Griffin & Ford (1980) A Model of Latin American City Structure

American Geographical Society
A Model of Latin American City Structure

Author(s): Ernst Griffin and Larry Ford
Source: Geographical Review, Vol. 70, No. 4 (Oct., 1980), pp. 397-422
Published by: American Geographical Society
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A MODEL OF LATIN AMERICAN CITY STRUCTURE
ERNST GRIFFIN and LARRY FORD
A PARADOX exists in thinking about the internal structure of cities. On the

one hand there are generalized, descriptive models of preindustrial and
Third World cities.1 On the other hand descriptive, conceptual models
have been offered to explain modern Western cities, especially in North Amer-
ica.2 This preindustrial/modern dichotomy polarizes studies of urbanization.
A notable generalization arising from this polarity is the assumption that the
preindustrial cities undergoing change somehow progress or evolve to be
modern ones. This assumption is especially apparent in studies of Latin
American cities where a uniform preindustrial pattern was mandated through-
out the region by the Laws of the Indies.3 Indeed the colonial Latin American
city may be described as the classic preindustrial city institutionalized by law
as well as by tradition.
Because of slow growth and lack of industrialization in many small Latin
American cities, numerous studies concluded that traditional patterns domi-
nate. Since the 1940s studies of cities such as Popayain in Colombia, Oaxaca in
Mexico, and Guatemala City stated that socioeconomic organization had
changed little from colonial times.4 Other studies of rapidly growing cities such
as Mexico City, Bogota', Santiago, Guadalajara, and Quito recognized the rem-
nants of traditional elements but stressed a slow evolution along the lines of
urban developments north of the Rio Grande.5 A further conclusion in these
studies was that some large Latin American cities were beginning to experience
the changes that started approximately a century earlier in the Anglo-American
counterparts-industrialization, expansion of the central business district
(CBD), development of public transportation systems, rapid in-migration,
'Gideon Sjoberg, The Preindustrial City (Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, 1960).
2 Ernest W. Burgess, The Growth of the City, Proceedings of the American Sociological Society, Vol.
18, 1923, pp. 85-89; Homer Hoyt, The Structure and Growth of Residential Neighborhoods in
American Cities (Washington, D. C.: Federal Housing Administration, 1939); Chauncy D. Harris
and Edward L. Ullman, The Nature of Cities, Annals of the American Academy of Political Science,
Vol. 242, 1945, pp. 7-17; and Homer Hoyt, Recent Distortions in Classical Models of Urban Struc-
ture, Land Economics, Vol. 40, 1964, pp. 199-212.
3Zelia Nutall, Royal Ordinances for the Laying Out of Towns (July 3, 1573), Hispanic American
Historical Review, Vol. 5, 1922, pp. 249-254; and Dan Stanislawski, Early Spanish Town Planning
in the New World, Geographical Review, Vol. 37, 1947, pp. 95-105.
4Norman S. Hayner, Oaxaca: City of Old Mexico, Sociology and Social Research, Vol. 29, 1944, pp.
87-95; Raymond E. Crist, the Personality of Popayan, Rural Sociology, Vol. 15, 1950, pp. 130-140;
Andrew H. Whiteford, Popayan and Queretaro, Comparaci6n de sus Clases Sociales (Bogota:
Facultad de Sociologia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 1963).
5Peter Amato, A Comparison of Population Densities, Land Values and Socioeconomic Class in
Four Latin American Cities, Land Economics, Vol. 46, 1970, pp. 447-455; Homer Hoyt, The Resi-
dential and Retail Patterns of Leading Latin American Cities, Land Economics, Vol. 39, 1963, pp.
449-454; and Leo F. Schnore, On the Spatial Structure of Cities in the Two Americas, in The Study
of Urbanization (edited by Philip M. Hauser and Leo F. Schnore; New York: John Wiley and Sons,
1965), pp. 347-398.
* DR. GRIFFIN and DR. FORD are professors of geography at San Diego State University,
San Diego, California 92182.

398 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
emergence of a large middle class, and widespread ownership of automobiles.

Just as the structures of Boston and New York changed from preindustrial to
modern between 1850 and 1900, so will the structures of Mexico City and Lima
change under the impact of comparable developmental pressures.
The notion that Latin American cities are either structurally stable or evolv-
ing in the pattern of cities in the United States is somehow unsatisfactory. As
early as the 1940s, some researchers recognized that tradition and convergence
were not the only interpretative options and that entirely new structural forms
might emerge with the passage of time.6 The considerable cultural, technolog-
ical, and socioeconomic differences between Anglo America and Latin America
indicate that a new model of urban structure in Latin America would be useful
not only to describe but also to explain the processes that are shaping some of
the fastest growing cities in the world. Current studies focus on specific ele-
ments such as housing, squatter settlements, social change, political organi-
zation, migration, industrialization, and modernization, but there has been
little effort to develop a model of the internal structure based on the Latin
American urban experience.7
We contend that both the processes and the forms of urban growth are, to
some degree, culturally specific regardless of the rates of growth and modern-
ization. Although forces of urban change may result in much worldwide sim-
ilarity of urban structure, attitudes toward things such as density, family,
sounds, smells, land use, open space, architecture, aesthetics, and urban life
will vary. Additionally institutional factors-zoning, building and fire codes,
finances, construction technology and materials, role of government in the pro-
vision of housing, and establishment and expansion of urban services-vary
with culture and level of development. A model of Latin American urban struc-
ture, merging traditional elements with the processes of modernization that
are altering the city, is needed. This model must be designed with full aware-
ness that the context of change in Latin America differs in many ways from
the patterns of nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century cities of Anglo
America. Although we recognize that models are generalizations and that
models constructed for Anglo-American cities have been vigorously criticized,
we think that models are valuable and useful as heuristic devices. Consequently
we propose a model of Latin American urban structure.
TRANSFORMATION OF THE TRADITIONAL CITY
During the colonial period cities in Spanish America were thoroughly reg-
ulated by provisions in the Laws of the Indies that mandated everything from
treatment of the Indians to the width of streets.8 Cities in Portuguese America,
though not subject to those Laws, were designed according to the traditions
of Roman planning and thus were similar to Spanish cities. The Laws required
6 Floyd H. Dotson and Lillian 0. Dotson, Ecological Trends in the City of Guadalajara, Mexico,
Social Forces, Vol. 32, 1954, pp. 367-374.
7 Urbanization in Latin America: Approaches and Issues (edited by Jorge E. Hardoy; New York:
Anchor Books, 1975); and Alan Gilbert and Peter Ward, Housing in Latin American Cities, in
Geography and the Urban Environment (edited by D. T. Herbert and R. J. Johnson; New York:
John Wiley and Sons, 1978), Vol. 2, pp. 285-318.
8
Nutall, footnote 3 above.

