An Ethnographic Account of the Development of Squatter Settlements in San Juan De Miraflores, Lima, Peru
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Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 1-18-2013 12:00 AM Tu envidia es mi progreso: An Ethnographic Account of the Development of Squatter Settlements in San Juan de Miraflores, Lima, Peru. Brandon E. Rouleau The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Regna Darnell The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Anthropology A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Brandon E. Rouleau 2013 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Rouleau, Brandon E., "Tu envidia es mi progreso: An Ethnographic Account of the Development of Squatter Settlements in San Juan de Miraflores, Lima, Peru." (2013). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 1115. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/1115 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Tu envidia es mi progreso: An Ethnographic Account of the Development of Squatter Settlements in San Juan de Miraflores, Lima, Peru. (Thesis format: Monograph) by Brandon Rouleau Graduate Program in Anthropology and Collaborative Graduate Program in Migration and Ethnic Relations School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Brandon Rouleau 2013 CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION Supervisor Examiners ______________________________ ______________________________ Dr. Regna Darnell Dr. A. Kim Clark Supervisory Committee ______________________________ Dr. Andrew Walsh ______________________________ Dr. A. Kim Clark ______________________________ Dr. Lindsay Dubois ______________________________ Dr. Adriana Premat ______________________________ Dr. Verónica Schild The thesis by Brandon Edward Rouleau entitled: Tu envidia es mi progreso: An Ethnographic Account of the Development of Squatter Settlements in San Juan de Miraflores, Lima, Peru. is accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Ph.D. ——————————— ————————————————— Date Chair of the Thesis Examination Board ii Abstract The following dissertation explores the past 60 years of self‐help housing in Lima. Specifically, it looks at the uneven development that has occurred in parts of a municipality called San Juan de Miraflores. I argue that self‐help housing is part of a larger modernization project that aims to encourage the emergence of a self‐ regulating individual. This particular inflection of both liberal and neoliberal principles sees elites working to creat a selective history of marginal neighbourhoods, effectively silencing the histories of working class Miraflorinos. The aim of this ethnographic study is to destabilize official histories and representations about development in marginal communities. The bulk of the dissertation looks at the most recent land occupation in January, 2000 on the fringes of the municipality to understand how progress is experienced by locals. Special attention is given to insert the study in its political, economic, and social context. I conclude that development process at work in Lima since the end of WWII reflects an unresolved tension in the urbanization movement in Peru. Common working class people resist the drive toward a progress that favours individual achievement over community well‐being. I argue that underprivileged groups have always been included in development schemes. Social inclusion, then, is not the solution to uneven development. Rather, we need to look to the resistances to development that underprivileged classes mount, incorporating their criticisms into a new vision for society that challenges the merits of the kind of individuality promoted by liberal and neoliberal proponents. Keywords Urbanization, Community development, Development, Governmentality, Neoliberalism, San Juan de Miraflores, Williams, Gramsci, Oral History, Ethnography, Modernization, Self‐help housing, Latin America iii Acknowledgements The following dissertation would not have been possible without the support of a number of people, academic and non‐academic. I owe a great debt to the entire faculty at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Western Ontario. Everyone has had some degree of involvement in my training. I could not have done many an administrative task without the efforts of Diane Belleville and Laura Cousins. My special gratitude goes to Kim Clark, Andrew Walsh, Adriana Premat, and Regna Darnell for their constant involvement and encouragement during my master’s and doctoral work at the university. In doing my research I have accumulated far too many debts to mention here. I will keep it brief. Much thanks goes to the collaborators that have talked to me over the past 7 years or so in Lima, especially Lola, Cisneros, María, Elmer, Elsa, and the Flores family (Yolanda and company). My friend Paul Clark has encouraged me along my whole academic journey in Peru and deserves special mention here. Without all of you I would not be writing this dissertation. There are numerous Peruvian professionals from IEP and from my travels in Lima and Peru that have had a part in this project. Aroma de la Cadena, once again, provided sage guidance. I thank them all. I owe much gratitude to Padre José Escribá for directing me toward PEBAL la Inmaculada where the Director Ophelia Montes López supported my efforts to understand the local population. Luis, Beltrán, Roberto, Angela, Berta and other professionals in the social area were especially patient with my constant questions and requests to accompany them in what they were doing. If I got sick or I needed dental care, the staff at PEBAL fixed me up while doing my research. The administrative area helped on a number of occasions reviewing letters of presentation. I was asked to participate in leadership courses and meetings with the leaders of the Nueva Rinconada on a number of occasions. There was an atmosphere of collaboration that I hope continues to guide the spirit of this institution. Probably the most important person to thank is my partner Sandy Simon Torres. She helped with aspects of my fieldwork and was there for moral support whenever I needed it. I admire her tolerance to the incessant musings that have found too much of a place in our daily conversations over the past few years. I could not thank Sandy without making mention of our son Roan. He has helped me to see a more practical reason for doing critical ethnographic work: to make this world a better place for our children. Every step of my graduate studies, my parents have been there. I am not sure that I would have completed this dissertation if it had not been for their unwavering support. In spite of being their son who “thinks too much”, or “has an opinion about everything” he sees, they have faithfully supported me in all of my endeavours. iv The shortcomings of this dissertation are my responsibility and a product of the time and resources available for this project. However, like almost all ethnographers, my priority was to understand what it is like to be in a particular place and time. The tension between being a community and getting ahead is something that characterizes the time when I did my ethnographic work here. This ethnography represents my continuing efforts to understand what it means to be a human at this particular juncture in time from the vantage point of those who are the subjects of more powerful members of society. Funding for this work was provided by the University of Western Ontario. In the first year of my doctoral studies I received an OGS award. While doing my research the Regna Darnell Award provided much needed funds to continue my research. v Table of Contents CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION .................................................................................... ii Abstract ....................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ....................................................................................................... vi Table of Figures .........................................................................................................vii Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1 —The Lay of the Land ................................................................................. 25 Chapter 2 —Don Malvinas’s Pamplona ....................................................................... 44 Chapter 3 —The Rise of Self‐help Housing in Lima ...................................................... 65 Chapter 4 —The Legacy of Self‐Help Housing ............................................................ 103 Chapter 5 –The Nueva Rinconada ............................................................................. 143 The Re‐re‐election of Alberto Fujimori ..................................................................................................... 151 Versions of the Truth in the Nueva Rinconada ......................................................................................