Abstract

BITTENCOURT RIBEIRO, Fernanda. Alejandro and the other portraits from the Children’s Gallery of America of the Inter-American Children’s Institute: i. Cuad. antropol. soc. [online]. 2021, n.53, pp.55-68.  Epub May 06, 2021. ISSN 1850-275X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.34096/cas.i53.8819.

This article examines the category of “Latin American childhood” through the analysis of the Children of America Gallery created in the 1970s by the Inter-American Institute for Children and Adolescents (IIN). The pictures in this Gallery are a privileged perspective for the analysis of the production of images of childhood related to the ideals of modernity conveyed by the Institute. The analysis shows the coexistence, within the framework of the inter-American protection system, of the assertion of a “child of the world”, above local belongings and symbolic investments that produce the region’s specificity. It is argued that this set of pictures has the effect of representing a helpless childhood and the child as bearer of the continent’s future, as opposed to the image of an irregular childhood and dangerous child. Analysis of the images in the Gallery show Latin American childhood associated to the image of a child that is alone, a little helpless, but dignified and in need of support.

Keywords : Inter-American Institute for Children and Adolescents (IIN); Latin American childhood; Childhood images; America’s Children’s; 1970s.

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