LATIN AMERICAN CITY STRUCTURE 399
FIG. 1-Traditional town plaza of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
a grid pattern with geometrically regular east-west and north-south streets and
a central plaza (Fig. 1). Lots immediately adjacent to the ~centralplaza were
designated for specific buildings such as the principal church and the cabildo,
while other blocks near the plaza were assigned for residential development
by socially worthy individuals. Almost by decree, increased distance from the
plaza, the core of urban activity, meant decreased social and economic status
for residents. The relationship between geographical location and social status
in the urban milieu was ascriptive, although the use of lower floors of resi-
dences on and around the plaza by artisans and shopkeepers led to some mixed
land use and mixing of social classes. The constraints of this traditional grid
plan prevailed as long as the characteristicsof urbanization were slow growth,
minimal industrialization, limited provision of public services, and restricted
mobility. Because many original grids were not filled for centuries, morpho-
logical change was difficult, if not impossible, even long after the end of co-
lonial regulations. In the preindustrial, administrative, artisan city, incompat-
ible land use was no threat and in cultures characterized by architectural
stability and tradition, the appeal of a new house differed little from that of an
old house. Grid-pattern organization and ascriptive social status still prevail
in numerous small, stable cities in Latin America, but the circumstances in
these cities offer little toward understanding the large, dynamic urban centers
of the region. Numerous factors account for the transformationof traditional
urban forms and for the breakdown of traditional social organization.
ExPANSION OF THE CENTRAL BusINESs DISTRICT
Discussions of Anglo-American "downtowns" or CBDs are replete with

terms such as zone of assimilation, zone of discard, zone of transition, sequent

ARAMILLONARIO
i-O
n4l''gz,;, -.-
f ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A
ODART
R! IMN
iiEi
FIG. 2-Changing downtown of Guatemala City.
occupance, and segregation and extension.9 The basic assumption is that CBDs
reflect urban growth and change in area and intensity. In addition it is usually
assumed that areal expansion of intensive "downtown" land uses is a threat
to nearby residential neighborhoods. Massive, rapid, and disruptive change
has been the major force in the creation of much maligned zones of transition
that surround most CBDs in Anglo America. The CBD in Latin American cities
has always been the economic and administrative core of the city, but expan-
sion was rarely evident prior to the 1930s (Fig. 2). Expansion of the CBD is the
norm today in most large Latin American cities. During recent decades in these
cities, streets were widened, old mansions demolished, parking garages and
lots created, skyscraper-office towers built, shopping malls developed, bus ter-
minals constructed, and a variety of hotels, restaurants, and arenas erected in
and around the CBD. In short, the sleepy, stable central plaza became the node
for the evolution of an Anglo-American-styled CBD. Although many old, mul-
tistoried, courtyard mansions were convertible to commercial uses, as in Anglo
America the strategy at best was considered a temporary one. Soon the de-
mands for space and the increased land values led to abrupt changes in the
type and the scale of the architectural stock. Perhaps the foremost example of
this process in Latin America is found in Mexico City (Fig. 3). Its central busi-
ness district has expanded during the years from the traditional core at the
Zocalo, beyond the Alameda for more than a mile down the Paseo de la Re-
forma. In the best Wilshire-Boulevard tradition, mansions were replaced by
9 James E. Vance, Focus on Downtown, in Internal Structure of the City (edited by Larry S. Bourne;
New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), pp. 112-120.

FIG. 3-CBD expansion in Mexico City.
skyscraper offices, chic nightspots, and theaters along the "Mexican Miracle
Mile."
Much of the area around the Z6'calo reverted to zone-of-discard-type mar-
kets and tenements. The upper classes that traditionally occupied residences
in the path of this downtown expansion moved outward, partly because of
their inability or unwillingness to pay commercial prices for a central city lo-
cation, and partly because of the congestion and disruption of the dynamic
new cityscape. Individuals who found themselves "on the other side of the
plaza" migrated along the same path in order to avoid increasing deterioration
and to be close to the relocated activities. In many ways the processes shaping
the CBDs of Anglo America and Latin America are similar, but the resultant
downtowns are not carbon copies.
Few Latin American cities are industrial cities par excellence, but many are
becoming important industrial centers with activities that range from food
processing to automobile assembly. Although only a small part of this indus-
trialization is located in the heart of downtown, the industries require a rela-
tively central urban location that is accessible to major highways, railroads,
and labor supply. Industrialization requires a number of urban services, such
as water and electricity, which are not ubiquitously distributed, so that the
range of options for industrial locations is not as broad as in Anglo America.
Many Latin American cities have large areas near their cores that are indus-
trialized to some degree. These areas are usually less specialized than compa-
rable districts in Anglo-American cities having a variety of heavy industries,
artisan shops, and residences. Large-scale industry further disorganizes the
traditional social structure and landscape and increases the cost of central city
space. In addition noise and air pollution created by industry and by vehicles

