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Thu 13 April
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Fri 14 April
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Thursday 13 April 2023 08.30 - 10.30
I-5 LAT03a New Perspectives on Latin American Social History I
B34
Network: Latin America Chair: Lucas Poy
Organizers: - Discussants: -
Bernardo Buarque de Hollanda : Football Culture and Sports History in Latin America: an Overview
The paper deals with the intellectual discussion about the idea of Latin America, with the objective of showing how this debate is manifested in the context of the region’s professional football. The argument we propose is that the design of a Latin American unit encountered difficulties regarding the construction of ... (Show more)
The paper deals with the intellectual discussion about the idea of Latin America, with the objective of showing how this debate is manifested in the context of the region’s professional football. The argument we propose is that the design of a Latin American unit encountered difficulties regarding the construction of identity throughout its history, more precisely between the late 19th century and the end of the last century. If the geographical territories often cross historical periods of continuous exchange between unity and fragmentation, approximation and distancing, the Latin American case draws attention to the particular characteristics of its colonial heritage. Without being only a dimension of the past, such influences became more complex throughout the 20th century, when the emergence of the United States as a hegemonic power began to have decisive effects on Latin American economy, politics, and culture. Our purpose here is to suggest that, although USA’s hegemony is uncontested in all contexts of collective life in Latin America, its presence was not directly felt regarding modern sports, especially in the practice of professional football, through intercontinental tournaments of clubs and National teams. In this context, the otherness remained focused on the other side of the Atlantic: either to the United Kingdom, responsible for inventing and making the rules of sports practices; or to Latin European countries – France, Italy, Spain and Portugal – that influenced in institutional and cultural terms the styles and playing techniques in South America. (Show less)

Diogo Cardoso : Profiling the Portuguese Settlers in Brazil in the 17th Century
In the beginning of the 17th century Brazil was still benefiting from the growth of the sugar industry verified in the previous decades. That economic success, along with the decrease of the Portuguese commercial influence in the Indian ocean, contributed to make Brazil an alternative to those departing from the ... (Show more)
In the beginning of the 17th century Brazil was still benefiting from the growth of the sugar industry verified in the previous decades. That economic success, along with the decrease of the Portuguese commercial influence in the Indian ocean, contributed to make Brazil an alternative to those departing from the European kingdom in the early modern period and eventually the main destination of those migrants. The social profile of this population that settled in the American continent was, however, different from those who went to India. Due to the distinct strategies applied there by the Portuguese Crown, that included an active settling policy, the local economic conjunctures, and the presence of a population that was seen as “peaceable” and religiously convertible, people that populated Brazil had to fulfill, through adaptation or the use of previously acquired knowledge, certain characteristics to integrate the socio-economic fabric.
Using the inquisitorial sources produced in Brazil or mentioning Brazilian inhabitants, it is the aim of this paper to profile the population that built the new society in the several features that may measure the ability to integrate it and turn them into productive members. To do so, criteria as their gender, blood and marital status, location, dates of presence, routes, occupations, and location of family members will be evaluated and cross-checked with the economic, political, military, and social conjunctures and circumstances of Brazil throughout the century.
The paper concludes that some events, such as the Dutch invasion of the Brazilian Northeast, dictated an increasing mobility of the Portuguese living there, not only in the region, as a fight or flight reaction, but also between Brazil and Northern Europe. Alongside this mobility there was, over the 17th century, a general movement of the population from the Northeast shore to the interior, North, and South as the Portuguese disputed the territory with their European enemies. Other conditions, as it was the threat from the indigenous people and Europeans in the borders of the Amazon and Paraguayan regions, that forced recruitments of couples, created an over representation of the military personel and even of women in comparison with territories where migration was mostly voluntary and the occupations usually connected with the sugar industry and commerce. (Show less)

