The rise of cultural nationalism between the 1890s and 1930s brought a genuine transformation of Latin American mentalités. In each nation, the nationalist sea change manifested itself in subtly different ways: José Vasconcelos and Diego Rivera celebrated Mexico’s mestizo fusion; in Uruguay, Rodó denounced crass U.S. materialism; Argentina saw anti-immigrant xenophobia and the cult of the gaucho; Peru gave birth to APRA’s radical Indo-Americanism. Nowhere was this new nationalism stronger than in Chile, but nowhere was the precise content of that nationalism a greater source of contention.
Patrick Barr-Melej has therefore provided a great service with this comprehensive and often insightful study of Chilean nationalism in its many incarnations. Barr-Melej’s gaze ranges widely. Chapter 2 offers a good introduction to the thought of pioneering nationalists Francisco Encina, Tancredo Pinochet-Lebrún, Alejandro Venegas, and Nicolás Palacios, the man who popularized the idea of the...
