“They Look Like They’re Trying to Pull Up Nails with Their Heels”: Ricardo Güiraldes’s Response to Cultural Appropriation in Don Segundo Sombra

2021 ◽  
pp. 117-129
Author(s):  
Susan Savage Lee
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Latin Americans ◽  
Indigenous Cultures ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ricardo Guiraldes ◽  
Latin American Culture ◽  
History Of

Cultural appropriation has often been linked to American treatment of indigenous cultures. In Playing Indian, for example, Philip J. Deloria investigates how images of Indianness, however inauthentic, stereotypical, or completely ethnocentric, work to help white Americans come to terms with their history of conquest and possession. While the term cultural appropriation has been linked to the conflict between dominant and indigenous cultures as Deloria suggests, it is used far less frequently with respect to American and Latin American cultural identities. Yet, the preponderance of movies and literary works in which Americans follow the same rubric – use Latin American culture to define American cultural identity – evoke the same sense of loss on the part of Latin Americans, in this case, Argentines. For over a century, for example, the gaucho has been examined, evaluated, and reevaluated by Argentines within gauchesque literature to make sense of modernization, notions of civilization versus barbarism, and what creates argentinidad, or what it means to be Argentine. Ricardo Güiraldes sought to respond to the cultural appropriation and misrepresentation of the gaucho, specifically that gaucho culture could be taken up by anyone and used for any purpose, no matter how benign; and that gauchos were a part of the past, eschewing modernization in forms such as industrial ranching and technology when, in fact, they embraced it. In Don Segundo Sombra, Güiraldes addresses these issues. Rather than permit cultural appropriation and ethnocentrism to remain unremarked upon, Güiraldes demonstrates that gaucho culture has remarkable qualities that cannot be imitated by novices, both foreign and native. He then examines gaucho culture, particularly the link between frontier life and economic displacement, in order to champion the gaucho and argentinidad as the models for Argentines to follow.

The Development of Accion Democratica de Venezuela

1959 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Kantor
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Dominican Republic ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Past History ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Other ◽  
Latin Americans ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of

The election of Rómulo Betancourt as constitutional President of Venezuela for the 1959-1964 term marks a turning point in that country's political evolution and a high point in the tide of reform now sweeping Latin American toward stable constitutional government. The new president of Venezuela and the party he leads, Acción Democrática, represent the same type of reformist movement as those now flourishing in many other countries of Latin America. As a result, dictatorship in the spring of 1959 is confined to the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Paraguay. The situation in Haiti is unclear, but in the other sixteen republics the governments are controlled by parties and leaders which are to a greater or lesser degree trying to get away from the past and seem to have the support of their populations in their efforts. This marks a great change from most of the past history of the Latin American Republics in which the population was ruled by dictatorial cliques dedicated to the preservation of a status quo which meant the perpetuation of poverty and backwardness for most of the Latin Americans.

Secularization, Integration and Rationalization: Some Perspectives from Latin American Thought

1973 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward J. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Developmental Process ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Latin Americans ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Latin American Thought ◽  
Firing Line ◽  
American Thought

For the past couple of decades the Latin Americans, like their brethren in Africa and Asia, have been hell-bent in search of ‘development’ or ‘modernization’. While the Latin Americans were on the firing line, scholars and policy-makers in both the rich nations and the poor nations were involved in setting out an intellectual framework for analyzing the developmental process. New concepts to explain the meaning of development were devised; innovative measurements to gauge the level of development were proposed; a new vocabulary to capture the nuances of development was put forth.

The History of Africanization and the Africanization of History

2006 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 85-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esperanza Brizuela-García
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Graduate School ◽  
American History ◽  
African Studies ◽  
African History ◽  
Not Given ◽  
Latin American History ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Challenges

The idea of Africanization is arguably one of the most important and prevalent in African historiography and African studies. I first encountered this notion some eight years ago when I started graduate school. With a background in Mexican and Latin American history, I found it necessary to immerse myself in the historiography of Africa. It was in this process that I encountered the idea of Africanization. It was not always identified in this manner, but it was clear that historians were, in one way or another, articulating a concern about how “African” was African history.The objective of this paper is to examine the history of Africanization in African historiography. It departs from two basic premises. First, the issues that come with the idea of Africanization are more pronounced in the field of African history. When compared to other fields, such as Latin American history, this indigenizing of history is not given nearly so much attention. Second, the idea that African history needs to be Africanized has been taken for granted, and has not been critically examined. Here I will contend that the historical conditions that have framed the emergence and development of African historiography have made it necessary to emphasize the issue of Africanization. I will also argue that those conditions have changed in the past fifty years, and that the questions raised in the quest to Africanize history should be redefined in view of the new challenges for African history and of historiography at large.

