History of Medellin

olence spread in the rural areas of Colombia, and farmers fled to the cities. The population of Medellín grew quickly in the next few years. The Valley slopes became overpopulated with slums. In 1951 the city had 358,189 inhabitants, but 22 years later, in 1973, the population had tripled to 1,071,252.

This population explosion had several consequences for the MMP. The urban limits of the city grew to areas that were not contemplated in the MMP, so that Medellín now reached the urban areas of other cities of the Aburrá Valley, like Envigado, Bello and Itagüí; the new Medellín settlers were poor families without enough credit to buy their own homes, so several neighborhoods were built beyond the MMP; several old downtown buildings were demolished to construct tall towers, offices and avenues. The beautiful and traditional Junin Theatre along the Santa Elena was demolished to build the Coltejer Tower. The huge migration into Medellín provided workers for the expansion of textile factories, being modernized at this period, but it also created new problems for the city: higher unemployment, lack of services for poor areas, urban violence in several districts, and collapse of any transport system.

Cultural life in the last decades

During the 1950s, a new generation of writers and artists arose in Medellín, with work characterized by a more modern style. Many writers criticized local and national culture. Manuel Mejía Vallejo established a new narrative style without abandoning his regional origins. It was also the time of Nadaism, a literary movement founded by Gonzalo Arango and others. Openly anti-clerical, Nadaism criticised traditional institutions of society, and was considered philosophically nihilist. The painter Debora Arango entered the national arts culture with her