Introduction

Author(s): John Beverley and Jos Oviedo

Source: boundary 2, Vol. 20, No. 3, The Postmodernism Debate in Latin America (Autumn,
1993), pp. 1-17
Published by: Duke University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/303337 .
Accessed: 16/05/2011 10:26
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at .
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=duke. .
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Duke University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to boundary 2.

http://www.jstor.org

Introduction

John Beverley and Jose Oviedo

There is somethingaboutthe very idea of a LatinAmericanpostmodernismthatmakesone thinkof thatconditionof colonialor neocolonial
dependencyin whichgoods thathave becomeshopwornor out of fashion
inthe metropolisare, likethe marvelsof the gypsies inOne HundredYears
of Solitude,exportedto the periphery,
wheretheyenjoya profitable
second
life.Forsurelyafterallthe articles,books,conferences,exhibitions,videos,
and performances,afterLyotardand Habermas,Madonnaand Baudrillard,
the concept of postmodernismhas itselfbegunto be devouredby habitualizationand to lose the powerof aestheticostraneniethatrecommended
it to our attentionin the firstplace. Yet,it is preciselyat this pointthat, in
the last fouror five years, it has come to the top of the agenda of Latin
Americanculturalproductionanddebate.
It is the purposeof this collectionto give some sense of whatthis
variantof postmodengagementhas involved,less to presenta "regional"
ernismthan to resituatethe conceptitself,whichrisksbeingcolonizedby
ina moregenuinelyinternational
framework
Anglo-European
provincialism,
the
Latin
will
the
America
have
twice
of
(by year2000,
population the United
boundary 2 20:3, 1993. Copyright? 1993 by Duke UniversityPress. CCC0190-3659/93/$1.50.

2 boundary2 / Fall1993

in a contextinwhichthe argumentforpostmodStates). Moreparticularly,

ernismhas been mademainlyfromanti-(orpost-)Marxistpositions,and in
whicha visceralanti-postmodernism
has predominated
amongsectors of
the traditionalLeft,it seemed important
to us to offera visionof the Latin
Americandiscussionthat not onlyemphasizedits affinitywiththe project
of the Leftbutalso saw it as an important
means of renovatingthe Left's
exhaustedor discreditedpoliticalimaginary.
Postmodernseems a particularly
termfornation-states
inappropriate
and social formationsthat are usuallythoughtof as not yet havinggone
throughthe stage of modernity,in Weber'ssense of the term,or, perhaps
more exactly,thatdisplayan "unevenmodernity"
(whatsociety does not,
however?).To compoundthe problem,the wordsmodernismoand posmodernismodesignatein LatinAmericanSpanishearlytwentieth-century
literarymovementsthat have no directcorrespondenceto whatis generally understoodas modernismandpostmodernismin English.1Notingthe
is yet another
anachronism,OctavioPaz has arguedthat postmodernism
thatdoes notfitLatinAmerica,which
importedgrandrecit(likeliberalism?)
needs to produceits own formsof culturalperiodization,
and he has been
echoed inthisclaim,fromthe otherside of the politicalspectrum,by Marxist
criticssuch as Nelson Osorio.2Therewas, moreover,a clear coincidence
betweenthe appearanceand spreadof postmodernism
inWesternEurope
and the UnitedStates and the politicalhegemonyof the New Rightin the
1980s, a coincidencethatgives some credenceto the idea that postmodernismis a new formof culturalimperialism,
the "American
International,"
1. The not quite identicalSpanish equivalentof modernismis vanguardismo,not modernismo,so that by the logicof the Anglo-European
narrative,postmodernismas a styleconcept should be posvanguardismo.Posmodernismodesignates, in SpanishAmerican
literaryhistory,a short-livedand transitionalmovementin poetry around 1910 in reaction to the hegemony of modernistaaestheticism (its manifestowas a sonnet by a
Mexicanpoet that began with the words, "Wringthe neck of the swan!").But, as the
essays gatheredhere indicate,posmodernismois nowcomingintogeneralusage in both
sense. The situationis differentin Brazil,
Spain and LatinAmericain the Anglo-European
where modernismoand posmodernismoalreadycorrespondto the Englishmeanings,
with,however,the qualificationthatmodernismodesignates botha specific movementin
Brazilianpoetryand modernismas an international
style or movement.
2. See OctavioPaz, "Elromanticismoy la poesia contemporanea,"
Vuelta11, 127 (1987):
of a debate on postmodernismat a 1988
26-27; Osorio'sremarksare in the transcription
Dartmouthsymposiumon LatinAmericanliterarycriticism,Revista de CriticaLiteraria
Latinoamericana29 (1989): 146-48.

