Art and Basque identity in Río de la Plata (1877-1954)

ALFONSINA LERANOZ

Boise

Otro; DIASPORA EGUNA EUSKAL IKASKETAK MINTZAGAI; 2021

Boise State University

My dissertation title is "Art and Basque identity in Río de la Plata (1877-1954)". Its main objective is to analyze how visual arts contributed to the construction and recognition of the Basque identity in the Río de la Plata Region between the late nineteenth century and the mid twentieth century. The visual arts central to this research are painting, drawing, engraving/stamps, sculpture and architectural decoration or ornaments. My research spans from the year 1877, right after the end of the Carlist Wars, and also the moment when Basque associations were emerging in the region, until 1954, when the book "Arte Vasco" by the Basque artist Mauricio Flores Kaperotxipi, who was then exiled in Argentina, was published in Buenos Aires by the Editorial Vasca Ekin. My initial working hypothesis is that the Basque community in the Río de la Plata Region, between Argentina and Uruguay, implemented strategies of appropriation of the visual arts to build its own group identity. This visual representation of identity was shaped by interactions with the native land, the experience of migration and/or exile, and the dynamic formation of Argentinian and Uruguayan national identities. I also found that in this period there were fluctuations, continuities and ruptures, in these symbolic uses and the narratives that supported them.My main objective is to identify these symbolic strategies. But I also will deepen into the following items:- To recognize the main agents involved and the narratives that support these practices.- To establish a periodization that reveals the fluctuations in these operations. - To inquire about the strategies displayed by Basque artists to stand out within the Río de la Plata Region. Here we found interesting contradictory positions between the artists, the critics and prominent members of the Basque community.- And last but not least, to study the contribution of this Basque cultural presence to the region. In addition to studying the links between Euskal Herria, Argentina and Uruguay, and the identity representations that interacted in these territories, this project aims to explore a relegated artistic heritage, mostly hidden from the public eye.