The Memory of Mestizaje. Questioning official narratives and imaginaries

CATELLI, LAURA

Nueva York

Exposición; Latinx Caucus Activities for Spanish Heritage Month; 2023

Latinx Caucus. Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University

In connection with the social and historical context of the centennial of Argentina´s independence, I would like to bring to the discussion the way in which personal, subjective aspects tied to elite creole imaginaries about "indios”, are played out in this portrait. I contend that these “minor” aspects of the portrait, mostly known in the familiar, more intimate dimension of the image, could allow us to question the apparent stability of oficial narratives of mestizaje, that account for encounters between Spaniards and Indigenous people in a register that eliminates conflict and colonial domination from sociohistorical processes. Colón´s photograph shows that there are certain aspects that rise to the surface from small, local histories and family stories, that otherwise remain in the margins of the colonial archive, or even completely outside of it, even when postcolonial subjectivities are configured and reproduced there. The sleek surface of the official narratives of mestizaje are crisscrossed and sometimes even fractured by all these levels, voices, marks and subjects, as many critics from different fields have argued over the years. When official narratives come into contact with small histories, family anecdotes and minor voices, absences, forgetting and contradictions of mestizaje can become visible and productive, in critical and political terms.