andOviedo/ Introduction
3
Beverley
as AndreasHuyssenonce putit.3Thereis the relateddangerthat-as in
the case of Baudrillard's
of a
writingson the UnitedStates-the production
in relationto LatinAmericamay involvethe aespostmodernist"sublime"
theticfetishizationof its social,cultural,and economicstatusquo, thereby
attenuatingthe urgencyforradicalsocial changeanddisplacingit intoculturaldilettantismandquietism.4
These reservations,however,also seem to miss somethingof the
natureof postmodernismitself,the way it is boundup withthe dynamics
of interactionbetween localculturesand an instantaneousand omnipresent globalculture,inwhichthe center-periphery
modelof the worldsystem
dominantsince the sixteenthcenturyhas begunto breakdown.5
In FredricJameson'sinfluential
or the Culessay "Postmodernism,
turalLogicof LateCapitalism"6--now
itselfa culturalfact of globalpostinits mostgeneralsense, is a periodizing
conmodernity-postmodernism,
to
whose
function
is
correlate
the
new
of
formal
features
cept
emergence
in culturewiththe technological,economic,and socialfeaturesof the new,
transnationalstage of capitalism,whichis now beginningto envelopeven
the formerlysemi-autarkic
space of the Communistbloccountriesand the
remaining"underdeveloped"
(i.e., precapitalist)
spaces of the ThirdWorld.
It is undoubtedlytrue thatJameson'stotalizingconstructionof postmod3. Itis worthrecallinghere thatthe rise of the New Rightwas itselfpreparedin partby the
impositionof reactionarymilitarydictatorshipsin the SouthernCone countriesof Latin
Americain the early 1970s and that RonaldReagan launchedhimselfas a nationalcandidatein the mid-1970saroundhis oppositionto the PanamaCanalTreatynegotiatedby
Kissingerduringthe Nixonand Fordadministrations.
4. GeorgeYtidice,who has been perhapsthe mostastutecommentatoron the questionof
LatinAmericanpostmodernismin this country,notes alongthese lines that "Tocelebrate
'parasitism'(whose LatinAmericancorrelateis the problemof informaleconomies) or the
effects of the exterhyperreal(whichin LatinAmericais wroughtby the hyperinflationary
nal debt and narcotraffic)is likecheerleadingon the sidelines as neoconservativessell
out the country."See "Postmodernity
and Transnational
Capitalismin LatinAmerica,"in
On Edge: TheCrisisof Contemporary
LatinAmericanCulture,ed. George Yuidice,Jean
Franco,and Juan Flores (Minneapolis:Universityof MinnesotaPress, 1992), 1-28. The
when he
ArgentinenovelistRicardoPigliamade the same pointmoreepigrammatically,
noted in conversation,"Postmodernism
means the poorare wrong."
5. A useful, if not unproblematic,overviewof this is ImmanuelWallerstein,Geopolitics
and Geoculture(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress, 1992).
6. FredricJameson, "Postmodernism,
or the CulturalLogicof LateCapitalism,"
New Left
Review 146 (1984): 53-92. Jameson's essay was publishedin Portuguesein 1985 by
the BrazilianjournalNovos Estudosand in Spanishin 1986 by Casa de las Am6ricas.

