García Londoño’s study of Colombia’s leading industrial center identifies the initial decades of the twentieth century as a critical period of change in both attitudes and legislation concerning working children. During those years, youth in Medellín began to be seen less as little adults of the “colonial” environment and more as the distinct children of the “modern” city. The author seeks to illustrate the impact of those changes in both the workplace and social institutions that attended to the specialized interests of minors. García Londoño is particularly interested in children who worked in the emerging factory system and in ambulatory jobs in the city.
Niños trabajadores y vida cotidiana contains three chapters and an extensive appendix of legislation on child labor. The city doubled in population between 1900 and 1930, largely due to the arrival of immigrants from surrounding areas, seeking jobs in the emerging industrial plants and in the...
