THE CITYSCAPE and the MODERN GAZE in BOGOTÁ, 1930-1950 by CESAR AUGUSTO PEÑA IGUAVITA DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfi
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THE CITYSCAPE AND THE MODERN GAZE IN BOGOTÁ, 1930-1950 BY CESAR AUGUSTO PEÑA IGUAVITA DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Art Education in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2015 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Paul Duncum, Chair Professor Dianne Harris, Co-Chair Professor Michael Parsons Professor Oscar Vázquez ii Abstract In recent years Colombia has attracted worldwide attention for its promising economy, for its flourishing cities, and more recently because of the peace talks with rebel groups. In spite of its thriving economy, Colombia is among the Latin American countries with the highest levels of inequality. Scholars from different fields have addressed this problem and it has also become part of the national agenda to find strategies to reduce the gap between rich and poor. Through the analysis of cityscapes and representations of the built environment produced during the 1930s and 1940s in Bogotá, this research presents an approach from the perspective of aesthetics to the problem of inequality. Through discourse analysis this dissertation shows how the images produced during the early capitalist period of Bogotá reflect the social tensions and configured a scenario of symbolic violence that would lead to the actual violence that erupted by the end of the 1940s. The results show the correlation between one type of violence and the other and how they would settle the basis to silently perpetuate a system of classes and inequality reflected in the cityscape. Keywords: symbolic violence, Bogotá, visual studies, discourse analysis, cityscapes, architecture, built environment, aesthetics, urban history iii Table of Contents Table of Figures ................................................................................................................ iv Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Vision, Ideology, Space, and Post Colonialism ......................................... 25 Sight and Space .......................................................................................................................... 38 Latin America: Post Colonialism and Colonial Visual Legacies .............................................. 53 Colonial Legacies and Visuality in Latin America .................................................................... 62 Chapter 3: A Post Structuralist approach to Methodology ........................................ 68 Discourse Analysis .................................................................................................................... 68 A Necessary Autobiographical Approach to Methodology ....................................................... 74 Summary .................................................................................................................................... 81 Methods, Sources, and Repositories .......................................................................................... 82 Chapter 4: The Visual Construction of Space in Bogotá ............................................ 85 The Distribution of Urban Space in Bogotá .............................................................................. 92 Architecture and Class ............................................................................................................. 106 Rendering Class Identity: La Perseverancia vs. Teusaquillo ................................................... 118 Chapter 5: The Uses of Aesthetics ............................................................................... 130 Aesthetics at the SMOB ........................................................................................................... 137 City, National Identity, and Embarrassment ............................................................................ 144 The Unaesthetic Sight of the Lower classes ............................................................................ 153 Chapter 6: Progress and Perfection ............................................................................ 167 Rendering Progress .................................................................................................................. 170 Rendering Perfection ............................................................................................................... 195 Epilogue ......................................................................................................................... 224 References ...................................................................................................................... 233 Endnotes ........................................................................................................................ 244 iv Table of Figures Figure 1. “Las mujeres más poderosas del Valle del Cauca.” The Most Powerful Women in the Cauca Valley. Color photograph, Revista Hola Edición Española, December 2011. Photograph by Andrea Savini. Downloaded from http://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/la-foto-discordia/250614-3 ....................................... 24 Figure 2. Bogotá 1938. Secretaría de Obras Públicas Municipales. Bogotá, Colombia. 1938. a) Main Plaza, b) Teusaquillo, c) La Perseverancia, d) La Magdalena, e) Chapinero, f) Blue collar worker’s housing, g) Las Cruces (lower class neighborhood), h) Paseo Bolívar (Shanty towns), i) La Merced (upper class neighborhood), j) El Nogal (upper class neighborhood). k) Carretera de Occidente or Western Ward Avenue. The arrows pointing towards the city’s periphery correspond to the location of the most important Pueblos de Indios, or pueblo people, surrounding Bogotá. From left to right: Usaquén, Suba, Engativá, Fontibón, Techo, Bosa, Usme, Choachí. These pueblos have supplied the inner city and the suburbs since the Spanish colonization with labor and services. ......................................................................................... 94 Figure 3. a) Procession in Bogotá. Watercolor by Auguste LeMoyne (attributed), ca. 1835. Reproduced from Atlas Histórico de Bogotá, 1538-1910, p. 213. b) Enrique Olaya’s presidential inauguration, El Tiempo, August 6, 1934. n.a. ........................... 98 Figure 4. Visual references to U.S. Modernity appeared in El Gráfico and Cromos. ...................................................................................................................................... 99 Figure 5. Lincoln coupé five passenger advertisement. Cromos. Bogotá, January 14, 1930. n.a. ............................................................................................................................ 100 Figure 6. Upper class housing. Cromos, may 20th 1933. n.a. a) La Magdalena, residence of Aníbal Velásquez. b) House in La Magdalena. May 27th 1933. n.a. ............................................................................................................................................ 101 Figure 7. La Magdalena. Cromos, May 27th 1933. n.a. ................................................................ 102 Figure 8. National Plan Service, Chicago, Designs 236-A (English Style) and 215-A (Saxo-American Style), Cromos, April 30th / May 14th, 1938. ..................................... 112 Figure 9. Nicolás Gómez Dávila’s house (above). José Vicente Huertas’ house (below). Estampa, 1938. .......................................................................................................... 115 Figure 10. Interior design by Yves Jagu for Nicolás Gómez Dávila’s house. Estampa, 1938. (Detail) ........................................................................................................... 117 Figure 11. Estampa Magazine, Barrio La Perseverancia, 1940 .................................................... 120 Figure 12. a) “Reyerta Popular” or Lower-class Brawl. Watercolor, Ramón Torres Méndez, 1878. b) “Reyerta Popular” or Lower-class Brawl. Watercolor, Ramón Torres Méndez, 1878. Detail. c) “De Español y Negra Sale Mulato,” Casta painting, detail. 18th century. n.a. ........................................................... 122 Figure 13. Barrio Teusaquillo, Estampa, 1940 .............................................................................. 124 Figure 14. Plaza de Bolívar with the luminous fountains. Photo archive Museum of Bogotá, ca. 1930 .................................................................................................................. 142 Figure 15. Plaza de Bolívar, 1938. Bogotá, Commemorative book released by the SMOB on the occasion of the 400th city Anniversary, 1938. ............................................ 143 Figure 16. Advertisement “A. Cortés M. & Co.,” El Gráfico, 1930, No. 978. p. 118, n.a. .................................................................................................................................... 171 Figure 17. a) “Pulmonary Healing Potion” advertisement. Estampa, Vol 4 No. 61. January 20 1940 b.) New York Drugstore, c) Parker Fountain Pens’ advertisement. Revista El Gráfico, 1930, No. 968. n.a. .......................................................... 174 Figure 18. a) Showroom Panauto department store (detail), ca. 1950. Photo archive Museum of Bogotá. Photo by Saúl Orduz. b) “Radio Pilot” Advertisement, Estampa, Año 3, Vol. 5, No. 72, p. 49, April 6 1940 c) Advertisement, El Tiempo, July 17, 1940. .............................................................................