4 boundary2 / Fall1993

ernisminvolves,as AijazAhmadhas argued,"asuppressionof the multiplicityof significantdifferenceamongand withinboththe advancedcapitalist countriesand the imperialisedformations"7-apointNelly Richard
and CarlosRinconecho in theircritiqueshereof the ethnocentrismof the
dominantconceptof postmodernism.
Globalization
of capitaland commuIfanything,ittends to aggravate
nicationsdoes notmean homogenization:
the normalcapitalistdynamicsof combinedand unevendevelopment(we
have come to understandthat the "primitive
accumulation"
is not only a
featureof the originsof capitalism),producing,as in the earliermoment
of Lenin'sImperialism,the welterof conflictingnational,ethnic, and rethatis the stuffof the international
news these days.
gionalparticularisms
On the other hand,there is a sense in whichmanycontemporary"Third
World"culturalexpressions may be seen as postmodern,even in the
strategies:
very heterogeneityand specificityof theiraesthetic-ideological
forexample,KenyannovelistNgugiwa Thiongo'sdecisionto abandonthe
novel and writemainlyin Kikuyu;RigobertaMenchu'sstrikingtestimonial
narrativeof IndianresistanceinGuatemala,I, RigobertaMenchu;the panAmericanculturalpoliticsof Cuba'sCasa de las Americas;SouthAfrican
townshipjivemusic;MahaswetaDevi'sBengalistories(andtheirtranslation
and commentaryby GayatriSpivak);contemporary
Filipinofilm;the punkin
Colombian
rockcultureof the Medellinslumsportrayed the extraordinary
filmRodrigoD-No Future;John Leguiamo'sperformancepiece on U.S.
Latinoculture,Spic-O-Rama;or the Los Angeles rapgroupNiggersWith
Attitude.ItfollowsthatforJameson,the choice is notbetweena metropolitan postmodernismand somethingthat is clearlyotherthan it but rather
betweendifferentideological"spins"thatcan be givento postmodernism,
whatJameson likesto callan "aestheticsof cognitivemapping."
The LatinAmericanvoices includedhere willqualifythis claimwith
the recognition
that,ratherthansomethingthatemanatesfroman advanced
outwardtowarda still dependentneocolonialperiphery
center
capitalist
(convenientlyleavingthe powerof agencyinthe handsof the center),what
Jameson means by postmodernismmightbe betterunderstoodas preas, thatis, notso muchthe
cisely the effect inthatcenterof postcoloniality:
"end"of modernityas the end of Westernhegemony.Theengagementwith
postmodernismin LatinAmericadoes nottake place aroundthe theme of
manifesthe end of modernitythat is so prominentin its Anglo-European
7. AijazAhmad,"Jameson'sRhetoricof Othernessand the 'NationalAllegory,'"Social
Text17 (1987):3.

Beverley and Oviedo / Introduction 5

tations;it concerns,rather,the complexityof LatinAmerica'sown "uneven

andthe newdevelopmentsof its hybrid(pre-and post-)modern
modernity"
cultures.(Jose JoaquinBrunnerargues that postmodernismis, in effect,
the specificformmodernitytakes in LatinAmerica.)
The characterof this engagementhas hadto do, above all,withits
relationto the crisis of the projectof the LatinAmericanLeftin the wake
in the periodthatextendsfrom1973 to
of its defeat and/ordemobilization
the present.The CubanRevolutionin 1959 inaugurateda new historical
noncapitalist
dynamicin LatinAmerica-the possibilityof an "alternative,"
LatinAmericanmodernity-which,however,itwas unableto sustaininthe
of the UnitedStates to retainits hegemonyover
face of the determination
the region.A numberof interrelated
developmentsindicatethe containment and eventualexhaustionof this dynamic.These includethe failure,
at the end of the 1960s, of boththe armedstrugglestrategyrepresented
by the guerrillafoco and the "peacefulroadto socialism"representedby
electoralpoliticsinChile;the eventual
SalvadorAllende'scoalition-building
model
foran achievedsocialistsociety
of
Cuba
itself
as
a
problematization
in the context of the unravelingof communismin the Soviet Unionand
EasternEuropeas a consequenceof perestroika;the Sandinistas'defeat
inthe 1990 electionsin Nicaragua,whichbroughtto an end one of the most
formof LatinAmerican
promisingexperimentsinfindinga non-Communist
role
of
the
the
nationalism;
(largelyprivatelyowned)
revolutionary
growing
the LatinAmericanculmass media,particularly
television,indetermining
turalimaginary,displacingpreviousprint-basedmodels of culturalhegeof the nationalizedsectors of
mony;the stagnationor endemiccorruption
LatinAmericaneconomies;the consequentattractionof neoliberalpolitical
economyfor importantsectors of the LatinAmericanbourgeoisieand inandthe changes inthe
telligentsiapreviouslytiedto nationalistparadigms;
natureof the intelligentsiaitselfand in its relationto the state and transnationalorganismsbroughtby the combinedeffects of militaryrepression
and economicinternationalization.
As NorbertLechnerprofilesinthe essay
includedhere,whichhas becomeperhapsthe best-knownanatomyof the
postmodernturnin LatinAmerica,all of these factorsled to a pervasive
climateof "disenchantment"
and a demandfora new "political
realism"or
in whichthe nationalistand leftistideologiesthathad de"depolarization,"
fined the protagonismof the LatinAmericanintelligentsiain the previous
periodhave been at best puton hold,at worstabandoned.
Inthe context of the crisis of the traditionalLeftand the waning of the
right-wingmilitarydictatorships imposed to contain its force in the 1970s,

