Chile Underground

A fascinating historical examination of the Santiago Metro system as a microcosm of Chilean national identity during the twentieth century The Santiago Metro, the largest urban infrastructure project in Chiles history, was designed in the 1960s in response to rapid urban growth. Despite the upheavals of Salvador Allendes democratic socialism (19701973) and Augusto Pinochets military dictatorship (19731990), the project survived and is now the largest metro system in South America. What explains its success? How did its meaning shift under democracy and dictatorship? What does its history reveal about struggles for a more just city? Drawing on Chilean and French archives, Andra B. Chastain demonstrates that Chilean-French relations and French financing were crucial to the projects survival during the Cold War. The Metros history also illuminates the contested process of implementing neoliberalism and the unexpected continuities of state planning and visions for a rational city that persisted despite free-market reforms. Most important, this story shows that the Metro came to symbolize the nation and became a critical site where planners, workers, and urban residents contested Chiles path to modernity.