expression ofthis rigor) ‘The Chey ofLeters 19 Vf ef\ over anistic expression inthe petiod, bur there can hardly be any ddube about the importace and magnificence ofthe peciod’s offal * public displays, whether cil or ecclesiastical Tn the belligerent at mosphere of the Counter Reformation, both monarchy and church took a militant approact. to propaganda and maintained, co thar effet, teams of specialisslike those ro be found inthe Fay Ofice of the Inquisition or inthe Society of Jesus. Presented with the huge task of carying its persuasive message to the colonized masses ofthe ‘New World, the specialized cadre of letrados took on correspond- ingly greater operative fore, reaching a degree of social imporcance hardly equaled in all the subsequent history of Latin America. In- deed, the salience ofthis idcologizing mission finds a Buropean par- alle only with the advent of modem mass communications and the development of the mass culzure industry of the ewentieth cenmury. Thefousth essential function of the lertered city, already signaled, | was the fotellecrualand peofessional format Geeole elite. In his original reques that Jems be sent to the New World, Viceroy Mant Enrlquec de Almansa ecfered tothe upper-class males who had no need to support themscives~no need even to administer ther properties personaly —who should be required to direct colo- ‘lal society in the service of the colonizing project of Spain, main- faining strong ties to the Old World hierarchies of monarchy and ‘church, Looking ahead to the second half of the ei ‘we find thar the monarchy eventually began. | cay oat its projece without the collaboration of the Greate elit, * ew tie expelled the Jesus Brom ts New Woeld-posses- sions and resume cof power firmly ino dhe hands of the ‘Bycopean-born. During the sient seventecath, and ealy cigh ‘teenth cennuries, however, the raining of the Creole elite remained among the indispensable functions of urban-based letras. “The crucial social rele of intellectuals in this colonizing proj- cct has been somewhat cbscured by a romanticizing vision of life at the vieeregal cours. Inerpreters like che nineteenth-ceatury Peru vian writer Ricardo Palma have accented the secretive trvialites of courly intrigue, providing an entirely insufcient sense of the te- 2c The City of Letvers ‘mendovs influence exercised by levados in pulpits, universities, and sdministative offices, as well as in she theater and various genres of essay writing. Even poets helped zonscruct the ideological frame- porkof Latin American society, an¢ they continued to do so until the ‘vogue of positivstic modemization in the late nineteenth century. “TPhose who considered themselve: primarily poets were always a ‘small aiaority in the cty of letters, but a great many wrote amateur ‘verse. Overall, they regarded poecy as part of the common patri= mony of all letrdos, who were defined essentially by their use of ‘writing, whether in a sales contrac, a patriotic pacan, or a religious ode. = ‘The power of the lewered cry is manifest in its extraonding sdgevie. Crytalized during the lst third of the sbiteenth century, it~ rood very much intact on the eve of the movements for national independence moze than two centuries later, The Baroque style that presided aristically athe time of is origins alo proved to be endur- ing, Regarding the Neoclassical school that eventually displaced the { Baroque sa Europe, historian and esayst Pedro Henfquer Ure | professed to find in America “very few examples ofits infiuence be- fore the end of the colonial period” Historian Mariano Picdn Salas thas declared, even more eategoriclly, that the Baroque sensibility permeated the color ded ins influence well beyond, at Teas to the middle ofthe twentieth century: “in spite of wo centaries 7 i ‘on enlightenment though and niodeifiticsm, we Spanish Amer ‘caps have never managed to escape altogether from the Baroaue | <,, a a iabysidh> he wrote. In this be coincided withthe Cuban novelist ‘Aigo Carpenties, who even proposed thatthe Baroque be consid: > xed the characteristic style of Latin American art.” At work here, we Hag ; can glimpse the conservative influence of the iy of Jeers, relatively te static in social makeup and wedded to aesthetic models that kept the leeéados constantly harkening bacs to the period of their collective, ‘So much for the elevated number of letrados, their public pre- eminence, thee social ininence, and the impressive resources that they enjoyed. More significant stil was the capacity of cach leuado The City ofLemers 2“up Ap fanctionalauronomy that Karl Mannhe! to-acquice-a kind of ownership over his specific comer of she > reaueracy, becoming a pery despot within the larger organization, bet Audienca, University or Cathedral Chapter. His isthe ind of sd, more recently Alvin Goulds? hiave noticed ia their stuies of the sociology of know- “he Mexican industry par excellence can be designated by a word Jno, wwellacimated in Spanish American vocabularies: bureaucracy?" “Mariano Amucla dedicated ane of his novels ofthe Mexican Revolu- tion to showing how che bureaucrats of the Porfirian old regime managed to survive the politial cwaciysm and infiltrate the adminis- Bigs FD cage in te contemporary works Too offen, Manis analyses have trauive structures of the post evolutionary state. FBenito Pérez Gal- ‘Eh = she See ee issuing from dés called his nineveenth-century Spanish bureaucrats “sh? Azuela vions thar employ them, This limited view neg the Sordid him by erming their Meccan analogues “ies? Such eat: oe ‘eo ‘tonize a ee chaborate_ {rather aan ere femalaed by Mecieninclerins who, hough chey 2,308 jammer meni) ieseages, the designers ofcul- f belonged to the city of letters, tad aot yer been admitted to the efits fen ‘ual modes aed wp fr pub nfo \ charmed inner dele of power--asituation characeriscof the pe- Tatfacrha riod of modernization and analogous, in away, tothe predicament Ypte-a 8 fed tuvions —and also herween inellectuls and socal classes. ned 4s bureaucrats in the service of absolute monaschies, the letrados came into close contract with the insttuconalizing principle that “charaeeias all power veluions. The reseed group of inelecral "workers learned the mechanisms and vicissitudes of isttusonalized power and learned, t00, ow to make iereplaceable institutions of themselves, Their servicesin the manipulation of symboliclanguages | were indispensable, and therefore the functionaries of the ltered | city could assert their own preferences in their wosk without fearing | the los oftheir positions Servants of power, in one sens, the ess dos became masters of power, in another. This heady sate of airs led some—innebrated with the con- ( ceiousness oftheir personal influence ro lose sighcof tei ltimate dependence on the authority of the government, A brief incursion inetoanth ceatiry will exempiiy chis tendency and demon- 1 srate the persistence ofthe colonial mentality Beginning well before i Max Weber's famous studies of bureaucracy, Latin American writers perceptively displayed the letradoe’ penchant for entrenching them- |_ selves within the administrative seraceures of state power. Inthe case of Mexico (where the problem remains acute even today), ceticism. of the “parasitic” burcaucracy intensified during the modernizing,