6 boundary2 / Fall1993

the theme of democratization

has playedthe same roleinthe LatinAmerican discussionof postmodernism
as the shiftin aesthetic-epistemological
Theimpulseforthe latter
postmodernism.
paradigmsdidinAnglo-European
came mainlyfromthe humanitiesand artcriticism;in LatinAmerica,it has
come, as the balanceof ourselectionssuggests, fromthe social sciences,
with,however,this proviso:that in assumingthe problematicof postmodernism,the LatinAmericansocialsciences havealso begunto assume the
obligationto take on problemsthatwere posed initiallyin the humanities,
in advancedliteraryandculturaltheory.
particularly
The restructuring
of the LatinAmericansocial sciences in recent
years has involved,amongotherthings,the emergenceof distincttransnationalorganizationsfor theoreticalworkon cultureand society. These
include,forexample,the Centerforthe Studyof StateandSocietyinArgentina(CEDES);Venezuela'sCentrode EstudiosLatinoamericanos
"R6mulo
the LatinAmericanFacultyfor Social Sciences in
Gallegos"(CELARG);
the BrazilianCenterforAnalysisand PlanSantiagode Chile(FLACSO);
in
Sao
the vast conglomeration
of intellectualsin
Paulo;
ning (CEBRAP)
or aroundthe NationalUniversityof Mexico(UNAM)and the Colegiode
Mexico;and as a coordinatingcenterforthese, and other nationalor regionalorganizationsof the same type,the LatinAmericanCouncilof Social
Sciences (CLACSO)in Buenos Aires,formerlyheaded by FernandoCalare connectedwithone or anotherof these
deron.Mostof ourcontributors
organizations.8
As noted, what, in general,has definedthe agenda of these think
tanksand networkshas been the problemof the long-term
viabilityof demoin the face of the worst
craticconstructionin LatinAmerica,particularly
economic crisis it has experiencedin this century.Partlybecause of the
crisis,this concernhas involveda shiftawayfromthe equationof democrawhichprevailedacross the political
tizationwitheconomicmodernization,
spectrumin differentideologicalformsrangingfromdependencytheoryto
the Alliancefor Progressin the 1950s and 1960s, butwhose mainexpression was probablythe workof the EconomicCommissionon LatinAmerica
8. Amongthe firstimportantrepresentationsof the LatinAmericanpostmodernismdiscussion were the special issue of the CLACSOjournal,Davidy Goliath52 (1987), and
the subsequent collection,Imagenes desconocidas: La modernidaden la encrucijada
posmoderna (Buenos Aires:CLACSO,1988), both edited by Calder6n.For a negative
of the LatinAmericanintelligentsia,however,see
appraisalof the transnationalization
James Petras, "The Metamorphosisof LatinAmerica'sIntellectuals,"LatinAmerican
Perspectives 65 (Spring1990): 102-12.

