Latin American Squatter Settlements: A Problem and a Solution

Squatter settlements have formed around large cities throughout the world, mushrooming particularly since the end of World War II. In an excellent preview to a forthcoming book, Turner (1966) has discussed some common features among squatter settlements in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. Morse (1965a) has also referred to squatter communities and to general characteristics of Latin American urbanization in an article in this journal. Without repeating the work of Turner and Morse I would like to present a preliminary survey of Latin American squatter settlements with a model of their formation, growth, and social development that contradicts many views held by planners, politicians, newspapermen, and much of the general population, including many residents of the settlements themselves. Several writers have referred to various local names given to squatter communities: colonies proletarias in Mexico, barriadas brujas in Panama, ranchos in Venezuela, barriadas in Peru, callampas in Chile, cantegriles in Uruguay, favelas in Brazil, and, in other places, marginal areas, clandestine urbanizations, barrios of invasion, parachutists, phantom towns, etc. There are no general works on the subject, but some good descriptions of local conditions do exist. The major sources used are listed by country in note 2. Not many sources are available and, unfortunately, several appear only in mimeographed form. The reports point out that squatter populations consist mainly of low income families but all of the authors distinguish between squatter settlements and other types of lower class housing in tenements, alleys (callejones), shack yards tcoralones, jacales), and rented slum buildings. They agree, sometimes to their own surprise, that it is difficult to describe squatter settlements as slums. The differentiation of squatter settlements from inner-city slums is, in fact, one of the first breaks from the widely shared mythology about them. (See, for example, Patch, 1961; Mangin, 1965.) The purpose in noting this mythology is not merely to set up a straw man for the paper. A review of the “Chaos, Crisis, Revolution and Wither Now Latin America” literature, or, of most governmental, United Nations, or AID reports, or, of most newspapers and magazines in Latin America will show that it is the predominant position on squatter settlements.