The intricacies of living in contemporary Latin American cities include cases of both empowerment and restriction. In Lima, residents built their own homes and formed community organizations, while in Rio de Janeiro inhabitants of the favelas needed to be "pacified" in anticipation of international sporting events. Aspirations to "get ahead in life" abound in the region, but so do multiple limitations to realizing the dream of upward mobility. This volume captures the paradoxical histories and experiences of urban life in Latin America, offering new empirical and theoretical insights to scholars. Christien Klaufus is Assistant Professor of Human Geography at CEDLA. She is the author of Urban Residence: Housing and Social Transformations in Globalizing Ecuador (Berghahn Books 2012) and a number of scholarly articles on urbanization and cultural dynamics in Latin America. Arij Ouweneel is an Associate Professor at CEDLA and was special Professor of Historical Anthropology of the Amerindian peoples at the Universiteit Utrecht from 1999 to 2004. His latest book is Freudian Fadeout: The Failings of Psychoanalysis in Film Criticism (McFarland 2012).