andOviedo/ Introduction
7
Beverley
(CEPAL).By contrast,the experienceof the technocraticmilitarydictatorships in Brazil,Chile,Argentina,and Uruguayin the 1970s demonstrated
(in a mannerFrancisFukuyamaevidentlyneglectedto consider)not only
didnotnecessarilyfolloweconomicmodernization
thatdemocratization
but
also thatpoliticalmodernity(democracy,formalrights,fullcitizenship,etc.)
might,undercertainconditions,actuallybe an impedimentto economic
modernization
underneoliberalcapitalistauspices.
What began to displace both modernizationand dependency
of the interrelation
between the
models, therefore,was an interrogation
of
an interrorespective"spheres"(culture,ethics,politics,etc.) modernity,
with
gationthatrequiredof socialscientistsa newconcern
subjectivityand
of, andtolerancefor,the cultural,religious,
identity,andnewunderstandings
and ethnicheterogeneityof LatinAmerica.Inthe 1970s, this led to a wide
a neo-Gramscian
reading,or rereading,of Gramscithat institutionalized
American
This
Latin
intellectuals.
was followedin
languageamong many
the 1980s by the impactof Foucault(less so Derrida),Habermas,Baudrilto Weber"evidentin manyof
lard,feministtheory,and a general"return
the contributions
here.
A landmarkinthe redefinition
of the LatinAmericansocial sciences
was CLACSO'sconferenceentitled"TheSocialConditionsof Democracy,"
held in Costa Rica in 1978, which,if it did not exactlyinauguratethe idea
of the crisis of LatinAmericanmodernity(whichis as old as the endemic
crisisof LatinAmericanliberalism
itself),certainlyhighlighteditinthe wake
of the problematization
of the alternativeprojectof modernityrepresented
by Cubaand the Left.As a follow-up,nowexplicitlyrecognizingthe failure
of the Leftand the epistemologicalcollapse of previousmodels of Latin
Americandevelopment,CLACSOlaunched,in 1987,a projectportentously
titled"TheSocialSciences, Crisis,andthe NeedforNew Paradigmsof the
RelationshipbetweenState, Society,andthe Economy."
As the statementof the LatinAmericanSubalternStudiesGroupeviand contradictory
has
dences, this new sense of modernityas paradoxical
led to, amongotherthings,a self-interrogation
of the intelligentsiaitself,a
questioningof the linkagebetweenthe state and intellectualsas designers
of the future,or,whatmayamountto the same thing,betweenthe cultural
discourses
practicesof hegemonydevelopedby elites andthe disciplinary
of the humanitiesand social sciences thatseek to studythese practices.
This has been notonlya matterof self-criticism
and paradigmshifts,however. New, "horizontal"relations between intellectuals and both new and
traditionalsocial movements are emerging with the redefinitionof political

8 boundary2 / Fall1993

agency suggested by postmodernistperspectives.XavierAlbo'sreworking of the parametersof nationalidentityin LatinAmerica,forexample,is

