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Yucatán Como Escenario Histórico En Los Textos De Alice Dixon Le Plongeon Y Maude Mason Austin*

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Yucatán Como Escenario Histórico En Los Textos De Alice Dixon Le Plongeon Y Maude Mason Austin* Anuario de Historia Regional y de las Fronteras, vol.26 n.°2 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18273/revanu.v26n2-2021007 Yucatán como escenario histórico en los textos de Alice Dixon Le Plongeon y Maude Mason Austin* Resumen El presente artículo tiene como objetivo el análisis de la visión de Yucatán que ofrecen en sus obras dos autoras y viajeras anglosajonas: Alice Dixon Le Plongeon y Maude Mason Austin. Aunque pertenecen a cronologías distintas y sus actividades y experiencias fueron dispares, enlazan dos de los episodios más atractivos de la dinámica historia de la península. En la fiebre arqueológica por los monumentos prehispánicos yucatecos es donde se sitúa la británica Alice Dixon Le Plongeon, autora de Notes on Yucatán, publicadas en 1879, fruto de una larga estancia de trabajo junto a su marido, el arqueólogo Augustus Le Plongeon. La segunda protagonista de este estudio es Sue Mason Austin, habitualmente llamada Maude Mason Austin, que viajaría por el México posrevolucionario durante las dos primeras décadas del siglo XX y que nos dejaría un testimonio extraordinario titulado En Yucatán. Ambos trabajos construyen un retrato veraz de la región y de sí mismas en sus estrategias de representación. Palabras clave Tesauro: historia latinoamericana (México), viaje, biografías. Autora: Historia de Yucatán, Relatos de Viaje, Mayas, Alice Dixon Le Plongeon, Maude Mason Austin. Referencia bibliográfica para citar este artículo: Álvarez Cuartero, Izaskun. “Yucatán como escenario histórico en los textos de Alice Dixon Le Plongeon y Maude Mason Austin”. Anuario de Historia Regional y de las Fronteras 25.2 (2020): 181-218. Fecha de recepción:30/11/2021 Fecha de aceptación: 15/02/2021 Izaskun Álvarez Cuartero: Doctora en Historia por la Universidad de Deusto, España. Profesora titular de Historia de América e investigadora titular del Instituto de Iberoamérica de la Universidad de Salamanca y miembro titular de FLACSO-España. Ha sido Visiting Scholar en la John Carter Brown Library, el Center for Latin American Studies de la Universidad de Texas (Austin) y en la Otto Ritcher Library de la Universidad de Miami. Correo electrónico: [email protected]. Código ORCID: 0000-0002-2828-4581. ∗ Como especialista en la historia de Yucatán, he dedicado varios artículos a la trata de mayas yucatecos a Cuba como consecuencia de la Guerra de Castas en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX. En mis investigaciones me he servido de la literatura de viajes como una herramienta más para documentarme. Los textos en los que Alice Dixon Le Plongeon y Maude Mason Austin relatan sus viajes y estancias en Yucatán ofrecen una visión complementaria de la época que estudio, de ahí mi interés por dedicarles este trabajo. No he recibido ninguna financiación. 181 Yucatán como escenario histórico en los textos de Alice Dixon Le Plongeon y Maude Mason... Yucatán as a Historical Setting in the Texts of Alice Dixon Le Plongeon and Maude Mason Austin Abstract This article aims to analyze the vision of Yucatan offered in the works of Alice Dixon Le Plongeon and Maude Mason Austin, two Ango-Saxon travelers and writers. Both texts belong to different chronologies and women with very different activities and experiences, they are linked to two of the most attractive episodes in the dynamic history of Yucatán. It is during the archaeological fever for the Yucatecan pre-Hispanic monuments where the British Alice Dixon Le Plongeon is found; she is the author of Notes on Yucatan, published in 1879, the impressions written during her archaeological work in the Maya sites with her husband, the archaeologist Augustus Le Plongeon. The second protagonist of this study is Sue Mason Austin, usually called Maude Mason Austin, who would travel throughout post-revolutionary Mexico during the first two decades of the Twentieth-century and who would leave us an extraordinary testimony entitled En Yucatán. Both texts produce a real-life portrait of the region and themselves in their strategies of self-representation. Keywords Thesaurus: Latin American History (México), Travel, Biographies. Author: Yucatan History, Travel accounts, Mayas, Maude Mason Austin, Alice Dixon Le Plongeon. Yucatán como cenário histórico nos textos de Alice Dixon Le Plongeon e Maude Mason Austin Resumo O objetivo deste artigo é analisar a visão de Yucatán oferecida por dois autores e viajantes anglo-saxões em suas obras: Alice Dixon Le Plongeon y Maude Mason Austin. Embora pertençam a cronologias distintas e as suas atividades e experiências sejam diferentes, ligam dois dos episódios mais atraentes da história dinâmica da península. É durante a febre arqueológica pelos monumentos pré-hispânicos de Yucatán é onde se encontra a Alice Dixon Le Plongeon, britânica, autora de Notes on Yucatán, publicado em 1879, fruto de uma longa estada com seu marido, o arqueólogo Augustus Le Plongeon. A segunda protagonista deste estudo é Sue Mason Austin, normalmente chamada de Maude Mason Austin, que viajaria pelo México pós-revolucionário durante as primeiras duas décadas do século XX e que nos deixaria um testemunho extraordinário intitulado En Yucatán. Ambas as obras constroem um retrato verdadeiro da região e de si mesmas nas suas estratégias de representação. Palavras-chave Tesaurus: História da América Latina (México), Viagens, Biografias. Autor: História de Yucatan, Relatos de viagem, Mayas, Maude Mason Austin, Alice Dixon Le Plongeon. 