The forefathers of "Indigenismo" in Argentina

Abstract

The narrative discourses looking for a national identity in Argentina after the period known as Organización Nacional were produced at the time of the massive arriving of immigrants and once finished the Conquest of the Desert, that achieved, if not the extermination, the assimilation of thousands of native peoples. However, in view of the excessive cosmpolitanization of Buenos Aires, there were some voices that clamored for an authentication of Argentineness. Some inland writers that already had the blessing of Buenos Aires intelligentsia started to publish nativist discourses as an opposition to the new foreign trends in an attempt to reinstate the national tradition in a less competitive editorial area, but also as a retreat to a bucolic past that could only be represented by the inlands. In this article, the regionalist discourses that gave a voice to the native reality that had been forgotten as the holder of the national identity will be tackled, such as the works of. Joaquín V. González and Ricardo Rojas.These discourses, together with the archeological investigations of Juan Bautista Ambrosetti, Lafone Quevedo and Adán Quiroga contributed to reevaluate the Argentinian native past and to renovate the image of the Indian, who, however, suffered invisibility and exploitation. Juana Manuela Gorriti was the only one that was able to reflect these injustices in her tale “Si haces mal no esperes bien” in 1860. Even though the social denounce was produced a few decades later, the Herderian tendencies at the beginning of 20th century served as an incentive for a fully indigenista development.