Yovanna Pineda, University of Central Florida, "Caudillo Techno-Aesthetics"
Moderator: Mikael Wolfe, Stanford University
Abstract: Caudillo Techno-Aesthetics
In this chapter, I examine the language and aesthetics that liberal elites used to promote their vision of the countryside as a space to advance science and technology before 1880. They perceived an empty space requiring the use of science and technology to develop the land for the convenience of human settlers. The goal was to convert this space to productive land was for the international exchange of commodities.
Drawing on archival materials, fieldwork, literature, traveler accounts, lore, and material culture, the elite developed a secular discourse of science and technology to be embedded in culture as common sense. As prolific writers, thinkers, and administrators of the nineteenth century, Eduardo Olivera, Domingo Sarmiento, Estanislao Zeballos, and many others invented the language that would become the foundation for Argentina’s imagined destiny or future (el porvenir) as a civilized, modern nation. Their books were translated in different languages and widely read during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Their narrativity represented the logic of the period. These writers, along with others, created an identity for future generations to emulate, accept, or contest—and continue to reproduce or build upon.