Incremental Gains: Lima’s Tenacious Squatters’ Movement

TH R O U G H O U T T H E L A S T H A L F C E N T U RY, T E N S of millions of poor Latin Americans have illegally seized land. Such invasions a re usually followed by many years of stru g g l e , during which communities strive to build a functioning neighborhood with reliable serv i c e s . Some settlements eventually become attractive w o r k i n g-class neighborhoods; looking at them today you would never guess how they began. Ye t when many people picture urban Latin America, two classic images come to mind: throngs of b a rely employed street vendors packed into congested streets, and the ubiquitous shantytowns blanketing the periphery of major cities. These s t e reotypical images tell us little about the impact of the informal economy on the lives of lowincome urban dwellers. Famous for its entire districts that began as massive illegal land invasions, Peru ’s capital city, Lima, offers a window into the enduring legacy of i n f o rm a l i t y. With a population of almost 9 million, Lima is the re g i o n ’s fifth largest city and is often viewed as a sad caricature of all that is w rong with urban Latin America: sprawling, polluted, and poor.1 To both observers and re s i d e n t s , Lima seems incapable of overcoming these f u n d amental obstacles, as new poor migrants continually arrive, their needs multiplying and complicating the challenges facing government leaders.2 Yet a glance at the streets of downtown Lima makes clear that many poor Peruvians are unsatisfied with the status quo. Groups of lowand noincome protesters frequently fill the plazas outside government buildings. On a busy day, so many diff e rent organizations march on popular p rotest sites like Congress and the Pre s i d e n t i a l Palace that each group must essentially wait in line for its turn to demonstrate. Paul Dosh is assistant p rofessor of political science at Macalester College. He is writing a book about urban popular movements in Peru and Ecuador. by Paul Dosh The Unit ed Front of the Peop les of Peru demands that unjust debts be cancele d at the Ministr y of the Preside ncy in Lima.