This article explores the role that was played by women in Bogota from two antagonistic social classes in consolidating a modern Colombia. In line with modern theories of urban planning that prevailed globally during the 19th century, the moralizing discourses promulgated by women of the local bourgeoisie contributed to the colonization of the feminine imagination. These discourses also served to transform—and even erase—certain everyday spaces in the working-class neighborhoods of Bogota, spaces where the unsettling spirit and vitality of the mujeres populares (lower or working-class women) were expressed without reserve. I am interested in interpreting from a feminist perspective the works of three women writers associated with the local bourgeoisie at a time when Bogota was undergoing profound political, urban, and social transformations. My purpose is to identify the different stages in the process by which their discourses were influenced by their perception of mujeres populares. In response, the working-class women claimed a space in the city, despite attempts to control and mold their identity. Their power resided in forms of resistance to gender inequalities and social exclusion to which they were—and still are—subjected.
