The County of Bogotá is Not Dead: Interpreting the Role Played by Antonio Izquierdo as a Developer From the Perspective of the Municipal Administration

Abstract

The historiography that has emerged around the urban modernization of Bogota has emphasized the possibility of qualifying Bogota? as a modern city at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. An argument that supports this idea is the presence of hombres modernos whose actions promoted a spatial transformation in the city. A paradigmatic case is Antonio Izquierdo, who is considered the first developer of the capital. The objective of this article is to review the relevance of such postulates taking as the axis of the analysis the dispute between Antonio Izquierdo and the City Council for the transfer of an air zone over the San Francisco River. Methodologically, the argumentation will be based on a thorough analysis of primary and secondary sources, prioritizing the documents found in the Bogota? Archive. We conclude that it is fundamental to examine the urban development of the capital considering the role played by the local administration in the process, since understanding how the municipal power decide on urban matters is a crucial element in order to understand the historical changes the city has gone through.