Mexico, Gilberto Bosques and the Refugees

2000 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Friedrich Katz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Military ◽  
Latin Americans ◽  
North Americans ◽  
Promised Land ◽  
Mexican Government ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right

In the eyes of many North Americans, Mexico is above all a country of immigration from which hundreds of thousands hope to pass across the border to find the promised land in the United States. What these North Americans do not realize is that for thousands of Latin Americans and for many U.S. intellectuals, Mexico after the revolution of 1910-1920 constituted the promised land. People persecuted for their political or religious beliefs—radicals, revolutionaries but liberals as well—could find refuge in Mexico when repressive regimes took over their country.In the 1920s such radical leaders as Víctor Raúl Haya De La Torre, César Augusto Sandino and Julio Antonio Mella found refuge in Mexico. This policy continued for many years even after the Mexican government turned to the right. Thousands of refugees from Latin American military dictatorships in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay fled to Mexico. The history of that policy of the Mexican government has not yet been written.

SEMINARIES AND WRITING THE HISTORY OF NEW SPAIN: An Interview with Stafford Poole, C.M.

2012 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-254
Author(s):  
Susan Schroeder
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin American ◽  
American History ◽  
New Spain ◽  
The United States ◽  
Latin American History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
Past Half

Over the course of the past half century, the field of colonial Latin American history has been greatly enriched by the contributions of Father Stafford Poole. He has written 14 books and 84 articles and book chapters and has readily shared his knowledge at coundess symposia and other scholarly forums. Renowned as a historian, he was also a seminary administrator and professor of history in Missouri and California. Moreover, his background and formation are surely unique among priests in the United States and his story is certainly worth the telling.

scholarly journals EDUCATION OF SENSES AND SENSIBILITIES: BETWEEN THE TREND AND THE POSSIBILITY OF RESEARCH RENOVATION IN HISTORY OF EDUCATION

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (55) ◽  
pp. 116-133
Author(s):  
Marcus Aurelio Taborda de Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Current Trend ◽  
History Of Education ◽  
American Education ◽  
The Past ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Recent Arrival ◽  
The Senses

Abstract The article, in a theoretical-historiographic perspective, discusses the current trend of studies on the history of education of the senses and sensibilities. It begins with the presentation of the theme "sensibilities" and its presence in different historiographical traditions, showing how this approach in the field of History is not new. Then, in its first part, it discusses the recent arrival of the theme in the debates of History of Education in Latin America. In the second part, it presents and situates a set of monographic studies developed by the Center for Studies on the Education of Senses and Sensibilities - Nupes, FAE/UFMG, in partnership with researchers from Brazil and other countries, discussing some of their basic assumptions. The text concludes by discussing the limits, risks, and scope of the history of education of the senses and sensibilities as a trend that balances between academic fad and the possibility of renovating the consecrated forms of investigating the past and the present of Latin American education.

Industrialization and Stabilization Dilemmas in Latin America

1959 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 584-599
Author(s):  
David Felix
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Industrial Growth ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
General Recognition ◽  
Salient Features ◽  
State Subsidies ◽  
Latin American Countries

Industrial growth and chronic, in many cases severe, inflation are two salient features of the past-war economic history of the larger Latin American countries. There is general recognition that the two phenomena are related, at least in the sense that industry has been one of the major recipients of state subsidies and inflationary credit. But beyond this, analysis divides into the usual demand inflation and cost-push categories.

José Vasconcelos

1951 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 395-412
Author(s):  
Ronald Hilton
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
American Culture ◽  
Jose Vasconcelos ◽  
Latin Americans ◽  
Latin American Culture ◽  
Latin American Thought ◽  
American Thought

José Vasconcelos, whose lawyer’s degree entitles him to the designation “Licenciado,” but who more commonly is referred to respectfully as “El Maestro Vasconcelos,” has suffered in recent years a political eclipse which has deprived him of the publicity enjoyed by less distinguished Latin Americans who have kept themselves more attuned to political changes. The writer of this article does not share Vasconcelos’ political or religious creeds, but he cannot help recognizing in him one of the noblest expressions of Latin-American thought. His vast culture and universal philosophy is free from the parochialism which is the curse of much Latin-American culture. This eulogy by one of a different persuasion is intended to counteract the oblivion into which a hostile partisan spirit would relegate him.

Eugenics Policy and Practice in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Mexico

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patience A. Schell
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Puerto Ricans ◽  
National Development ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Heterogeneous Populations ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Latin Americans ◽  
History Of

This article shows a range of influences and eugenics measures in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. In this comparison of the history of eugenics in these countries it is readily evident how adaptable eugenic concepts were to local political, social, and cultural contexts. Because of the importance of the Cuban concept of homiculture on the Latin American movement, this article begins with a discussion of that country. It then focuses on Puerto Rico, in which colonial and domestic modernizing eugenics interacted. Eugenics appealed to some Puerto Ricans because of the potential for reform and improvement of the island's population, through healthy reproduction. Finally, this article examines the influence of eugenics on Mexico after the triumph of a socially progressive revolution and mentions that rejecting the Cuban approach Latin Americans sought to offer alternative understandings of eugenics and solutions to eugenic problems; understandings that depicted their heterogeneous populations as able to contribute to national development.

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