Enrico Castro Montes : Football, Ethnicity and the Visual Representations of National Identity in Ecuadorian Sports Magazines since the 1960s
Many foreigners see Ecuador as one of the Latin American countries with the largest indigenous population, while the Ecuadorian elites conceive the nation as ‘mestizo’ the product of the mixing of Spanish and indigenous ancestry). From the 1960s, however, more and more Ecuadorian teams began to integrate Afro-Ecuadorian and black ... (Show more)
Many foreigners see Ecuador as one of the Latin American countries with the largest indigenous population, while the Ecuadorian elites conceive the nation as ‘mestizo’ the product of the mixing of Spanish and indigenous ancestry). From the 1960s, however, more and more Ecuadorian teams began to integrate Afro-Ecuadorian and black players from abroad into their squads. In this way, an ethnic population group that was ignored in the dominant views on Ecuadorian national identity came to the forefront. Through the analysis of images related to football in the Ecuadorian sports magazines, I investigate the visual representations of national identity in Ecuador since the 1960s. I argue that football was one of the sectors in civil society where the ideology of ‘mestizaje’ was most contested as it formed a popular public arena for neglected ethnic groups to negotiate national identities different from the dominant mestizo narrative by the elites. By doing this, I indicate how research on the relationship between sports and ethnicity can help us to uncover subaltern national identities. (Show less)

Janne Schreurs, Marte Van Hassel : Belgian Transatlantic Travel Writing: Three Members of the Family Carton de Wiart in Congo and Latin America
Travel literature played an important role in imperial history. Travelers were often employed to “discover” the to-be colonized land, to inquire into possible explorable regions, to create knowledge about regions unknown to Europeans and present that knowledge to home audiences. Scholarship has shown how trends in travel literature are related ... (Show more)
Travel literature played an important role in imperial history. Travelers were often employed to “discover” the to-be colonized land, to inquire into possible explorable regions, to create knowledge about regions unknown to Europeans and present that knowledge to home audiences. Scholarship has shown how trends in travel literature are related to changes in imperial strategies over time (Pratt, 1992). It is less clear, however, how travel literature reflects varying imperial strategies conceived for different regions. Throughout the twentieth century, imperial strategies differed significantly in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Whereas the African continent was divided into formal European colonies, independent Latin American states were subjected to neocolonial projects. How did twentieth-century travel literature relate to these transatlantic differences?

We ask this question by focusing on Belgium, which has thus far been underrepresented in scholarship on travel literature. Belgium has traditionally been considered a minor colonial power, with one significant colony: the Congo Free State (1885-1908), that later became the Belgian Congo (1908-1960). Extant Belgian travel literature shows, however, that Belgian expansionism extended to other regions, including Latin America. Bulletins of geographical and colonial societies such as the Belgian Colonial Studies Society and the Royal Geographical Society of Antwerp (RGSA) show that many Belgian explorers and travelers with experience in Congo also undertook expeditions to other continents.

The noble family Carton de Wiart is a case in point. We investigate the travel literature of three of its members who played key roles in Belgian colonial projects. Edmond Carton de Wiart (1876-1957) was the last Chief of Cabinet of King Leopold II. His older brother Henry Carton de Wiart (1869-1951) was Minister of Justice from 1911 to 1918, became Prime Minister in 1920, and later held the post of Minister of Colonies (1924-1926). The latter’s son, Hubert Carton de Wiart (1901-1963), served as a diplomat and traveled the world by car as a publicity stunt for the Ford brand. They all three traveled to Congo as well as different parts of Latin America. They wrote about their experiences and gave public lectures in geographic and colonial societies, such as the RGSA.

Our research question is twofold: first, how did their travels to Latin America relate to those in Congo, and second, how did the travel literature of these politically engaged men connect to the overall Belgian colonial project? For the first part, we compare their written texts and the images projected during their presentations on Congo with those on Latin America. For the second part, we apply network analysis to critically study the place of these men and their writings within the Belgian colonial project. The State Archives of Belgium have personal letters and manuscripts of the three members of the family. The archive of the RGSA holds scripts of some of their lectures, images that were projected, as well as correspondence related to their presentations. Incidentally, the third member, Hubert Carton de Wiart happens to be the father of our landlord who left us thus far unstudied material of his father. (Show less)



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