serving industry loom large in the image of the central city as a disamenity
zone.
"High-class" land uses are found closer to industrial areas in Latin America
than in Anglo America because access to paved highways and modern services
is essential for industry, and these features tend to be most plentiful in the
wealthy sectors of Latin American cities. To some extent the attraction is mutual
because increasing numbers of the elites are corporate executives in industry,
for whom direct access to work is desirable in an inadequately paved, truck-
and-cart-filled urban environment.
EXPANSION OF SERVICES AND SUBURBANIZATION
Cities in Anglo America were generally far ahead of ones in Latin America
in developing and expanding a full range of urban services. Not only were
Anglo-American cities among the first in the world to provide water, sewerage,
police and fire protection, mass transportation systems, paved streets, street
cleaning and lighting, public schools and parks, and even tree plantings, but
also, perhaps more importantly for urban change, affluence and economic
growth made possible rapid extension of these services over long distances.
For the last six decades someone who moved to the periphery of an Anglo-
American urban area could expect to have available a wide range of urban
services. Contrastingly in Latin America the limited extension of services con-
strains widespread exurban living, but suburban life is possible to a limited
extent. A number of large-scale suburban developments, complete with mini-
mum lot sizes and architectural controls to alleviate fear of random encroach-
ment by squatters, has been erected in recent years, a factor that might have
previously contained suburbanization in Latin America. Because urban ser-
vices are difficult and expensive to extend, areas inhabited by the wealthy or
intended for the wealthy generally are the first and, in some cases, the only
areas, to receive public services. Most cities have only one wealthy sector, a
consequence of the fiscal impossibility of extending services in more than one
direction simultaneously. Wealthy suburban developments expand in the same
direction as the CBD because that area is the best serviced and has access to
major social and economic activities. Important man-made amenities-parks,
golf courses, and race tracks-further determine the direction of suburban ex-
pansion.
Upward socioeconomic mobility is relatively limited in Latin America, and
only a small percentage of the population can afford professionally built hous-
ing. A few residential suburbs are located in juxtaposition as if to reinforce the
new suburban ideal. Modern automobile-oriented shopping centers and office
parks have recently appeared around the high-status communities, a duplica-
tion of the Anglo-American pattern. This new social and economic centrality,
or the sense of being "someplace" (an important cultural requisite in the Latin
American milieu), may be necessary for future suburbanization. Increasingly
the large suburban developments provide financing, an attractive inducement
in high interest, money-tight economies.
Another factor affecting the transformation of Latin American cities is the
increasing rate of architectural change. Until the 1920s much of Latin America
was characterized by architectural stability. Cities in Anglo America experi-

enced wide-ranging architectural variations from federal-styled row houses to

whimsical gothic Victorian and Tudor half-timbered cottages, but architectural
changes in Latin America were minimal. The single or multistoried courtyard
house remained the accepted ideal. During the 1920s, but especially in the
1930s, foreign-trained architects introduced variety to the Latin American city-
scape that ran the gamut from pseudo Tudor to Art Deco. New designs fea-
tured freestanding houses with front yards, and upper-class persons seeking
to emulate a "modern" lifestyle moved into them. In the areas left behind by
those persons, the filtering-down process began.
FILTERED-DOWN HOUSING AND SQUATTER SETTLEMENTS
The most common way of making housing available to low-income in-mi-

grants to Anglo-American cities during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
was the filtering-down syndrome. From the 1880s on, a variety of housing was
built in peripheral areas that were quickly provided with paved streets, public
transportation, and other urban services. Those developments allowed many
lower-middle-income persons who were able to participate in the housing
market to vacate the old central-city dwellings that then became available to
poor recent arrivals. The process depended on the availability of large amounts
of accessible land suitable for building, on professional house builders oper-
ating with considerable economies of scale, on huge amounts of investment
capital available at low interest rates, on the existence of houses and apartments
that could be cheaply and easily converted and subdivided to accommodate
persons able to pay only low rents, and on a large and growing upwardly
mobile middle class that was eager for "newer," "better," "larger," and "more
modern" dwellings. In spite of the present back-to-the-city movement the fil-
tering-down process remains active in Anglo-American cities.
The prerequisites for the filtering-down process rarely occurred in Latin
American cities. Because of drastic differences in income distribution, only a
small percentage of the population participates in the professionally built hous-
ing market either as purchasers or renters. Loans are difficult to obtain and
interest rates are high, so that few developers operate in marginal lower-mid-
dle-class housing markets, especially ones without proximity to upper-class
neighborhoods. New freestanding housing tends to be built primarily for the
upper class, while the majority of renters and buyers is likely to improve ex-
isting dwellings rather than to seek filtered-down housing in former upper-
class areas.
The most obvious difference between cities in the two Americas is the Latin
American phenomenon of squatter settlements and self-built housing.10 Al-
though "shantytowns" have existed on the peripheries of Anglo-American
10 Peter C. Lloyd, Slums of No Hope?: Shanty Towns of the Third World (New
York: St. Martin's
Press, 1979); Peter M. Ward, Self-Help Housing in Mexico City, Town Planners Review, Vol. 49,
1978, pp. 38-50; Gustavo Riofrio, Se Busca Terreno para Pr6xima Barriada: Espacios Disponibles
en Lima, 1490-1978-1990 (Lima: Desco, 1978); A. T. Ashton, Slum Housing Attrition: A Positive
Twist from Cali, Colombia, Human Organization, Vol. 35, 1976, pp. 47-53; and H. Dietz, Urban
Squatter Settlements in Peru: A Case Study and Analysis, Journal of Inter-American Studies, Vol. 11,
1969, pp. 353-357.

