Abstract

BEATRIZ, Vitar. Deserts revisited: nation, territory and identity in a trip to the Chaco (1872). Folia [online]. 2016, n.26, pp.41-61. ISSN 0325-8238.

This paper examines the construction of the image of a territory within the framework of the process of national formation in Argentina, and the promotion of the immigration and European colonization in order to achieve the effective domain of indigenous areas not yet under the control of the State. At a juncture of capitalist expansion, aimed to the exploitation of the natural resources within the agro economic model, the availability of internal communication, land and river routes was crucial. In this context, a series of trips of exploration to the Chaco were performed in the second half of the 19th century, among which the expedition by the Bermejo River in 1872 to study its seaworthiness, lead to the story in which this study is based. The analysis of this work allows to verify the role of travel narrative as legitimizing of the State project of territorial consolidation, under the banner of civilization and progress. Besides, it permits to discern to discern the phenomenon of (re) defining identities in a space of multiple ethnic junctions. This is achieved through a discursive strategy which aims to justify the European superiority in the colonization of the Chaco plans with immigrants from that origin. These inmigrants were conceived as as new civilizing agents who would convert the primitive Indians into productive subjects.

Keywords : Chaco; Exploratory travels; Territory; Identities.

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