182 Anuario de Historia Regional y de las Fronteras, vol.26 n.°2 1. Los preparativos Entre los viajeros que estos días recorren el mundo, ninguno ha excitado en tan alto grado la curiosidad como tres mujeres que han aparecido recientemente en las calles de París vestidas con pantalón de zuavo, paletó gris con pasamanería negra y gran sombrero chambergo. Una de ellas se llama Miss Walker; es profesora de medicina, y ardiente partidaria de la emancipación de su sexo. Es americana, tiene cincuenta años, y se dirige a Turquía a ocupar, según parece, la plaza de médica en el serrallo del sultán ¡incauto príncipe! No le damos la enhorabuena por la elección ¿A alguien se le ocurre meter en un serrallo a una emancipadora de mujeres?1 Desde que a finales del siglo XIX este periodista español quedara asombrado por la visión de tres damas ataviadas con un precedente del traje de chaqueta y pantalón por las calles de París, rumbo a Turquía, hemos recorrido muchos caminos y, hoy en día, la llegada de mujeres viajeras a los rincones más insospechados del planeta nos resulta una imagen habitual y nada sorprendente. Tal vez sí lo es la proliferación de relatos con los que estas viajeras quisieron dejar testimonio de su experiencia, muchos de los cuales están siendo analizados en profundidad desde distintas ópticas y planteamientos teóricos. Son numerosos los estudios que se han publicado sobre la mirada femenina hacia la diversidad cultural y natural, en el sentido más amplio del concepto, y se suele destacar la intuitiva sensibilidad de estas pioneras en la observación de otras formas de vida o de procesos sociales y políticos ajenos.2 Sería oportuna una reflexión sobre el género de los relatos de viaje, precedentes de los ahora tan extendidos blogs, saber qué espacio ocupan en ellos la memoria y el silencio, cómo se comportan y transforman esos recuerdos en el papel en blanco hasta constituir una literatura “de lo íntimo, [que] incluye también los diarios, las memorias, las autobiografías y los recuerdos”.3 Es innegable que el interés editorial por sacar a la luz los trabajos de unas 1 La Ilustración Española y Americana, Madrid, 30 de agosto de 1874, 498. 2 Desde finales del siglo XX se investiga el hecho poscolonial y la mirada particular de las mujeres hacia ciertas problemáticas, fundamentalmente para Oriente. Una selección de estudios incluiría a: Blunt, A. y Rose, G (eds.), Writing Women and Space: Colonial and Postcolonial Geographies (Londres: Guilford Press, 1994); Duncan, J. y Gregory, D (eds.), Writes of Passage: Reading Travel Writing (Londres: Routledge, 1999); García Ramón, Maria Dolors. “Viajeras europeas en el mundo árabe: un análisis desde la geografía feminista y poscolonial”, en Documents d’Anàlisi Geogràfica, núm. 40, Barcelona: Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona y Universidad de Girona, 2002, pp. 105-130; Grewal, I. Home and Harem: Nation, Gender, Empire and the Cultures of Travel (Durham: Duke University Press, 1996); Méndez, Adriana. “Epifanía en el paisaje: viajeras a Cuba y la ensoñación de la isla”, en Estudios: Revista de Investigaciones Literarias, núm. 16, Baruta: Universidad Simón Bolívar, 2000, pp. 143-162; Mills, Sara. Discourses of Difference. An Analysis of Women’s Travel Writing and Colonialism (Londres: Routledge, 1991), pp. 27-122; Monicat, Benedicte. Itineraires de l’écriture au feminin. Voyageuses du 19e siècle (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996); Paravisini-Gebert, Lizabeth. “Oriental Imprisonments: Habaneras as seen by Nineteenth-Century Women Travelers”, en Rose De Angelis, (ed.), In Between Anthropology and Literature: Interdisciplinary Discourses (Londres: Routledge, 2002), pp. 121-132; Pratt, Mary Louise. Ojos imperiales. Literatura de viajes y transculturación (Ciudad de México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2010), pp. 286-316. 3 Marie-Claire Hoock-Demarle, “Leer y escribir en Alemania”, en Duby, Georges y Perrot, Michelle (dirs.), Historia de las Mujeres. Vol. IV: El siglo XIX (Madrid: Taurus, 2000), 202. Son interesantes las reflexiones que hacen Augé y Ricoeur sobre el binomio memoria y olvido y su mecánica psicoanálitica en relación con la reconstrucción de vivencias, donde
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