cities, especially in the South, this type of residential area had little importance
in shaping the character of rapidly growing urban areas. In Latin America,
however, recent in-migration from the countryside combined with high birth
rates has resulted in thousands of persons who cannot be readily absorbed in
the urban economy. Their difficulties, owing to low incomes and social posi-
tions, are exacerbated by the rate and scale of population increase. Numerous
persons earn so little so irregularly that rental or mortgage payments with
interest rates between 20 percent and 25 percent on ten-year loans are beyond
reality. If the housing be available, which is rarely the case, it would be un-
affordable by the mass of recent in-migrants at any price. Even the low rents
charged in government-subsidized housing often create an impossible financial
burden for the majority of urban residents. For example, according to 1974
income data for Bogota, 86 percent of the households had total monthly incomes
of less than $250, while 52 percent earned less than $100 a month." These
persons then take over unoccupied land or, in a few cases, purchase undevel-
oped lots and build their own dwellings.
Self-built housing can be made from just about anything: cardboard, plastic,
tin, scrap wood, branches, cloth, concrete, bricks, highway signs, and roofing
material. Because self-built housing needs not be completed before it is inhab-
ited, residents can live in it as they build it. Most of the houses simply "accrete"
over time, with better materials being substituted for makeshift ones when
money is available. In time, urban services are usually provided to these set-
tlements, but for long periods residents must do without services or improvise
with water trucks, sewer trenches, or stone pathways. In some instances, gov-
ernment authorities or private landowners sought to evict squatters, but their
sheer numbers and the political realities of the situation make expulsion dif-
ficult, if not impossible. In certain cities, centrally located areas that are ex-
tremely inhospitable to development and provision of services-steep slopes,
canyons, areas subject to flooding, or garbage dumps-may be utilized for
squatter settlements, although the pressures for removal may be intense. Con-
sequently the newest squatter settlements tend to be on the urban periphery.
With the passage of time and with the provision of minimal public services,
squatter settlements can become stable and substantial neighborhoods. Because
the amount of filtered-down middle-class housing is limited, especially in cities
undergoing rapid growth, people simply improve their present homes and
neighborhoods. The older the squatter settlement, the better and more sub-
stantial it is. It is not uncommon to find entire neighborhoods of two-storied
concrete houses that have evolved during a decade or two from one-room
cardboard shacks. With the gradual addition of paved streets, street lights, and
plantings, many early squatter settlements are now indistinguishable from
neighborhoods with less checkered histories. New squatter settlements, mean-
while, are being added to peripheries so that the poorest quality housing con-
tinues to be located on the edge of the city.
11 Plan de Estructura para Bogota: Informe Tecnico Sobre el Estudio de Desarrollo Urbano de
Bogota, FASE II (Bogota: Publicaci6n de Planeaci6n, Distrital Departmento Administrativo de Pla-
neaci6n Distrital, Junio, 1974).

THE MODEL
The traditional city of Latin America is undergoing change. We propose a
model that combines traditional elements of the urban structure and the mod-
ernizing processes that are altering the cities. Combining elements from the
standard models commonly used to describe Anglo-American cities and mod-
ifications to illustrate similarities as well as differences between cities in the
two Americas, we have created a model that is simple enough to be used as
a pedagogical paradigm, yet is complex enough to offer insights to the dynam-
ics of Latin American urbanization. The postulated model is characterized by
one dominant elite residential sector and a commercial spine as well as a series
of concentric zones in which residential quality decreases with distance from
the city center (Fig. 4).
In support of our paradigm, we offer two contrasting empirical examples.
Bogota, Colombia, is a classic Latin American capital, relatively isolated from
external influences; Tijuana, Mexico, is a rapidly growing, hybridized border
city. We argue that any common structural characteristics of these two cities
will likely be widespread throughout Latin America. Both cities have respond-
ed in similar ways, albeit at different scales, to the pressures of hyperurban-
ization.
Bogota, the primate city of Colombia, has a population of almost four mil-
lion. As the national capital, Bogota is the center of social and economic power
in the country. Bogota remained a classic example of the Latin American grid-
pattern city from its early formation until the 1930s. Since then the city has
undergone enormous change. Tijuana, because of its small core and recent
rapid growth, provides an easily observable laboratory in which to study the
processes that are shaping Latin American cities. With a current population of
more than 800,000 and annual growth rates of more than 8 percent, Tijuana
could become the second largest city in Mexico before the end of the 1980s.12
Though not a typical Latin American city, Tijuana may be a prototype of the
future.
Although the model is based on a review of the literature on a wide variety
of Latin American cities and on our personal observation in more than one
hundred cities throughout the region, the model was tested in detail for only
Bogota and Tijuana. Using census-tract data, aerial photographs, land use
maps, personal interviews, and field observations, we made detailed maps of
the urban structure for each city. Interviews with realtors, developers, and
government-housing officers provided insights to the processes of urban
growth and change. Although the cities are obviously different in many re-
spects, there are common themes. We discuss the components of the model in
this sequence: a viable central business district, a spine/sector, and a series of
rings of decreasing residential quality.
CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT
Latin American cities are characterized by vibrant, highly dynamic, but

increasingly specialized central business districts. In contrast to most Anglo-
12
Estimates of population and annual growth rate for Tijuana were provided by the Direcci6n de
Obras Publicas, Estado de Baja California Norte, Mexicali, June 1980.

A GENERALIZEDMODELOF LATIN AMERICANCITYSTRUCTURE
X.
XComzmerical/Industrial
Elite Residential Sector
.....Zone of Maturity
EiZone of In Situ Accretion
g Zone of Peripheral Squatter Settlements
CBD Central Business District
PIG. 4

American cities, CBDs in Latin America remain the prime employment, com-
mercial, and entertainment nodes for the city. The relative dominance of the
CBD can be explained in part by a reliance on public transit that continues to
focus in the CBD and in part by the existence of a large and relatively affluent
population that still resides in the inner rings of the city.
As in Anglo America, this dynamism with its rapid rate of change in scale
and function threatens small and old buildings in the downtown core. Space
in Latin American cities, however, is too much in demand to be unused or
underutilized, as is the case in many overbuilt Anglo-American cities. Al-
though Latin American cities do have areas that are similar to the Anglo-
American zones of discard, these areas have much greater economic viability
than the Anglo-American counterparts and continue to serve as market dis-
tricts, low-income shopping zones, and temporary residences for new in-mi-
grants or transients. Most large Latin American cities have a zone of transition,
but it is much less important and less visible than in Anglo-American urban
centers.
That the CBD in Bogota veritably bristles with high-rise corporate head-
quarters, hotels, and condominiums, or that the CBD in Tijuana features som-
brero-shaped restaurants and bull-facaded curio shops has relatively little
bearing on the shape and the structure of the two cities. Therefore, the char-
acteristics of the CBD have only a minor role in the model that we offer.
SPINE AND ELITE RESIDENTIAL SECTOR
Other than the CBD, the dominant element of Latin American urban struc-
ture is a commercial spine surrounded by an elite residential sector, which we
shall refer to as the spine/sector. The spine/sector is present in all Latin Amer-
ican cities, and the process of its formation differs substantially from the pro-
cesses shaping the rest of the city. The spine is essentially an extension of the
CBD, while the sector contains the most important urban amenities, including
almost all of the professionally built upper-class and upper-middle-class hous-
ing stock. The spine/sector encompasses nearly all the high-threshold activities
that are outside the CBD: the major tree-lined boulevards, the golf courses, the
major parks, museums, and zoos, the best theaters, restaurants, office build-
ings, and the wealthiest suburbs (Fig. 5). Thus the spine/sector provides a
"good address" from the downtown to the edge of the city and enjoys the best
services available in the urban area. Zoning and other land use controls are
strict in the spine/sector.
Socioeconomic elites occupy an inordinate amount of space in relation to
their numbers in most urban contexts. In Latin America this relationship is
further exaggerated. An extremely limited percentage of the total population
of a city, usually less than 5 percent, dominates a disproportionately large area,
sometimes as much as one-quarter or one-third of the total urban space. The
elite residential sector forms a wedge in the Hoytian sense. In the spine/sector
the market for residential and commercial space operates much as it does in
Anglo-American cities. For example, when the wealthy move outward to new,
modern houses with more open space, the upper-middle class enters filtered-
down housing in the formerly fashionable neighborhoods close to the center
of the city. Increasingly apartments and houses for the upper-middle class are

