Foreword

The present dossier of Varia Historia is dedicated to the Latin American Intellectual History, with an emphasis on the history of printed materials, their ideas and circulation.

Intellectual History is a field of studies that has been under great expansion in Latin American universities and research institutions, especially from the 1980s and 1990s, along with the redemocratization processes in several countries in the continent and the need to reevaluate the role of the intellectuals in the political and social lives of each country and in Latin America as a whole.

The reputable Uruguayan essayist and literary reviewer Ángel Rama, in his famous book La ciudad letrada, of 1984, had already foreseen paths that would be followed by Latin American intellectual history in the following decades, particularly regarding the links between the intellectuals and the urban nucleuses of power.[¹1] RAMA, Ángel. La ciudad letrada. Hanover, New Jersey: Ediciones del Norte, 1984. A primeira edição brasileira foi publicada no ano seguinte: A cidade das letras. São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1985. Vale lembrar que Rama teve fortes vínculos com a cultura e a literatura brasileiras, tendo ministrado aulas na Universidade de São Paulo, em 1974, em disciplina sob a responsabilidade de Antonio Candido, e retornado ao Brasil em 1980 e 1983, apenas dois meses antes do acidente aéreo que o vitimou. Cf. AGUIAR, Flávio; VASCONCELOS, Sandra G. T. (orgs.). Ángel Rama: literatura e cultura na América Latina. São Paulo: Edusp, 2001, p. 30-35. []

According to Carlos Altamirano, in his general introduction of the two volumes of Historia de los intelectuales en América Latina, ideas were not enough. It was necessary to delve deeply into the reflection on the position of the Latin American scholars in the “social space, their associations and types of activities, institutions and fields of the intellectual life, their debates and relationships between 'secular power' and 'spiritual power'.[²2] ALTAMIRANO, Carlos (dir.). Historia de los intelectuales en América Latina. Buenos Aires: Katz, 2008, p. 11. ]

The subjects of the studies of Intellectual History, broadly speaking, are the research and reflection not only into the history of thought and the debate of ideas and ideologies, but also issues such as the constitution of social networks and intellectual sociability; the various types of printed materials, their circulation and articulation with public debate; trips and exchanges; their experiences in exile, dislocation etc. These studies seek to analyze the connections between the intellectuals and the different areas of public life, such as politics, diplomacy, means of communication, and educational and scientific institutions, artistic manifestations, associations and social movements, among others.

In Latin America, research into this area was substantially intensified as of the 1990s. The creation of the Programa de História Intelectual of the Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Argentina, in 1994,[

The dossier presented here comprises five articles dealing with the themes listed above: the debate of ideas and their circulation between countries and continents; the journals, their importance and repercussion; the paths and insertion of the intellectuals in the public arena.

Opening the dossier, Maria Ligia Coelho Prado analyses the articles published about Mexico in the famous French publication Revue des Deux Mondes, between 1840 and 1870. This magazine, widely read by Latin American intellectuals, expressed, as shown by the author, France's national interests and imperial intentions. Of all Latin American countries dealt with in Revue, México was the object of preference of the reflections in the journal, in the period studied, in around 30 articles. The French intellectuals whose articles were published in Revue claimed that their country should play a leading role in the 'Latin world'. Mexico was represented, in these articles, as an “exotic, anarchic, underdeveloped country, still living in the times of Phillip”. And, as Prado points out, under Napoleon III, the French put this prospect into practice, when they sent troops to maintain monarchy in Mexico, an intervention that was eventually defeated by the Mexican liberals. Therefore, Ligia Prado's article provides subsidy for a better understanding of a little known aspect of the action of the French in Latin America in the 19th century, their imperial role, away from the place in France – especially Paris – as the main intellectual, literary and cultural place to which converged – or at least wished to converge – the Latin American intellectuals.

José Luis Bendicho Beired, in his article Hispanismo e latinismo no debate intelectual ibero-americano, analyses the constitution of the strains defending Hispanism and Latinism on the two sides of the Atlantic in mid-19th century and mid-20th century. Using the magazines and newspapers as the main documental sources, the author shows that until the beginning of the 20th century there was no apparent opposition between these two strains, much to the contrary, the predominant approach was of complementarity. The French as well as the Spanish intellectuals defend that a 'Latin culture' should oppose the North American intervention in South of Rio Bravo. And in the Hispanic-American countries, especially after the intervention of the Unites States in Cuba's war for Independence, Latin-Americanism gained strength. After World War I, however, the distinction between Latinism, associated with the French hegemonic pretensions, and Hispanism, led by Spain, became more evident. The author also deals with the debate on Iberianism, both in Spain and in Portugal. On analyzing the conceptions by intellectuals of the Iberian Peninsula and Hispanic America, besides concrete actions geared to strengthen the links with the Ibero-American countries, both by France and Spain, Beired shows the richness and diversity of debate involving, on one side, filiations and intellectual links between Hispano-Americans and Europeans and, on the other, identitarian statements by the Latin-American countries – which more and more saw themselves as part of a region called Latin America –, without overlooking the changes made to the debate as a result of the deep changes occurred in Spain, with the Civil War and the victory of Franco, in other European countries and in America, within the period approached.

