This paper suggests a historical analysis of the category "Latin American city" as a cultural construct. The central argument is that, during the period between the post-war and the 1970's, the idea of a Latin American city became a category of social thought, as part of the intellectual and political imagination in several regions of the continent. The text tries to rebuild the main conceptual and ideological turns, their political and institutional functions within the specific regional circumstances. The article suggests that this approach to the "Latin American city" category in its precise historical configuration may be a productive path for Latin-American cultural studies.
Latin American city; Planning; urban cultural history