Inventing a Capital City: Advertisers, Urban Development, and Political Power

At the beginning of the 20th century, Latin American countries celebrated their centennials of independence. Many were proud of achievements like relative economic stability, a functional institutional infrastructure, and growing links with international markets. However, city governments also faced enormous challenges such as building a basic infrastructure to improve hygienic conditions, expanding the reach of the educational system, creating new public spaces, and promoting and controlling urban growth.

Capital cities played an important role in this context. They not only oriented and directed such changes but these tasks symbolically reaffirmed their fundamental role as the seat of the national government. This reaffirmation took place in many settings, including works of art, intellectual writings, and political programs. One scenario was advertising, where a particular image of urban and national life was promoted to create a vision of modernity and progress linked to consumerism and materialism. Advertisers targeted specific demographics using language and images to engage their audience and reinforce their desired identity.

Advertisers simultaneously emphasized the unique qualities of capital cities to attract tourists and promote economic development. National identity was also promoted through advertising, as advertisers highlighted the values and traditions that defined a particular country. This often involved portraying capital cities as superior to others, creating a sense of pride and loyalty among their population.

This paper seeks to show how three Andean capitals (Bogota, Quito, and Lima) experienced this symbolic construction in magazines, newspapers, and billboards. It seeks to to understand how advertising was used, what kinds of images were deployed, and what narratives supported publication. In addition, it seeks to understand how these images contributed to enhance these cities’ condition both as modern, market-oriented cities but also their role as capitals and as the pivotal point of the political communities to which they belonged.