A man takes a nap as a group of women gather inside a fast food restaurant in downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina, February 2015. AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd. All rights reserved.
The middle classes have always been the object of controversy in Latin America. In the 1950s, forecasts pointed to the growth of the middle class and in them saw the key to the development and democratisation of the region. In the 1990s, however, the idea became widespread that they were in freefall, following the crisis of the previous decade and a change in economic model brought on by the Washington Consensus, an opening to international markets and a shrinking role and presence of the State. But, at the beginning of this century, the perspective changed. Driven by the expansionary cycle caused by the demand from the Pacific area for raw materials, the middle class grew again, and again became a source of hope for the transformation of the region
It is arguable to what extent some Latin American countries became, after the Second World War and during the regime of industrialization through import substitution, middle-class societies. But in some countries, Argentina, Uruguay and Costa Rica for example, it is clear that this took hold as a self-perception. This may be one reason for the climate of frustration of expectations and unrest of the 1960s and 1970s, when a generation, raised in the hopes of upward social mobility and educational advancement, faced the increasing difficulties of the import substitution model and in turn, faced the authoritarian responses of many governments in the region reacting to these difficulties.
