The District of Comas

Comas is a district situated in the Northern Cone of Lima just around 11 km from the city center. With over 10,000 people living on a square km it is densely populated. The area was already inhabited long before the arrival of the Spaniards. Many small, unfortunately not excavated archeological sites are evidence for these early settlements. Comas as we know it today developed when migrant families from the Peruvian highlands arrived in the mid 1950s and many more in the 1970s and 1980s. Comas was until recently one of Lima’s poorest pueblos jovenes (shanty towns).

Thanks to enormous efforts of social organizations and the municipality more and more zones developed into middle class residential areas. The district of Comas is home to thousands of people living in unbelievably poor circumstances regardless of the fast growing economy, the recently developing infrastructure and the visible progress.