From Argiropolis to Macondo: Latin American intellectuals and the tasks of modernization

In the 20th century, Latin American attempts at self-analysis have gotten bogged down in the imaginary invention of the Latin American "being" or have been derailed by scores of foreign blueprints and local revolutionary myths. This chapter focuses on the attitudes of Latin American intelligentsia towards modernity and the tasks of modernization of their countries after the Independence. Between the 19th and the 20th centuries, in accord with the changes of the European intelligentsia positions, the advocacy for modernization in Latin America has been substituted by the search for the mirage of cultural identity. The postulate of an absolute otherness for the continent has led to the splendors and misery of the macondismo. The projects espoused by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, José Martí, José Enrique Rodó, José Vasconcelos, José Carlos Mariategui, and Octavio Paz are discussed in some length as a critique of the road to the macondismo and of its consequences for the continent.