Historia Natural De La República Ezequiel Martínez
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HISTORIA NATURAL DE LA REPÚBLICA EZEQUIEL MARTÍNEZ ESTRADA Y EL PROBLEMA DE LA FUNDACIÓN A Dissertation By JOSÉ ANGEL VALERO MARTÍNEZ Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, Alberto Moreiras Committee Members, Hilaire Kallendorf Eduardo Espina Manuel Broncano Head of Department, Richard K. Curry May 2019 Major Subject: Hispanic Studies Copyright 2019 José Angel Valero Martínez ABSTRACT This dissertation proposes a political reading of the Argentinian writer Ezequiel Martínez Estrada. Considering his essay production between the years 1933 and 1956, I illustrate in which manner the paramount problem in Martínez Estrada’s work lies in the critique of the republican thinking of the creole elites of the 19th Century. As I suggest, it puts forward a narrative model, which radically rebuts the premise of historical progress sustained by the nationalist discourses of the creole intellectuals. In this regard, the essays of Martínez Estrada amount to a narration of the foundation of the Argentinian Republic, which, at the same time, sheds light over the origin of its crisis as a modern Nation-State. Martinez Estrada’s chief contribution to the intellectual history of Latin America consists in his revision of the foundational genres of the Argentinian literature, insofar the function as symbolical constructions of a political community. Thus conceived, my dissertation is divided into five sections. The first chapter describes the state of the question in Martínez Estrada’s essay work, and establishes the postulates and the scope of a political approach of it. The second section analyzes the conceptual foundations of the creole Argentinian thought, and in which manner Martínez Estrada’s essays would invert them in the form of an opposition between a concept of the universal history (presupposed by the first), and a concept of the natural history (purported by the latter). The third section deals with Martínez Estrada’s revision of the gauchoesque literature, and, in particular, how the sense of a national territory is born out of this genre. The ii fourth chapter addresses the creation of a national historiography in Argentina as a metaphor of the temporal foundation of the Argentinian republic, which, from Martínez Estrada’s outlook encloses the source of legitimation of a certain political order. Finally, in the fifth section I draw the conclusions about the actuality of Martínez Estrada’s though in the current debates in the field of the Latin American studies. iii DEDICATION To my grandparents, Teresa, José, Dolores, and Angel, as an attempt to do justice to the past. To Karina, as well, looking towards the future. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my committee chair, Alberto Moreiras, and my committee members, Hilaire Kallendorf, Eduardo Espina, and Manuel Broncano, for their guidance and support throughout the course of this research. Thanks also go to my graduate colleagues, faculty and staff of the Department of Hispanic Studies of the Texas A&M University. In particular, I want to emphasize my gratitude to my friends María Gil, David Yagüe, Paloma Serrano, Zaida Aguilar, Sueli Rocha-Rojas, Elizabeth Earle, Michela Russo, Caitlin Williams and Peter Baker for their company and help during my stay in College Station. In addition, I would like to thank the staff of the Evans Library of the Texas A&M University for making every effort in getting the books that I needed for my research, as well as for keeping the library a pleasant environment for study. At this moment, I feel myself in the obligation to express my sincere gratitude to the staff and faculty of the department of philosophy of Complutense University of Madrid and the department of philosophy of the Autonomous University of Madrid where I acquired the tenets of my education as a scholar. In the same manner, special thanks go to the professionals of the primary schools Luis Vives, Els Garrofers, and the secondary school IES La Torreta that I attended in my hometown, Elche. I am proud of considering myself a product of the public education system of Spain and so, any relevance that my work might involve is in full due, not only to the education professionals, but also to the collective efforts of the citizenship who continue fighting v every day in defense of the dignity of the Spanish public schools. Therefore, I acknowledge here my incalculable debt to my fellow Spanish women and men, and whose fight I hope to be able to join soon. As could not be otherwise, I shall express here how much do I owe to my parents, José and Mercedes, as well as to my sister, Irene for their unconditional love, patience, care and support through the years. Thanks also to my cousins, aunts, and uncles, and, of course, to my old friends from my hometown, Nadine Thery and Luis Vega, who I consider part of my family. My last words of gratitude are for my precious friends Jorge Mola, Daniel Medina, Beatriz Duarte, Angela Millano, Guillermo García, Belén Castañón (Bruno and Gaucho included), Mónica Puebla, Luis Sarabia, Daniel Peyrot and Francisco Valero. For, beyond all the academic pomp and boastfulness, this dissertation is nothing but another way to continue the conversations that I started with them. vi CONTRIBUTORS AND FUNDING SOURCES Contributors This work was supervised by a dissertation committee consisting of Professor Alberto Moreiras of the Department of Hispanic Studies, Professor Eduardo Espina of the Department of Hispanic Studies, Professor Hilaire Kallendorf of the Department of Hispanic Studies and the Religious Studies Program, and Professor Manuel Broncano of the Department of Humanities at Texas A&M International University. Funding sources Graduate study was supported by a Graduate Teaching Assistantship from the Department of Hispanic Studies and the Liberal Arts College of Texas A&M University. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION .................................................................................................................. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... v CONTRIBUTORS AND FUNDING SOURCES ............................................................ vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................ viii 1. INTRODUCCIÓN: EN TORNO AL ENSAYO DE EZEQUIEL MARTINEZ ESTRADA ......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. La posibilidad del interrogante político ................................................................... 1 1.2. La presencia de la crítica de la cultura ................................................................... 21 2. EL PROBLEMA DE LA FUNDACIÓN: DE LA HISTORIA UNIVERSAL A LA HISTORIA NATURAL ................................................................................................... 62 2.1. La cuestión de la literatura nacional ...................................................................... 62 2.2. La fundación como problema político ................................................................... 79 2.3. La Ilustración como posición política .................................................................... 93 2.4. El concepto de historia natural ............................................................................ 114 3. LA FUNDACIÓN ESPACIAL: DEL DESIERTO A LA CIUDAD ......................... 150 3.1. La abolición de la naturaleza en Martín Fierro .................................................... 150 3.2. La frontera y la producción del territorio nacional .............................................. 189 3.3. Buenos Aires: la República suplantada ............................................................... 206 4. LA FUNDACIÓN TEMPORAL: HISTORIA Y MITO ............................................ 221 4.1. Naturaleza providencial e historia nacional ......................................................... 221 4.2. El enigma Sarmiento ............................................................................................ 256 viii 4.3. El enigma Perón ................................................................................................... 275 5. CONCLUSIÓN: LA FUNDACIÓN REPUBLICANA Y LA PRODUCCIÓN DE INVARIANTES HISTÓRICOS .................................................................................... 297 NOTAS ........................................................................................................................... 309 BIBLIOGRAFÍA ............................................................................................................ 322 ix 1. INTRODUCCIÓN: EN TORNO AL ENSAYO DE EZEQUIEL MARTINEZ ESTRADA 1.1 La posibilidad del interrogante político Desde un punto de vista formal la presente disertación se plantea como un estudio de la obra ensayística de Ezequiel Martínez Estrada. Concede mayor atención a lo que, siguiendo la clasificación propuesta por Adolfo Prieto (2013, 35) podría denominarse su segunda etapa, la cual abarca desde el diseño de Radiografía de la Pampa alrededor de 1930, hasta la aparición de ¿Qué es esto? en 1956 y comprende las obras más discutidas por la crítica literaria. Es precisamente la discusión en torno a las