Welfare as Warfare: The Role of Modern Architecture during the Colombian Dictatorship

Abstract

This study draws on the findings of a cultural analysis of the state architecture built in the mid-twentieth century in Colombia and promoted by the former dictatorship of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. It questions the rationale underlying the infrastructure developed in Bogotá by situating it within the international politics of Latin America during the Cold War. I find that the massive transformation of the built environment during the Rojas regime remains a shadowy and elusive subject, but this does not mean that the regime did not have an agenda for the built environment. Architectural objects were material embodiments of the paradigms of the Modern Movement under the discourse of the welfare state, yet they conveyed the purpose of warfare. Most of these buildings have been largely neglected by canonical studies and communities, despite that they shaped the urban development of the country, and most remain in regular use.

Keywords:

• Colombia
• modern architecture
• agency
• power
• dictatorship
• welfare, Latin America

Acknowledgment

This research was conducted at The Bartlett-University College, London, UK. I want to acknowledge my generous and extended conversations with Germán Téllez-Castañeda, which have enriched this research. I would also like to express my gratitude to all of the people who have contributed to sharpening the argument raised in this study.

Notes

1. David Bushnell, The Making of Modern Colombia: A Nation in Spite of Itself, History/Latin American Studies (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993).

2. Germán Téllez Castañeda, Crítica & Imagen, ([Bogotá]: Escala, 1977); Alberto Saldarriaga, Arquitectura y Cultura En Colombia (Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 1986); Silvia Arango, Historia de La Arquitectura En Colombia, 1 (Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 1989).

3. Walter M. Daniels, Latin America in the Cold War, The Reference Shelf, 24, no 6 (New York: Wilson, 1952).

4. Adolf A. Berle Jr., The Cold War in Latin America (Storrs: University of Connecticut, 1961).

5. Howard J. Wiarda and Harvey F. Kline, Latin American Politics and Development, (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2011).

6. Roger Caillois and John Shepley, “Mimicry and Legendary Psychasthenia,” October 31 (1984): 16–32.

7. Mutual Security Agency, “1952–1954 General Economic and Political Report. Foreign Assistance Policies under the Mutual Security Program” (US Department of State, 1983), NARA.

8. US Secretary of State, “United States Treaties and Other International Agreements” (Washington, D.C.: US Government Printing Office, 1952).

9. USOM, “Country Report May 1953” (NARA, 1961).

10. Evelyne Huber and Frank Safford, Agrarian Structure and Political Power: Landlord and Peasant in the Making of Latin America (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995).

11. US Congress. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, “Mutual Security Act of 1951: Hearings before the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Armed Services” (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1951).

12. Walter Gropius, “Compositions by Walter Gropius Topics for the Discussion on Architectural Education. VI CIAM” (Bergamo, Italy, 1949), Houghton Library, Walter Gropius papers I. Later on, Sert lead the discussion in CIAM 9, Aix-en-Provence.

13. Konrad F. Wittmann and Pratt Institute Art School, Industrial Camouflage Manual (New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1942).

14. Robert P. Breckenridge, Modern Camouflage: The New Science of Protective Concealment (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1942).

15. Robert Alexander Gonzalez, Designing Pan-America: U.S. Architectural Visions for the Western Hemisphere, 1st ed. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011).

16. Monserrat Guibernau, Charles Jones, and Nicola Miller (Eds.), “Special Issue: Nationalism in Latin America,” Nations and Nationalism 12, 2 (2006): 191–388.

17. Leslie Bethell, and Ian Roxborough, Latin America between the Second World War and the Cold War, 1944–48. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1997). Furthermore, Carina Solmirano, “Colombia,” in Encyclopedia of the Cold War: A Political, Social, and Military History, ed. Spencer Tucker, 5 vols. (Santa Barbara, London: ABC-CLIO; Eurospan, 2007).

18. Patricia Schnitter, “José Luis Sert y Colombia: De La Carta de Atenas a Una Carta Del Hábitat” (PhD diss., Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 2002).

19. Frank Safford and Marco Palacios, Colombia: Fragmented Land, Divided Society (New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).

20. Safford and Palacios, Colombia: Fragmented Land, Divided Society.

21. Leopoldo Villar, “El ‘Golpe de Opinión’ Que Decepcionó a Colombia,” El Tiempo, June 12, 2020.

22. USOM, “Country Report October 1953.”

23. Archivo Presidencia, “Origen y Fundamentos del Nuevo Estado Colombiano: Declaraciones de Su Excelencia el Teniente General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, Presidente de La República y Del Doctor Lucio Pabón Núñez, Ministro de Gobierno” (Bogotá, Colombia: Imprenta Nacional, 1953).