X~
FIG. 5-A classic spine: Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City.
built on the fringes of the elite residential sector to satisfy market demands and
to act as a buffer against the not-far-distant squatter settlements.
The width and thus the areal extent of the elite residential sector typically
vary with the percentage of the population that can afford to participate in
the Anglo-American-style housing market. The spine/sector provides suburban
amenities without sacrificing the Latin American requirements of centrality
and access. Because the life of the city ebbs and flows along the spine and
because travel through the sector is easy, desired activity is never far away.
The spine/sector constitutes a morphological response to the limited ability
to extend urban services, to the control of mortgage money by conservative
loan policies and high interest rates, to the relatively recent acquisition of
suburban values by elites, and to the inability of Latin American cities to
accommodate massive growth. In the spine/sector the forces that mold and
shape the Latin American metropolis are largely the same as the ones operating
in Anglo-American cities, while the urban milieu elsewhere in Latin America
reflects traditional characteristics.
The spine/sector is an important and, in some cases, a dominant morpho-
logical feature of the Latin American city but contains only a small percentage
of the total metropolitan population. Outside the spine/sector, the structure of
a Latin American city consists of a series of concentric zones with socioeco-
nomic characteristics roughly opposite to ones postulated for Anglo-American
cities in the Burgess model. The Latin American city is typified by three dis-
tinctive residential zones or rings: a zone of maturity, a zone of in situ accretion,
and a zone of peripheral squatter settlements. The relative size of the three
zones is a function of the rate of in-migration compared with the pace of
individual on-site improvements of housing and the ability of a city to expand

urban services. For example, cities that experience relatively slow population
growth will appear to have a large zone of maturity and thus a less chaotic,
more organized cityscape than cities with extremely rapid in-migration that
are apt to have large zones of peripheral squatter settlements which lend an air
of disorganization and chaos to the landscape. The zone of in situ accretion
represents the area where the process of assimilation between the inner and
outer zones is occurring most dramatically. Although these zones exist in gen-
eralized form, sector areas with high disamenity, for example, flood-prone river
channels, steep slopes, or canyons, often remain unimproved even when they
are centrally located. All three zones are characterized by mixed land uses, but
aside from small-scale "corner stores" and services there is little important
commercial activity.
ZONE OF MATURITY
An inner-city location carries a positive connotation in the Latin American

context. Outside the spine/sector, the zone of maturity is the area of "better
residences" in the city. In many old cities the zone includes large numbers of
traditional, filtered-down houses, but the zone is typically an area of gradually
improved, significantly upgraded, self-built housing. This zone may or may
not include professionally constructed dwellings financed by bank mortgages,
but it almost always contains solid, large, brick or concrete houses. These have
been gradually improved and enlarged by residents unable to participate in
the housing market of the elite residential sector. This upward transformation
is a morphological response to the extremely limited geographical mobility in
urban space, despite increased socioeconomic mobility achieved by residents
of the zone. Because the on-site neighborhood improvements have occurred
over time, dwelling density is approximately the same as in zones closer to the
periphery, but the population is somewhat older, there are fewer children, and
population density may be lower than in the peripheral areas. The zone is fully
serviced with paved streets, lighting, public transportation, schools, and sew-
erage. Sometimes displaying evidence of age, the zone of maturity is gradually
improving, and its population is relatively stable.
ZONE OF IN SITU ACCRETION
The zone of in situ accretion in most Latin American cities has modest
residential quality but shows signs of transition to a zone of maturity. The
accretion zone is characterized by widely varied type, size, and quality of
housing. Some of it is "completed" and similar to that found in the zone of
maturity, but a hovel may be located on a block with good housing. The zone
is in a constant state of on-going construction. Piles of bricks and cement blocks
seem to be everywhere. Many houses have unfinished rooms or second stories,
and a wild variety of fences abounds.13 Often the main thoroughfares only are
paved, but small shops and schools are present. Not every neighborhood has
electricity, but some households have television sets in eager anticipation of
the installation of power lines. Truck deliveries of water and butane gas are
13 Ernst Griffin and Larry

Ford, Tijuana: Landscape of a Culture Hybrid, Geographical Review, Vol.
66, 1976, pp. 435-447.

