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The Bicentennial of Peru's independence, to be celebrated in 2021, represents not only a great opportunity to take stock of what we have built as a nation in two hundred years of existence, but also to reflect on the challenges for the next one hundred years—that is, on the road toward the tricentennial.
Our first century as an independent nation concentrated power and population in Lima, and its celebration focused on commemorating the achievements of an aristocracy that believed in progress based on the extraction of raw materials from the national territory, always directed entirely from the capital. Within this context, one of the most important projects framed by the Centennial was the creation of the space that would house the statue of the liberator José de San Martín, on the site occupied until 1914 by the San Juan de Dios railway station. In a city of fewer than 200,000 inhabitants, Limeños received 20,000 square meters of public space with Plaza San Martín—that is, ten square meters of shared space for every citizen.
Today, the country has made progress in terms of decentralization; the regions enjoy greater autonomy and several cities now exceed half a million inhabitants. Nevertheless, the capital continues to concentrate the country's economic and political power. Consequently, Lima now has more than 10 million inhabitants, and it is difficult to conceive of its metropolitan area without including the vast territory on which it depends for its survival. In this context, the question arises:
