The circumstances that led to Montevideo’s birth are incredibly curious for a Spanish colony. It is all about land and military control. The Portuguese had settled east, founding a city called Colônia do Sacramento. I have been there briefly, and it is a lovely place to visit. Unlike the Spanish colonial cities with their rigid grid system of urban planning, this town’s streets flow through the natural curves of the landscape. Why is Colonia relevant to Montevideo though? Well, the Spanish, feeling threatened by the Portuguese encroachment on the Viceroyalty of Río de La Plata, decided to erect a military city. Thus, Montevideo was born as a tool of control. Even now, when you see a map of Montevideo, when you pay attention to the neighborhoods where enslaved people used to live, when you think about the green areas and the parks and their intersections, when you know that Pocitos used to be the prime vacation spot for the 1950’s bourgeoisie, you start to unravel the patterns. The way the city is designed, who has access to the beach and other natural resources, is all about control.

The title of this post refers to a nickname that Uruguay has been given: “the Switzerland of America”. I have never been to Switzerland but I think I can understand why this name was given. Usually it is meant as a compliment, a synonym of progress and safety. However, like one of my friends mentioned, this Switzerland has a lot of cracks and a lot of people who fall through them too. This semester I was researching how the climate crisis is affecting low-income families living in informal settlements in Montevideo. Similarly to a lot of Latin American countries, Uruguay is incredibly unequal. This inequality and the precarity of the conditions that people live in (product of our racial capitalist system) are highlighted through the floodings of the rainy season, the summer heatwaves and the lack of trees. One of the neighborhoods I had the most contact with during my research was located nearby a stream. Apart from being a public health hazard due to its pollution, this stream often flooded the one path that connected the neighborhood with the rest of the city. As an additional bonus, the soil on this informal settlement was polluted with lead from a factory that used to operate. I oftentimes struggled to balance this reality with how sustainable and developed Montevideo is. Like how the electric car charging ports are owned and operated by a public government company. One more time, Uruguay is full of contradictions and a lot of work remains to be done.