Preliminary Programme

Wed 12 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Thu 13 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Fri 14 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Sat 15 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00

All days
Go back

Friday 14 April 2023 16.30 - 18.30
T-12 CUL03 Anarchist Arts and Cultural Politics in Latin America, Late 1800s-Mid 1900s
Victoriagatan 13, Victoriasalen
Network: Culture Chair: Kenyon Zimmer
Organizer: Kirwin Shaffer Discussant: María Migueláñez Martínez
Geoffroy de Laforcade : Framing Cultural Politics in Diverse Working-Class Traditions: Anarchism and Narratives of Time, Place and Supra-National Identity in Argentina
Juan Suriano framed the history of anarchism in Argentina – which early militants regarded as the Río de la Plata region - as a moment in cultural politics circumscribed to two decades of “pre-political” agitation in a maelstrom of “immigrant” transience. Once the diversity of ethnicities and rootlessness of cosmopolitan ... (Show more)
Juan Suriano framed the history of anarchism in Argentina – which early militants regarded as the Río de la Plata region - as a moment in cultural politics circumscribed to two decades of “pre-political” agitation in a maelstrom of “immigrant” transience. Once the diversity of ethnicities and rootlessness of cosmopolitan identities gave way to “grounded” ideologies of national belonging, and Argentina was “imagined” as a state contained within fixed borders and representative political forces, the anarchist parenthesis in the country’s formation closed. This narrative diminishes the broader influence of the federalist, emancipatory and transnational anarchist legacy in the 1920s and beyond, a period that saw the flourishing of what Hélène Finet calls Argentina’s “anarchist heterodoxy”. It saw the survival of the historic FORA and its deeply rooted traditions of local, trans-regional, and international federative networking among resistance societies and affinity groups, which contributed to forging a working-class counterculture of resistance to capitalism and the state, alongside insurrectionalist tendencies, anarcho-bolshevism and a new “anarcho-communist” movement that pioneered what would become the Latin American doctrine of ‘especifismo’. These diverse movements expanded beyond the “Pampa” and Buenos Aires Province to include far-flung, remote localities as far South as Patagonia and as far North as Salta and the Bolivian borderlands. Anarchists mobilized rural workers and peasants who, in the words of FORA activist Emilio López Arango, represented the ‘genuine physiognomy of American peoples’ and the ‘elevation of the gaucho [mestizo trans-frontiersman] and the Indian” as well older immigrant cultural expressions. This paper will analyze how anarchists developed a cultural counter-narrative to atavistic nationalism. The bedrock of anti-statist, federalist, urban/rural, feminist, anti-fascist, internationalist, and anti- Eurocentric orientations formed by these movements and traditions project time, place and identity in ways that invite us to rethink the “nation” in its temporally and territorially confined, teleological cultural representations and narratives of becoming. (Show less)

Steven Hirsch : Peruvian Anarchist Cultural Politics (1890s-1920s): Gazing toward South America and the Andes
Much has been made of the ‘European gaze’ of Latin American anarchists. A recent trend in the historiography has stressed that early Latin American anarchists merely reproduced the political ideas, methods of struggle, racial and gender biases, and culture discourses of their European counterparts. A case in point is the ... (Show more)
Much has been made of the ‘European gaze’ of Latin American anarchists. A recent trend in the historiography has stressed that early Latin American anarchists merely reproduced the political ideas, methods of struggle, racial and gender biases, and culture discourses of their European counterparts. A case in point is the work of Juan Suriano who claims that Argentine anarchists utilized cultural icons and elements that were “identical” to those of European anarchists. Can the same be said of Latin American anarchist movements that had notably far fewer European immigrant activists and more tenuous links with Europe? The cultural politics of Peru’s anarchist movement(s) between c.1890 and c.1930 would suggest otherwise. In this paper I intend to demonstrate that Peruvian anarchists were decidedly more drawn to Latin American rather than European anarchist socio-cultural forms and practices. Anarchist exiles and deportees from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Ecuador, for example, were integrated into and played significant roles in Peru’s diverse anarchist movements. Often overlooked in the scholarly literature, these Latin American foreign anarchists, profoundly shaped Peruvian anarchist cultural politics. They added foreign martyrs, heroes, days of commemoration, slogans, and banners to Peru’s anarchist ritual calendar and cultural activities. And, they also facilitated, with the assistance of Peru’s anarchist presses, the introduction of Latin American anarchist plays, poetry, music, and art to Peruvian anarchists and anarchist sympathizers. Not surprisingly, given this emphasis, Peruvian anarchists tended to evince a regional anarchist imaginary and embrace a Latin American anarchist sensibility. A second part of this paper will explore the ways Peruvian anarchists sought to integrate indigenous cultural forms and practices in their countercultural politics. (Show less)