In the third article of the dossier, Alejandra Mailhe analyses the journal Archivos de psiquiatría, criminología, medicina legal y ciencias afines, directed by the Argentinean, of Italian origin, physician and essayist José Ingenieros (1877-1925), one of the most prominent Latin-American intellectuals of his generation. The journal Archivos, published in Buenos Aires from 1902 to 1913, played a central role, as shown by Mailhe, in the development of psychiatry and criminology as specialist fields of knowledge, not only in Argentina but also in various countries in Latin America, contributing to the development of a network of contacts and ideas in the continent. Among its collaborators, Archivos counted on Latin-American and European authors. Among the first ones, we can mention Brazilian writers such as Evaristo de Moraes, Francisco Franco da Rocha and Raimundo Nina Rodrigues. As the author explains, the main aim of the journal was the “scientific study of abnormal men”, especially criminals and people suffering from dementia, placing emphasis on the positivist ideas of the beginning of the 20th century, but allowing other approaches. For the Brazilian reader, Mailhe's approach to the contributions made by Nina Rodrigues to Archivos and the divergences between the Brazilian author and José Ingeniero are of prime importance. Mailhe's article also seeks to show the extent to which the journal contributed to a process, albeit “very moderated”, of “Latin-Americanization” of the Argentinean intellectuals.

Regina Crespo, in the article that follows, titled O México de Rodrigo Otávio e de Cyro dos Anjos: entre as atribuições do funcionário e o olhar do escritor, analyses the way the two Brazilian intellectuals saw Mexico, based on their experiences in that Northern country, during their diplomatic commission there. After short considerations on the Brazilian authors who wrote about Mexico – such as Ronald de Carvalho, Erico Verissimo and Vianna Moog –, Crespo turns her attention to the analysis of the passages about Mexico written by another two Brazilian authors: the jurist Rodrigo Otávio and the writer and civil servant Cyro dos Anjos. Later on, Otávio went to Mexico a few times between 1923 and 1926, in diplomatic missions. Cyro, in turn, lived in Mexico City three decades later, from 1953 to 1954, lecturing in Brazilian Studies at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and, commissioned by the Brazilian Embassy, giving lectures on Brazil in various Mexican cities. As for Rodrigo Otávio, Crespo's main source was his book México e Peru, published in 1940, besides Mexican newspapers on the decade of 1920s and the diplomatic mail. In order to analyze Cyro dos Anjos' view on the Hispanic-Indigenous country, the author also made use of the diplomatic mail and of the letters exchanged between the novelist from the city of Montes Claros and his “mineiro” compatriot Carlos Drummond de Andrade.

Carlos Cortez Minchillo, in his article that closes the dossier – titled A América Latina de Erico Verissimo: vizinhança, fraternidade, fraturas –, discusses the presence of Latin America in the work and path of the “gaucho” writer Erico Verissimo, placing emphasis on his report on his trip México, published in 1957, and on the novel O senhor embaixador, of 1965. According to the author, Verissimo conceived Latin America as having the USA as its counterpart, both on account of the Cold War context and of the polarization of the political debate in Latin-American countries, especially after the victory, in 1959, of the Cuban Revolution. The opposition between the USA and Latin America also occurred as a result of Veríssimo's personal and professional experience in the United Staes as a Lecturer and visiting Professor in North American Universities in 1941 and then between 1943 and 1945, as a Director of the Department of Cultural Issues of the Pan-American Unions, from 1953 to 1956 – periods in which Verissimo expanded his intellectual sociability not only with the North-Americans but also with the Hispanic-Americans. If in the 1940s, having World War II as backdrop, Erico advocated Pan-Americanism, in the following decade, during the Cold War, the Brazilian writer became more and more critical of internal politics and mainly of the external politics of the United States, and even more sensitive to the Latin-American societies and their culture, history and social problems. Carlos Minchillo shows, however, the ambiguities of the representations of the Latin-American “people” in these two works of Erico. The article also seeks to evaluate how Veríssimo's works were received betwwen the years of 1950 and 1970, as well as the possible implications of the author's political stands, a social-democrat critical of the rightist dictatorial regimens and the totalitarian rulers of East Europe, in those years of polarization and intense debates around the political commitment of writers and intellectuals.

We hope that this dossier in Varia Historia may contribute to the growth of interest in the Latin-American Intellectual History, expanding research and the exchange and circulation of ideas between Brazilian and Hispanic-American researchers.

Kátia Gerab Baggio

Departamento de História

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Belo Horizonte (MG)

Brasil

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