24. Archivo Presidencia, “Mensajes y Discursos 1956” (Bogotá: Presidencia, 1956).

25. Archivo Presidencia, “Seis Meses de Gobierno.”

26. Archivo Presidencia, “Colombia En Marcha: 13 Junio 1953–1954” (Bogotá: Imprenta Fuerzas Armadas, 1954).

27. Archivo Presidencia, “Un País Que Trabaja” (Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1954).

28. Archivo Presidencia, “La Política Social Del Nuevo Estado Colombiano” (Bogotá: [DIPE], 1953).

29. Ibid.

30. Ministerio de Obras Públicas, “Memorias Del Ministerio de Obras Públicas 1951–1957” (Bogotá: DIPE, 1957).

31. Carlos Niño Murcia, Arquitectura y Estado: Contexto y Significado de Las Construcciones Del Ministerio de Obras Públicas Colombia 1905–1960 (Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 1991).

32. Jacques Aprile Gniset, La Ciudad Colombiana, vol. 2, Colección Textos Universitarios (Bogotá: Biblioteca Banco Popular, 1991).

33. Rubén Piedrahita, Una Política En Obras Públicas (Bogotá: MOP, 1955).

34. Germán Téllez Castañeda, “Advances on the Research,” Email, February 2013.

35. Julio D. Dávila, Planificación y Política En Bogotá: La Vida de Jorge Gaitán Cortés (Bogotá: Instituto Distrital de Cultura y Turismo, 2000).

36. María Cecilia O’Byrne et al., LC BOG: Le Corbusier en Bogotá, 1947–1951, 2 vols. (Bogotá: Universidad de Los Andes, 2010).

37. Le Corbusier, “Oeuvre complète, 1946–1952”, (Zurich: Girsberger, 1953)

38. Doris Tarchópulos, “Las Huellas Del Plan Para Bogotá de Le Corbusier, Sert y Wiener” (PhD diss., Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya., 2012).

39. Ministerio de Obras Públicas, “Memorias Del Ministerio de Obras Públicas 1951–1957.”

40. José Salazar, “Bogotá, Los Planes y Sus Proyectos 1940–2000.” Revista de Arquitectura 1 (2007): 4–15.

41. Ibid.

42. María del Pilar Sánchez-Beltrán, “Tracing the Cold War in Colombian Architecture: A Disregarded Legacy” (PhD diss., London, University College London, 2013).

43. Archivo Presidencia, “Colombia En Marcha: 13 Junio 1953–1954.”

44. Nicola Miller, Soviet Relations with Latin America, 1959–1987, Cambridge Soviet Paperbacks 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).

45. Marco Cortes, La Anexión de Los 6 Municipios Vecinos a Bogotá En 1954, Colección Punto Aparte (Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2006).

46. The site and running routes were designed by Rojas himself as civil engineer. The terminal building was designed by Cuellar Serrano Gómez and was highlighted in “Colombian Architecture,” Concrete Quarterly 39 (1958): 14–24.

47. Rubén Piedrahita, “Centro Administrativo Oficial, Piedrahita Interviewed,” El Espectador, December 1, 1954.

48. Carlos Martínez, “La Ciudadela Gubernamental,” Proa 78 (January 1954).

49. Germán Samper, Interview about architecture during Rojas government, November 2011.

50. Colombia, “Contrato Con Robert W. Cutler” Diario Oficial, 28798 (Bogotá, Colombia, July 9, 1955).

51. Nathaniel A. Owings, “Correspondence 1939–1977: Owings Personal January to June 1955 Folder,” Nathaniel Alexander Owings Papers, 1911–1983 (Archival Manuscript Material, Library of Congress, 1955).

52. Louis Skidmore, “Correspondence 1949–1962 File,” Louis Skidmore Papers 1897–1962 (Archival Manuscript Material, Library of Congress, 1952).

53. “Los Arquitectos Elevan Memorial al Presidente En Contra Del ´CAOS´” El Espectador, February 23, 1955.

54. Piedrahita, “Centro Administrativo Oficial, Piedrahita Interviewed.” El Espectador 1954.

55. “Centro Administrativo Nacional Para La República de Colombia,” Proa 110 (1957): 20–24.

56. Colombia, “Decreto 3.571 de Diciembre 10 de 1954,” Diario Oficial (Bogotá, 1954).

57. As shown in the exhibition; Jean-Louis Cohen, Architecture in Uniform: Designing and Building for World War II (Paris, London, Hazan: Yale University Press [distributor], 2011).

58. Bradley Lynn Coleman, Colombia and the United States: The Making of an Inter-American Alliance, 1939–1960, New Studies in U.S. Foreign Relations (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2008).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by COLCIENCIAS – Departamento Administrativo de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación under grant 435 managed by LASPAU, and the UCL’s Architectural Research Fund.

Notes on contributors

Maria del Pilar Sanchez-Beltran

Maria del Pilar Sanchez-Beltran is an associate professor at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNC). She holds an MSc in restoration of architectural monuments (Javeriana University) and a PhD in architecture (The Bartlett-UCL). She has been a member and leader of the research group on architectural and urban heritage since 2004. Currently, she is a professor and researcher on heritage preservation and architectural and urban history at the School of Architecture and Urbanism, UNC. Her area of specialization is twentieth-century Latin American and, in particular, Colombian modern architecture and heritage. Her research interests are the relationships between architecture and identity constructions.