A symptom called Managua

Rodgers, D. (2008) A symptom called Managua. New Left Review, 49, pp. 103-120.

Abstract

In a famous essay entitled ‘An Illness Called Managua’, the Nicaraguan poet Pablo Antonio Cuadra contended that the city was paradigmatically ‘the reflection of [Nicaraguan] society, of its grace and its bitterness, of its vice and its beauty, of its history and its community’. [1] Managua’s recent development also provides a perspective on the dramatic transformations that the country has undergone over the past decades: from corrupt dictatorship through popular insurrection and social reconstruction, rapidly choked off by Cold War intervention and economic crisis, to a Miami-style restoration and a new growth model led by narco-trafficking and Free Trade Zones. A study of Managua’s changing morphology and socio-economic trajectory suggests that the city is less an ‘illness’ than a symptom of this pathologized development path.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: [Spanish translation] Un síntoma llamado Managua
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Rodgers, Professor Dennis
• Authors: Rodgers, D.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Urban Studies
• Journal Name: New Left Review
• ISSN: 0028-6060
• ISSN (Online): 2044-0480