Urban Ruins. Topophilia and the Narratives of Stripping in Santiago and Bogotá

Abstract

The history of two Latin American neighborhoods, evicted and demolished, is told: Villa San Luis in Santiago de Chile and the Bronx Street in Bogotá, Colombia. Through ethnography, it is shown how the neighborhoods ruins discomfort the investors and local governors, who seek after removing them in order to develop real estate and urban renovation projects. It is also portrayed how former inhabitants and supporters safeguard preserve the memories of these places. For the agents who intent to remove these neighborhoods, the collapsed materialities still preserved are a hindrance to progress and spoil the urban landscape. Meanwhile, for the people, the ruins embody emotions, experiences, and memories. It is concluded that in the topophilies of these ruins, understood as emotional relationships anchored to the place and its materiality, resides a creative power with the capacity for political agency.