connected to his workwithgrass-rootsindigenouspeoples organizations
in Bolivia,workthat has included,amongotherthings,writingradiosoap
operascriptsinAymaraforthem.Theideahas been to movefroma politics
to one of solidarityand participation.
(andepistemology)of representation
the
failure
of
our collection,in this respect, has
Perhaps
greatest
been its inabilityto connect,exceptin passing,the postmodernist
turnwith
the rapidand extensivespreadof feminismand women'sorganizationsin
LatinAmericain the last ten or fifteenyears.9We sharewithNellyRichard
the beliefthatthe rise of a LatinAmericanfeminism(andthe questioning
of hegemonicgenderidentityformationsgenerally)maybe, inthe longrun,
the mostradical,andradicalizing,
expressionof a LatinAmericanpostmoddiscussionin
ernism.It is also, however,a limitation
of the postmodernist
LatinAmericatoday (and by no means onlythere)that,whileit assumes
of new
andcelebratesthe "practice"
the feministcritiqueof phallocentrism
divisionsbetweenthe political
social movementsthatchallengetraditional
dimension
and the experiential,the publicandthe private,its "theoretical"
is stilllargelyarticulatedby maleintellectuals.10
Thisbringsus to anotherareathatcouldalso be betterrepresented
in our collection,whichis the relationbetweenpostmodernismand Latin
its intersections(anddivergences)withLibAmericanreligion,particularly
hereby EnriqueDusselsuggests some
erationTheology.The contribution
of the issues involvedin the critiqueof modernitybeing undertakenby
LatinAmericanphilosophersand theologianssuch as himself,Gustavo
to the CLACSOseminar
Gutierrez,and LeonardoBoff.In a contribution
9. For overviews of this phenomenon,see The Women'sMovementsin LatinAmerica:
to Democracy,ed. Jane Jacquette(Boston:UnwinHyman,
Feminismand the Transition
1989); Nancy Saporta Sternbach,MarysaNavarroAranguren,PatriciaChuchryk,and
Sonia Alvarez,"Feminismsin LatinAmerica,"in The Makingof Social Movementsin
LatinAmerica, ed. ArturoEscobarand Sonia Alvarez(Boulder:Westview,1992); and
the Private,"in On Edge, 65-83.
Jean Franco,"GoingPublic:Reinhabiting
10. To illustratethe problem,Richardcites the commentof the feministwriterRaquel
Olea, in a 1990 conferenceon modernismand postmodernismat the Universityof Chile:
debate cannotbe the objectof ourLatinAmericanfemi"Themodernism/postmodernism
nist discourse, whose own ambiguous integrationin culturalprocesses derivingfrom
eurocentrismpreventsitfrompositioningitselfclearlyin relationto its own reality.... As
women . . . we have not been subjectsof the projectof modernity,norof the crisis of this
project."See Nelly Richard,Masculino/Femenino:Practicas de la diferenciay cultura
democratica(Santiagode Chile:FranciscoZegers, 1993), 90, n. 3 (translationours).

andOviedo/ Introduction
9
Beverley
characterizesthe post-Medellin
mentionedabove, FranzHinkelammert
reformsin the LatinAmericanchurchas a reactionto the loss of subjectivity
in a worlddominatedby economism.As in DanielBell'sidea of the "spiritualcrisis"inducedby consumersociety, Hinkelammert
sees the "return"
of religionin LatinAmericaas, in effect,a postmodernist
phenomenonthat
acts to contest the self-referential
rationalization
of modernity
"scientific"
of
and
belief
the
center of
at
by reinstallingquestions meaning,identity,
social life."
There is also the possibility,suggested here by NorbertLechner,
thatthe renewedforceof religionin LatinAmericanlife markspreciselya
reactionagainst postmodernity
and its well-knownpenchantfor hybridity,
and
its
relativism, heterogeneity, aesthetichedonism,its anti-essentialism,
and its rejectionof "greatnarratives"
One formof this re(of redemption).
action may be seen in the articulations,
importedfromthe UnitedStates,
betweenright-wing
whichhave made
politicsandreligiousfundamentalism,
inroads
and
incountriessuch
communities
major
amongpoor working-class
as BrazilandGuatemala.Sucha reaction,however,is also implicitinthe call
of religiousfiguresidentifiedwiththe Left,such as Nicaragua'sErnestoCardenalor Dussel himself,to reconstituteLatinAmerica'straditionof utopian
thinking.As the conclusionof Dussel's piece makes clear,the discourse
of Liberation
Theology,likethe radicalhermeneuticpracticesof the Christian base communitiesit is the theoreticalexpressionof, aims to displace
Eurocentricconceptionsof both modernityand postmodernity
in favorof
an entirelydifferenttheoreticaland historicalregister.As the exercise of a
"preferential
optionfor the poor,"it is not only about otherness and subin
as
the "fictions"
of Borgesand GarciaMarquezdiscussed by
alternity;
CarlosRinc6nhere,orthe testimonio,its pointis also to constituteanother/
an Otherway of thinkingand feeling,whichDussel calls the projectof a
"trans-"
(ratherthan"post-")modernity.
As a critiqueof and practicalresponse to capitalistmodernity,in
other words, LiberationTheologyis itself partof the postmodernistturn
in LatinAmerica.At the same time, LiberationTheologycontests positions and attitudesoften associated withpostmodernismin the name of
11. FranzHinkelammert,
"Frentea la culturade la postmodernidad:
Proyectopoliticoy
utopia,"Davidy Goliath52 (1987). See also his Criticade la raz6nut6pica (DEI:Costa
Rica, 1984);Jose Mardones'sPostmodernidady cristianismo:El desafio del fragmento
(Santander:EditorialSal Terrae,1988);and PabloMorande'sinfluentialCulturay modernizaci6nen AmericaLatina(Santiagode Chile:UniversidadCatolicade Chile,1984).

