“Translating Geographies: Foreign Maps and International Networks in Argentinean National Cartography, 1853-1939”.

CARLA LOIS

Moscú

Conferencia; 24th International Conference on the History of Cartography; 2011

Russian Library - Imago Mundi

During the Argentinean state-formation process, in the second half of the nineteenth century, the ruling elites developed several projects and policies in order to invent the nation. Most of those intellectual projects were designed, modified, and carried out “looking outwards” in an explicit ‘dialogue’ or a two-way flow of information with the international community. During the second half of the 19th Century, this dialogue affected the natural sciences in particular, but also arts, literature, historiography, museography, communications and, of course, cartography. As regards cartography, there are three aspects that define and summarize these dialogues. - Foreign professors were hired to organize scientific institutions and foreign professionals were in charge of the earlier cartographic projects. - Argentinean representatives participated actively at international forums on geography and cartography - The army’s professionalization were based on European curricular models and also relied on foreign professionals, especially in earlier times. This paper aims 1) to enquire into the dialogues that Argentina has kept with the international scientific community and the impact this has had on national cartographic projects; and 2) to identify and analyze the foreign cartography that was used to produce the ‘national cartography’ in Argentina. I will argue that, against the canonical account that emphasizes a lineal story towards progress and accuracy, the mapping and the map production and publication in Argentina was a process defined by the international scientific and political network, and strongly committed to respond to political demands: from the birth of Argentina to the period between the two World Wars, Argentinean cartographic production was characterized by the adoption of European institutional models, the hiring of foreign cartographers, the participation in international academic settings, the quick adoption of scientific standards agreed on by the ‘civilized nations’, and the remaking of the past with a stamp of nationalism. Considering that sources for national maps were all of them produced and published by foreign people and in foreign countries, I will argue that the Argentinean cartography is based on two kind of translations: on the one hand, a translation in a traditional sense (from English, French and German into Spanish); on the other hand, a translation in a “political” translation (from European’s interest into Argentinean’s territorial policies). In order to develop this idea, I will focus on three aspects: - The same and old data has been “translated” into a modern cartographical language following the prescriptions given by the International Map Committee (which represented the most advanced scientific parameters) - In this period, most of new traces designed on the map make part of a new rational, political and administrative structure, which is cartographically overwritten on poorly known and even unknown territories. - During this process, cartography by authors was replaced by institutional cartography. At the same time, maps started to be involved in diplomacy. So, any kind of visible foreign element on a national map became simply undesirable. Besides the analysis of the “cartographical writing” (in a nationalistic tone) involved in the Argentinean state-formation process, this paper intends to contribute to the discussion about historiography in the history of maps/cartography.