IDEAS Insights Urban Development in Latin America | Page 4

while simultaneously striving to achieve the middle classes’ and elites’ dream of an
advanced, Europeanised city.
Figure 2: A view of Avenida de Mayo, Buenos Aires, completed in 1894
Picture: Arcón de Buenos Aires
The direction of project funding by national and municipal governments was largely
based on the values of the middles classes and the urban elites. Parker argues that
behind all the elites’ actions regarding urban policy was the quixotic task of civilising
the masses [4]. Creating boulevards and parks was an attempt to instil civilised –
namely European – values. Rosenthal furthers this line of thought into concepts of
gender and immigration, arguing that public space was shaped to inculcate traditional
values on labour and the role of women at a time when Latin American countries were
rapidly changing. City design, therefore, took on the practice of affirming the elites’
notion of Latin American identity, or, to be more precise, the aspirations and qualities
the elites themselves wish to portray.
Fear of the immorality of encroaching European migrants ran parallel to women
entering the workforce, changes which aroused concern in established Latin American
men [5]. French discusses this further, exploring prostitution in Porfirian Mexico (1876
to 1911). He argues that the middle classes and elites believed that women became
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