10 boundary
2 / Fall1993
a narrativeof historicalcontinuityand redemptionthatit composes out of
elementstakenfromtraditional
Marxism,Christianeschatology,and popularand indigenousculturalmemory.Whereaspostmodernism
emphasizes
new formsof secularculturalandaestheticagency,the theologicalcritique
of modernityseeks to reassertthe centralplace of the sacred and organized religionin LatinAmericanlife. Whatis clear in eithercase-and it
wouldbe usefulto see Liberation
Theologyas itselfconstitutedby the tension betweenthese alternatives-is thatinLatinAmerica,utopianimpulses
are not disappearingwithpostmodern"disenchantment";
rather,as Anibal
here-both
in
make
their
contributions
Xavier
and
explicit
Quijano
Albo
of which have as a pointof referencethe socioculturalproposalsof the
nativepeoples of the Andes-they are beingredefinedin tensionwiththe
uncertaintyand openness of LatinAmerica'sfuture.
Despite our own evidentbias in favorof the postmodernturn,we
of proand con posihave triedto buildintothis selectiona representation
tions in the debate, with MartinHopenhayn'sessay situatingitself consciously at the center,and NellyRichard'sand HernanVidal'sat the respective extremes(Richardis the editorof the journalthatVidalprofilesin
his piece). EvenVidal'sessay, however,whichis perhapsthe most overtly
in the collection,ends in its declarationof affectivesolianti-postmodernist
with
the projectit critiquesand in its appealto studycultural-political
darity
note itself,an ironythe
on somethingof a postmodernist
"microsituations"
authorhimselfis awareof. We wouldbe remiss,then, ifwe didnot at least
sketch the elements of the muchstrongercritiqueof postmodernismthat
has been prevalentin manysectors of the LatinAmericanLeft.We are
fortunateto have availableforthis purposeNeil Larsen'sbrilliantpolemic
and Imperialism:
"Postmodernism
Theoryand Politicsin LatinAmerica,"
whichhas itselfbecome a partof the LatinAmericandebate.12
is simplyan imported
Againstthe assumptionthat postmodernism
thereexists whathe
that
Larsen
fashion,
grants
(orimposed)metropolitan
he
findsexemplifiedin
which
calls a LatinAmerican"leftpostmodernism,"
evidentin RigobertaMenchu'stestimonio,in Dussel's
the "ethicof survival"
12. The essay appearedin Englishin the on-linejournalPostmodernCultureI, 1 (1990),
InSpanishtranslation,itis available
accessible on Internetfrompmc~@ncsuvm.ncsu.edu.
in Modernidady postmodernidaden AmericaLatina(I), ed. Jorge Ruffinelli,a special
issue of Nuevo TextoCritico6 (1990), publishedby the Departmentof Spanish and Portuguese at StanfordUniversity.Alongsimilarlines, see Greg Dawes, "Sandinismoand
in his Aesthetics and Revolution(Minneapolis:
Universityof Minnesota
Postmodernism,"
Press, 1993), 1-32.