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still vital in many instances. The disheveled appearance of the zone and the
colors sometimes used to brighten the exteriors of houses, as soon as money
for paint is available, create a landscape that is chaotic by Anglo-American
standards. Improvement, nonetheless, is evidenced by the expansion of public
services and by the overall betterment of housing quality and landscaping.
Because this zone is at least partially serviced and some buildable sites are still
available, large government-sponsored building projects are likely to be located
there. The landscape reflects, to a degree, the uneven assimilation of the res-
idents in the economic and social structure of the city. The rate of improvement
in the accretion zone is based on the ability of a city to provide services and
continued economic mobility to the residents.
ZONE OF PERIPHERAL SQUATTER SETTLEMENTS
A description of life on the urban fringe in Latin America does not conjure
the idyllic images of Anglo America. The zone of peripheral squatter settle-
ments has the impoverished recent in-migrants to the city and is the worst
section of the city in terms of housing quality and public services. Because in-
migration exceeds housing construction by a wide margin, many persons scav-
enge materials and make such housing as they can. The landscape is denuded
of all vegetation that was used as building materials or fuel. The zone often
has the appearance of a refugee camp. The houses are small and extremely
fragile, and the zone is almost totally without urban services. Open trenches
carry waste down the rutted, unpaved streets, and buckets of water are toted
long distances from communal taps. Sometimes electricity is "pirated" by at-
taching wires to a utility pole in or close to the neighborhood, but the service
is usually absent. The journey to work, when work is available, often involves
long walks to a bus line through eroded, unlighted streets. "Urban villages"
composed largely of in-migrants from a particular rural area frequently emerge.
The quality of life in the zone is marginal. Despite what to the outsider appears
to be wretched conditions, the residents perceive that neighborhood improve-
ment is possible and that they will eventually transform their communities.
After all, even parts of the zone of maturity and, more recently, the zone of in
situ accretion once possessed the characteristics now found in the peripheral
zone. The vast literature on squatter settlements confirms that the process of
gradual upgrading of neighborhoods has occurred in cities throughout Latin
America. 14
EMPIRICAL EXAMPLES
To the casual observer Bogota seems to be a strongly sectoral city (Fig. 6).
This perception is accentuated by the major north-south arterials that parallel
the mountainous east flank of the city. Indeed, Peter Amato used Bogota as an
empirical example for the application of Homer Hoyt's sector model to elite
housing. 15 The spine began to develop in the early 1900s with the establishment
of trolley lines to the then-outlying suburb of Champinero. Together with the
14See footnote 10 above, especially Riofrio, Ashton, and Dietz.

15Peter Amato, Population Densities, Land Values, and Socioeconomic Class in Bogota, Land
Economics, Vol. 45, 1969, pp. 66-73.

elite residential sector, which also utilized the relatively well developed trans-
portation system, the spine moved progressively northward from the area
around the Parque Nacional in the early 1920s to El Chico and beyond by the
1970s.
The spine is characterized by an almost continuous series of stores, light
industries, specialty shops, restaurants, and service establishments that cater
to the upper and middle classes. Additionally numerous professional office
buildings, private schools, social clubs, and embassies are interspersed among
the myriad commercial activities of the spine. Between the primary thorough-
fares are located the residential neighborhoods for middle-income, upper-mid-
dle-income, and upper-income groups. A major shopping node has developed
in the Champinero section of the spine, while Unicentro, the first major inte-
grated regional shopping center in Bogota, is located at the northern end. The
spine, integrated with the elite residential sector, epitomizes the spine/sector
concept of the model proposed in this article.
In recent decades the expansion of the elite residential sector has functioned
in an Anglo-American fashion with elites seeking new and "better" housing
along the leading edge of the sector. Until the late 1920s Colombia had few
trained architects, and housing construction was done by artisan-master build-
ers who reproduced the traditional closed courtyard houses prized by the elites.
Despite the fact that the population of Bogota' increased from approximately
50,000 in 1870 to almost a quarter million by 1930, the areal growth of the city
was limited. Increased density in the old grid core was marked, exaggerating
the mixed nature of land use that had characterized the urban environment
until that time. A series of somewhat unrelated events spurred exceptionally
rapid changes in the relocation of the upper-class residential area during the
1930s. Massive rural-urban migration began with the onset of "La Violencia,"
a long and bloody period of political upheaval in the countryside. By the end
of the 1930s the population of Bogota swelled to 325,000.16 Many migrants
settled in makeshift communities on the southern edge of the old city along
the major entry routes; other migrants crowded in existing structures of the
CBD.
Another important event that occurred during the 1930s was the introduc-
tion of new architectural styles by the first generation of foreign-trained Co-
lombian architects. Freestanding house styles from Spain and Great Britain
included chimneyed houses with exterior gardens (Fig. 7). These styles became
fashionable, and rich Bogotefios, who for more than a century clung tenaciously
to traditional house styles and to traditional urban locations, built ostentatious
two-storied houses on large lots immediately to the north of the old core city.
Many of these pleasant areas had been used as fincas or country estates by the
elites of the city and had been protected from uncontrolled settlement. Those
changes in socially accepted housing styles and urban locations represented a
revolutionary break with the past, and the rate of change accelerated rapidly
from then until the present. By the end of the 1930s full-fledged abandonment
of the old inner-city residential areas by elites was under way as the spread of
pseudo Tudor, Georgian, and French Provincial houses continued northward.
16
German Guzman Campos, La Violencia en Colombia: Estudio de un Proceso Social (Bogota:
Ediciones Progresso, 1968).

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0 fk
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01.S
FIG. 7 Elite residential sector in Bogoti.
As new housing styles, including the "California Ranch" style introduced

in the 1960s, gained favor, a filtering-down process began for persons who
were able to leave the fashionable houses built in the 1930s and 1940s for new-
styled houses farther north. These formerly elite neighborhoods abandoned by
the rich were quickly absorbed by the expanding upper-middle and emerging
middle classes that trailed behind the progressive northward march of the elite
sector. The spine is intimately tied to the expansion of the elite-housing sector
because the purchasing power of the upper and upper-middle classes repre-
sents a significant percentage of total disposable income in the Bogota' region.
Commercial expansion was facilitated by rapid provision of public services to
the elite sector.
The zone of maturity in Bogot'a surrounds the central core of the city. In the
areas immediately adjacent to the CBD, traditional one-storied or two-storied
colonial-styled houses predominate (Fig. 8). Much of this part of the zone has
been in the filtering-down process for several decades and is now occupied
primarily by persons of modest means. The narrow streets and white-washed
buildings, most with wooden balconies or window boxes and tiled roofs, are
remnants of an older Bogota'. To the south and west in the zone, housing styles
change dramatically. Monotonous rows of nondescript, square, two-storied brick
and concrete buildings account for much of the housing stock. Small-scale in-
dustries, initially developed in the 1930s, are intermixed with single-family
residences, apartments, small stores, and shops. A full range -of public and
commercial services is available to the neighborhoods in the zone. Unbuilt
open space is minimal, and an equilibrium has been reached in which little
change can occur either collectively or individually without a massive alteration
of neighborhood character.

414 THE GEOGRAPHICAL
REVIEW
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FIG.9 Zone of in situ accretionin Bogota.

