This paper studies the link between democracy and income inequality by assessing the relationship between the quality of democratic institutions around people’s birth year and income inequality. Using pseudo-panel data built from nine Latin American countries’ household surveys (1995-2009, biannual) and various measures of democracy between 15 years before people’s birth year and 20 years after it, I find that cohorts that experienced higher quality democratic institutions during their childhood exhibit less income inequality. This result is robust to several specifications that control for periods of wars and economic crisis, which often preceded political regime changes in the region during the 20th century. I also present suggestive evidence that education may be one mechanism explaining this result.