From Middle Class to Petit Bourgeoisie: Cold War Politics and Classed Radicalization in Bogotá, 1958–1972

Abstract

As part of a transnational politicization of everyday life during the 1960s in Colombia, many professionals, white-collar employees, and small business owners experienced a radical political change in their lives. Although intimately connected with developmental programs such as the Alliance for Progress, they began to question their political and social identifications as middle class in an effort to redefine what they thought their role should be in a changing society. Some of these radicalized members of the middle classes recall the second half of the 1960s as the moment when they became aware of who they really were, the moment when they drastically changed what they thought, felt, and dreamt.