Rosalía Romero : Women, Anarcha-Feminism, and the Avant-Garde in Brazil and Mexico, 1910s-1920s
This paper presents a comparative analysis of the art and visual culture of anarcha- feminist circles in Brazil and Mexico in the 1910s to 1920s. It introduces the representative artists, favored artworks, stylistic preferences, and dominant medias of two leading Latin American anarcha-feminist groups. First, this paper focus on the Brazilian anarcha-individualist ... (Show more)
This paper presents a comparative analysis of the art and visual culture of anarcha- feminist circles in Brazil and Mexico in the 1910s to 1920s. It introduces the representative artists, favored artworks, stylistic preferences, and dominant medias of two leading Latin American anarcha-feminist groups. First, this paper focus on the Brazilian anarcha-individualist Maria Lacerda de Moura’s cultural journal Renascença. This cultural journal promoted São Paulo-based women painters, including Bertha Worms, Guiomar Fagundes, and Nicota Bayeux, and featured art criticism, exhibition reviews, and essays that criticized the male-dominated art academies of Brazil. Second, this paper examines the visual culture of the U.S.-Mexican anarcho-communist Mexican Liberal Party, and their women members, including Juana B. Gutierrez de Mendoza, Andrea Villarreal, Blanca Moncaleano, María Talavera, and Teresa Magón. This paper argues that art was a means by which anarcha-feminist groups communicated radical ideas of domestic work, reimagined feminine sensibilities, and challenged patriarchal notions of women’s role in national and hemispheric anarchist movements in Latin America. Anarcha-feminists developed theories of art alongside their ideas of marriage, free love, and sexuality. However, although anarcha-feminists in Brazil and Mexico shared much in common ideologically, their aesthetic and political visions for art’s revolutionary power diverged; they promoted different styles of art and developed varying strategies for supporting artists. Nevertheless, their promotion of specific art forms and artists suggest that anarcha-feminists were influential in the emergence of Latin American avant-gardes. (Show less)

Kirwin Shaffer : The Cultural Politics of Anarchist Literature, Art, and Graphics in Cold War Cuba, 1950-1961
Following its height in the first decades of the twentieth century, anarchism declined in importance in Cuba as activists left the movement, fled into exile, or were killed by the government. However, immediately following WWII, anarchism emerged again on the island. In 1950 alone, there were three anarchist ... (Show more)
Following its height in the first decades of the twentieth century, anarchism declined in importance in Cuba as activists left the movement, fled into exile, or were killed by the government. However, immediately following WWII, anarchism emerged again on the island. In 1950 alone, there were three anarchist publications, including one devoted strictly to the arts and culture. Another publication focused on the anarchist labor union of workers in hotel, restaurants, cafés, and cabarets, i.e., the heart of Cuban tourist culture. In the 1950s, as Cuba fell under another dictatorship and saw the emergence of revolutionary movements led in part by Fidel Castro, anarchists returned to their historic use of culture (particularly fiction and poetry), photography, and graphics. Through these media, they addressed numerous issues in Cold War-era Cuba, especially sexuality, racial politics, and tourism. Upon the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in January 1959, anarchists continued to use poetry, photography, and graphics to celebrate the Revolution and promote their own far-left agenda that soon ran afoul of a growing Marxist, centralized state apparatus. (Show less)



Theme by Danetsoft and Danang Probo Sayekti inspired by Maksimer