FIG. 10-Zone of peripheral squatter settlement in Bogotai.
The outer fringes of the zone of maturity merge almost imperceptibly with
the inner margins of the zone of in situ accretion, but the core characteristics
of the zones are distinctive. At the core of the zone of in situ accretion in Bogota'
are neighborhoods in the process of transition from substandard conditions to
stability. Numerous houses are being upgraded, and residents use brick and
concrete materials to create the same types of nondescript houses found in the
zone of maturity. The process, however, is incomplete. At first glance it is
difficult to determine whether the accretion zone is being built or destroyed:
mounds of building materials abound, many second floors are half-completed,
and some streets are still unpaved (Fig. 9). But the upgrading of the zone since
its initial establishment is marked. Many neighborhoods are now solid work-
ing-class districts that began as humble squatter settlements and evolved over
the years through the collective improvements of individuals who were expe-
riencing socioeconomic mobility but were frozen geographically in the housing
market of the city. Even government-housing projects like Cuidad Kennedy

14 4 3 !
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FIG 12 Shops along the spine in Tijuana.
stress self-help programs ifl which potential residents receive building mate-
rials and other aid to construct their own dwellings reciprocally with their
neighbors.
The zone of peripheral squatter settlements rings Bogota', but the zone is
particularly large in the southern part of the city, astride the major corridors
of migration from the south and the east. The steep-sloped terrain in this area
is a disamenity to development and makes the installation of public services
prohibitively expensive (Fig. 10). Other parts of the zone such as sites adjacent
to dumps and marshy areas subject to minor flooding also have disamenity
characteristics, but segments of the zone are simply far from the centers of
urban activity. Housing quality is marginal at best. Initially wood or brick
shacks are erected and then replaced by tiny, windowless, doorless, brick or
concrete-block structures when income permits. The unpaved streets are fre-
quently rutted by open channels that sometimes serve as sewers. Electricity,
potable water, and schools are absent. Yet the optimism of residents in the
zone is buoyed by their perception that improvements can and will be made.
Far from being in a static pattern, all but the neighborhoods of greatest dis-
amenity will probably undergo the transition to adequate conditions in both
housing quality and provision of public services. New migrant groups continue
to establish squatter communities along the outer margins of the zone and thus
perpetuate the pattern of gradual outward sprawl for the metropolis.
Tijuana also has a strong sectoral appearance due in part to the fact that the
city is located astride a major river channel (Fig. 11). The explosive growth of
the city began in the 1940s when massive in-migration from central Mexico
was encouraged by things such as the Bracero Program, the Border Industrial-

..~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
. 9 .~~~~~~~
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FIG. 13-Elite residential sector in Tijuana.
ization Program, and the rise of the tourist industry. 17 The relatively compact
CBD of Tijuana is functionally bifurcated into a tourist section and a Mexican
business zone. Numerous tourist-oriented curio shops and bars dominate
Avenida Revolucio6n, while government offices, professional services, and com-
mercial activities intended for residents of the city are located on thoroughfares
paralleling the Avenida. The "downtown" has extended southward with the
residential growth of the city and away from the cantina-filled zone of discard
along the immediate border.
The southward extension of the commercial core of Tijuana led in recent
years to the development of a classic spine. The spine extends southeastward
for approximately five miles, although it is seldom more than a block wide on
either side of Agua Caliente-Diaz Ordaz Boulevard, the main arterial route in
the spine. Almost everything of major importance to the city of Tijuana is
located in the spine. In addition to an almost continuous string of offices, small
shopping centers, hotels, restaurants, used car lots, and industrial parks, there
are a bullring, a racing track for dogs and horses, and a country club (Fig. 12).
Establishments in the spine range from "Big Boy" restaurants to assembly
plants specializing in electronics, clothing, and other kinds of labor-intensive
industries that are encouraged by the Border Industrialization Program. During
the last decade the spine grew dramatically in importance as major elite resi-
dential increment for the city approximately paralleled the spine extension.
In an effort to afleviate periodic flooding and to moderize the overall ap-
"7 C. Daniel Dillman, Recent Developments in Mexico's Border Program, Professional Geographer,
Vol. 22, 1970, pp. 243-247.

FIG. 14-Zone of maturity in Tijuana.
pearance of Tijuana, government-planning agencies recently channelized the

Tijuana River and are redeveloping the former floodplain with maj'orgovern-
mental offices, public housing projects, and shopping centers. Interestingly the
river parallels the spine and greatly accentuates its character.
The elite residential sector forms a southeast-trending wedge on the west
side of Agua Caliente-Diaz Ordaz Boulevard adjacent to the spine (Fig. 13).
Initially the elite of Tijuanaoccupied houses immediately adjacent to the CBD,
especially along its southern edge away from the border, but by the late 1930s
upper-class houses were built in Cacho, along the emerging spine south of the
CBD. During the early 1950s, the luxury development of Chapultepec was es-
tablished farthersouth along the spine in juxtaposition to the country club, the
golf course, and the race track. Chapultepec soon attractedmost of the wealthy
residents in the city and remains the exclusive neighborhood in Tijuana. Be-
cause of the location along the spine and because of the abundance of well-
maintained paved streets, Chapultepec has excellent access to the economic
and recreationallife of the city. Although the section is quintessentially sub-
urban, it is equivalent to living "downtown" in the preindustrial city.
During the last decade other substantial residential communities were erect-
ed on the hillsides around Chapultepec to formnan extended wedge of upper-
class housing. Most housing for the upper-middle and middle classes is located
as close as possible to these elite communities. When Cacho lost status in the
1950s, the area quickly filtered down to upper-middle-class professionals. As
the middle class of Tijuana expanded in the 1960s and the 1970s, so too did the
professionally built housing stock. Nearly all of the professionally built housing
and apartment complexes for these groups have been constructed to form a
sector accentuating the importance of the spine.

