Its name in Quiche means “paradise,” but there are those who believe Cayalá is more like the “white elephant,” a vast and expensive piece of infrastructure built east of the Guatemala capital. Whether you share one vision or another, whether you consider it an oasis or a surplus of real estate designed so that the wealthiest families can live in obscurity from the problems of the rest of the capital, one thing is clear: Cayalá is controversial. For a long time. For years, proponents and detractors of this peculiar urban colony, a city within Guatemala City, have been at odds over whether it presents itself as an urban utopia or an elitist ghetto.

One way or another, this is not easy to answer.

A young city… and controversial. Beyond the controversy surrounding Cayalá, there are two labels that objectively define it. The first is “young”. Although the history of the entrepreneurs dates back to 1913, when the land on which it stands was purchased, the truth is that the first real estate project that created what we know today as Cayalá dates back to 1983. Steps were taken and in 2003, the city’s master urban plan was prepared under the leadership of the prestigious Luxembourgish architect Léon Krier.

The second label that helps describe Cayalá is that of a “city within a city”, as described by the BBC, for example. New York TimesIt is presented as an open “refuge” to the east of Guatemala City, the country’s capital, headed by Bernardo Arévalo. Those responsible insist that Cayalá is a “real estate project of the highest level”, highlighting above all its “privileged location” and the planning “carefully” prepared by Krier.

But… what is Cayala? Opened in 2011, it has more than 1,900 homes, 33,000 square meters of offices, 260 stores, 3,600 parking spaces and a wide range of restaurants, gyms, academy, cinema, banks, medical centers and even an embassy, ​​the US embassy, ​​decided to establish its offices there. At the root of everything is one of the most powerful families in the country, the Leal family. The BBC reports that work began gradually at the beginning of the last decade and that permission has already been granted for the construction of five special neighborhoods.

A parenthesis in Guatemala CityA few months ago, Simon Romero and Jody García made history for this. New York Times They describe Cayalá as a kind of urban parenthesis, compared to the nearby streets of the Guatemalan capital: its neighborhoods are quiet and planned so that basic services are just a 10-minute walk from any resident. Its streets are not uncommon for businesses focused on the luxury market and, above all, for a very characteristic architecture, with white-painted buildings and reddish tiles that recall towns on the Mediterranean coast.

Private and open. You don’t have to live in Cayalá or work in one of its businesses to look out onto the streets. Although it’s a private housing project, there are open spaces and parks for anyone who wants to wander around. In fact, it’s not uncommon to find tourists in the area. “The private security companies recommended we build a wall, but we didn’t,” Pedro Pablo Godoy, one of the architects involved in the project, recalled to the BBC.

Why controversial? Because, despite its open streets and squares, there are those who believe that Cayala was designed to be a “ghetto for the rich,” and is a clear indicator of the inequalities that plague Guatemala despite its faster-than-average growth in the world. The Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region as a whole continues to present serious imbalances.

“The country’s poverty and inequality rates are among the highest in LAC, with a large underserved population, particularly rural and indigenous,” the World Bank warns. Its data shows that 55.1% of the population will live in poverty in 2023, with the “informal economy” representing 49% of GDP and employing around 71.1% of the employed population. It’s not the only organization to sound the alarm about the problem. Similar messages have come from Oxfam Intermon, which has spoken directly about the country’s “extreme inequality.”

“Part of the first world”“Poverty, lack of opportunity and insecurity fueled by social exclusion are pushing people to isolate themselves. Those who can afford it are building walls and creating security checkpoints. But for the top 5% of the population with the highest incomes, this is possible. “The enclave is a piece of the first world, in the heart of a city that is dangerously close to the city center,” Javier Lainfiesta said in 2020. “The fourth”.

The United Nations provides even more graphic information. It quotes the Central American Institute for Fiscal Studies (ICEFI), which assures that “the income of the richest 1 percent of Guatemalans was approximately equivalent to the income of the poorest 40 percent of Guatemalans combined in 2006 and 2014.”

Open, yes… but with nuances. The fact that those responsible have chosen open spaces does not mean that Cayalá is the result of a private housing project. And this oddity can also be seen on the streets, because, as the BBC reminds us, entering the city ultimately depends on the decision of the neighborhood’s private administration. It is not uncommon to see private security guards guarding the area, especially on weekends.

The most obvious (and media-reported) demonstration that Cayalá is not just another neighborhood in Guatemala came in October, when armed guards with their faces covered prevented a political demonstration from entering the area. Those responsible for Cayalá’s administration justified this by claiming that the security “only responded to the purpose of preventing disturbances and damage to private property.”

Breaking the original philosophy? This is not the only controversy surrounding Cayalá. Construction continues to expand, albeit with an approach that is not always in line with the original development philosophy, which set a limit on the height of buildings as one of its main guidelines. In fact, new phases of development already include towers that exceed the maximum proposed at the time.

“This new phase pushes the boundaries of the original project, but the principles of neo-urbanism remain,” Pedro Pablo Godoy told the BBC. Krier himself has abandoned the skyscraper development, admitting that the pressure for the city’s growth has become “unbearable”. Other critics have complained about the project’s environmental impact, with the area inaccessible to people travelling by public transport and even some homeowners deciding to erect fences, leading to gated communities.

Images | René Hernandez (Flickr)

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