Luis López de Mesa, Ricardo Olano and the Campaña de Cultura Aldeana of 1935: preaching civics and urbanism to save small towns

Abstract

This article aims to study the role that Ricardo Olano Estrada had as a promoter of urbanism and civic spirit in the Cultura aldeana Campaign, promoted by Luis López de Mesa, Minister of Education of Colombia in 1934. It explains what the campaign consisted of, and the ideas and proposals promoted by Olano Estrada in the tours that took place in different parts of the country, as well as the synthesis of his experience, which he made known at the International Federation for Housing and Planning held in 1938 in Chicago. For this printed source such as documents from the Ministry of Education were used, as well as Ricardo Olano's personal writings collected in his memoirs and other texts published by him during the 1930s. This was complemented by a review of the bibliography related to the research topic. It was possible to conclude that the Cultura aldeana Campaign was an ambitious project that sought the integral transformation of the so-called small villages or towns, and in this sense it configured an important platform for the promotion of projects that sought their transformation based on a notion of urbanism supported on the beautification of spaces through tree planting and garden care; to which was added the construction of streets and communication routes and infrastructure for urban sanitation.