Latin American Architectural History: Reading Between the Lines, Opening Opportunities

Abstract

EDITORIAL NOTEThis review article marks a departure for the journal — the start of an occasional series looking at areas often given inadequate attention in the pages of Architectural History. While the United Kingdom, Europe, United States and (at least some of) the countries of the former British empire are generally well covered in the journal, other parts of the world are not, and of these Latin America is perhaps the most conspicuous. This is partly for historical linguistic reasons (most research on Latin America is written in either Spanish or Portuguese) and partly because, when English-language publication is considered, the overwhelming influence of the US in this region means that the magnet of American publication is almost irresistible. This has meant that both Architectural History and the broader discipline as it exists in the UK have missed out on an important area of architectural-historical research and debate. To address this — to bring the architecture of Latin America to the attention of our readers and, conversely, to bring our journal to the attention of researchers in the region — the editorial board invited the Colombian-born architect Felipe Hernández, associate professor at Cambridge and member of the editorial board of Architectural History, to introduce the fascinating work of this continent and the wider issues it raises for the discipline.