FIG. 15-Zone of in situ accretion in Tijuana.
In Tijuana, even the zone of maturity is still in the process of upward

transition. The city is young. The rate of migration of low-income families
proceeds far more rapidly than on-site housing improvement to create condi-
tions that produce the impression of deteriorated housing quality as the city
grows. Neighborhoods immediately adjacent to the downtown core and parts
of some old communities across the river channel, like Colonia Libertad,
emerged from the last three decades as substantial lower-middle class neigh-
borhoods with a full range of public services and commercial activities (Fig.
14). Unlike Bogota', most buildings in Tijuana are new freestanding structures.
A huge mix of housing styles and a bizarre variety of materials are used-
sometimes on one house. Compared with older, less hybridized cities, Tijuana
has little consensus on appropriate architectural style, a situation that creates
a relatively chaotic cityscape, even in the zone of maturity. Although an in-
creasing number of apartment buildings is being constructed, the majority of
housing is single-family residences so that there is little gradation of density
from one part of the zone to another.
To the uninitiated observer, most housing in Tijuana appears to be mar-
ginal, at best. Chaos abounds. This impression reflects the disproportionately
large size of the zone of in situ accretion in comparison with the sizes of other
zones in the city. Large areas are dominated by small, multicolored, single-
family dwellings of almost every conceivable shape and material. Unlike the
traditional Latin American or Anglo-American cityscape, there is no percep-
tible organization with regard to features such as age and style of houses,
changing preferences for building materials and for landscaping, or status of
maintenance (Fig. 15). Despite the disorganized look of neighborhoods in this
zone, much on-site improvement is occurring. Many dwellings have accreted

" '''L~~~~~~~~1
FIG. 16-Zone of peripheral squatter settlement in Tijuana.
to substantial houses, and many more are in the process of enlargement or

reconstruction from wood to brick and cement block. Because of the lack of a
traditional housing stock, the buildings in the accretion zone of Tijuana rarely
blend architecturally to present the visual uniformity that occurs in other cities.
Despite a lack of paved streets throughout much of the zone, other services-
public transportation, schools, electricity, water, and sewerage-are widely
available and are expanding.
The growth of Tijuana during the last decade has averaged approximately
8 percent annually, and the poor are a disproportionately large percentage of
total migrants. Consequently the zone of peripheral squatter settlements is big
and constantly growing. Much of the urban fringe is dominated by small,
extremely humble abodes built of cardboard, wood, or scrap metal (Fig. 16).
A lack of readily accessible native building materials makes scavenging almost
an art form in Tijuana. Individuals become specialists, collecting a single ma-
terial like old signs or bicycle rims to use in house construction. Many struc-
tures are little more than shacks and lack even basic services. Stairs and
retaining walls are made from used tires; discarded oil drums serve as water-
storage tanks, and outhouses take the place of sewer systems. Packs of dogs
and flocks of chickens scurry among the numerous small children playing in
the unpaved streets and in the mounds of trash on empty lots. Clouds of dust
fill the air.
Tijuana has a number of high disamenity areas with little possibility of
improvement. Some parts of the river channel remain susceptible to flooding,
and the marine terraces surrounding the river floodplain are highly dissected,
many with steeply incised canyons that provide implausible building sites and
have enormous costs associated with service provision. As a result, these areas

retain substandard characteristics for long periods of time, even when the sites
are interspersed among residential sections that have been substantially trans-
formed. New migrants are the least able to compete in the urban-housing
market and, as a rule, locate on the margins of the built-up area. The practice
continuously pushes the city outward and expands the size of the zone of
peripheral squatter settlements.
CONCLUSION
Latin American urban structure has been shaped by forces that have pro-
duced a similar morphology among the cities in the region. We offer a gen-
eralized model to describe the form of Latin American cities and to explain
concurrently the salient processes responsible for the spatial structure. Some
urbanists assert that Latin American cities are evolving structurally parallel to
Anglo-American counterparts, but we argue that urban centers in Latin Amer-
ica are developing in a culturally specific set of economic and social conditions,
strongly modified by perceptions of urban space, that are distinctive from those
in Anglo America.
The main components of this model are an economically dynamic central
business district, a primary commercial spine associated with an elite residen-
tial sector, and three concentric zones of decreasing residential quality-the
zone of maturity, the zone of in situ accretion, and the zone of peripheral
squatter settlements. The relative size of each zone is a function of the age of
the city and of the rate of population growth in relation to the economic capacity
of the city to absorb effectively additional residents and to extend public ser-
vices. We believe that this model is applicable to all dynamic Latin American
cities and that traditional urban areas in the region are evolving toward a
similar structure, albeit more slowly.


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American Geographical Society

A Model of Latin American City Structure

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A PARADOX exists in thinking about the internal structure of cities. On the

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emergence of a large middle class, and widespread ownership of automobiles.

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FIG. 1-Traditional town plaza of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Discussions of Anglo-American "downtowns" or CBDs are replete with

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FIG. 2-Changing downtown of Guatemala City.

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FIG. 3-CBD expansion in Mexico City.

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enced wide-ranging architectural variations from federal-styled row houses to

The most common way of making housing available to low-income in-mi-

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Latin American cities are characterized by vibrant, highly dynamic, but

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A GENERALIZEDMODELOF LATIN AMERICANCITYSTRUCTURE

Elite Residential Sector

EiZone of In Situ Accretion

g Zone of Peripheral Squatter Settlements

CBD Central Business District

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SPINE AND ELITE RESIDENTIAL SECTOR

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FIG. 5-A classic spine: Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City.

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An inner-city location carries a positive connotation in the Latin American

ZONE OF IN SITU ACCRETION

13 Ernst Griffin and Larry

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: '. .: .: .:-. :.:. .

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ZONE OF PERIPHERAL SQUATTER SETTLEMENTS

14See footnote 10 above, especially Riofrio, Ashton, and Dietz.

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FIG. 7 Elite residential sector in Bogoti.

As new housing styles, including the "California Ranch" style introduced

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. 11 l 1 W iPe. 1i 1__ t | S &_ . .iE ; t 1|

FIG.Zone of maturityin Bogota.

FIG.9 Zone of in situ accretionin Bogota.

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FIG. 10-Zone of peripheral squatter settlement in Bogotai.

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FIG 12 Shops along the spine in Tijuana.

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FIG. 13-Elite residential sector in Tijuana.

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FIG. 14-Zone of maturity in Tijuana.

pearance of Tijuana, government-planning agencies recently channelized the