Bøker i Illuminations: Cultural Formations of the Americas-serien

In the early part of the twentieth century, Buenos Aires erupted from its colonial past as a city in its own right, expressing a unique and vibrant cultural identity. This title explores the changes of 1900-1930, with an aim to capture this culture in motion through which Buenos Aires transformed itself into a modern, cosmopolitan city.

The Matter of Empire examines the philosophical principles invoked by apologists of the Spanish empire that laid the foundations for the material exploitation of the Andean region between 1520 and 1640.

This volume presents new perspectives on how comics on and from Latin America both view and express memory formation on major historical events and processes.

Rosenberg explores Latin American artistic production concerned with the possibility of justice after the establishment, rise, and ebb of the human rights narrative around the turn of the last century.

Traces the production of nationalist imaginaries through the public visual representation of modern state formation in Brazil and Argentina. The purpose of these imaginaries was to vindicate political upheavals and secure the viability of the newly independent states through a sense of historic destiny and inevitable evolution. The visions of national heritage, territory, and social and ethnic composition were conceived in a complex interplay between government, cultural and scientific institutions, as a means of propagating political agendas and power throughout the emerging states.

Mestizaje - process of cultural, ethnic, and racial mixing of Spanish and indigenous peoples - has been central to the creation of modern national identity in Bolivia and much of Latin America. This study reveals how modernity in Bolivia has depended on a perception, forged during the colonial era, that local cultures need to be uplifted.