11
andOviedo/ Introduction
Beverley
"analectics"andLiberation
Theologygenerally,inErnestoLaclau'sworkon
in
RobertoFernandezRetamar'scelebrationof
and
and
politics
ideology,
LatinAmericanalterityin his essay "Caliban."
Despitetheirstartingpoint
in the historicalrealityof combinedand unequaldevelopment,however,
Larsenfeels thatthe LatinAmericanleftpostmodernists
all, to one degree or another,proceed to distortthis realityinto
is postulated
a new irrationalist
and spontaneistmyth.Marginality
as the conditionwhich,purelyby virtueof its objectivesituation,
uponwhich
spontaneouslygives riseto the subversiveparticularity
postmodern politics pins its hopes. . . . The strategic watchword
seems to be "hegemony" . . . [which]implies a need to substitute

a formof organizationbased on spontaneouslyarisingsocial and

culturalideologiesand practicesforan "older"one of party-based,
consciousness-raisingagitationand recruitment....[These]politics
of spontaneism[are]the derivativeeffects of retrogradedevelopmentswithinthe leftitself,of whatamountsto the conscious political decisionto give up the principleof revolutionas a scientifically
groundedactivity,as a praxiswitha rationalfoundation.... [Such
a decision]rests on an intellectualdistrustof the masses, a view of
the masses as beyondthe reachof reasonand hence to be guided
by myth.
This is sharplyput and coincideswitha healthyskepticismabout
the changedsituationand roleof intellectualsin relationto popularmovements in LatinAmericathat XavierAlboalso notes in his essay. In our
opinion,however,what Larsen'scritiqueof postmodernismbetrays(and
whatitshareswitha socialdemocraticcounterpart
suchas Habermas'sThe
Philosophical Discourse of Modernity)is the discomfortof the "traditional

intellectual"-inGramsci'ssense of theterm-in theface of the emergence

of bothsubalternand commodifiedmass cultures,and the corresponding
nostalgiafor a rationalpoliticsof clearlydefinedclass parties,based on
the assumptionof a transparency
of representation
betweenclass position,
self-consciousnessas a historicalagent, party,and strategicline. This is
surelya transparencythatnotonlya "culturalist"
emphasison the relative
of
the
but
even
a
modest
of the realityof the
autonomy
political
appreciation
in
unconscious humanlifeseriouslyputsintoquestion.Itis notto denigrate
the capacityfor enlightenmentof the masses that a postmodernistposition emphasizes subjectivityand culturalrelativity;
rather,it is to underline
that the intellectuals and politicalorganizers who are supposed to be the

12 boundary2 / Fall1993

bearersof this enlightenmentare also constructedas subjectsin the field

of desire, and thata politicsthatdoes notpass the test of thisfieldwillfail.
Whatis at stake in the LatinAmericandiscussionis the relationof
the problemof democratization
and social integration
to the new sense of
culturaland aestheticagency postmodernism
posits. Froma postmodernist perspective,the Leftneeds to makeof aestheticexperienceitself-or,
morebroadly,symbolicproductionand consumption-botha place of resistance to actuallyexistingformsof dominationand exploitationand an
enactmentof new formsof community,work,and pleasure.Such a shift
involves,as NestorGarciaCancliniandSilvianoSantiago(the lattersignificantlya convertfromliterarycriticism)suggest most urgentlyamong the
contributorshere, acceptingthe challengeof mass cultureand the mass
media ratherthan simplydismissingthese as sites for the productionof
false consciousness,as tendsto be the case inthe dominantmodelof Latin
Americanmedia studies, constructedarounda synthesisof dependency
schoolcritique.BeatrizSarlo'sdissectionof the roleof
theoryand Frankfurt
in
of the LatinAmericanpoliticalimagielectronicsimulacra the production
nary in her essay here is closer to this model,by contrast,and as such
dialoguesdirectlywithSantiago'senthusiasmfortelevision.
Larsenis correctto note (he is certainlynot alone in this)thatwhat
of the new social movements,as in the
is problematicin the micropolitics
and pastiche,is the
contingentaestheticcelebrationof alterity,marginality,
lackof any overallstrategyforhegemonybeyondthe sometimesfeverish
activityof the individualgroupsor an ad hoc alliancepolitics,since, by
is, or can be made, central.As Nelly
definition,no issue or contradiction
difference. . is
in
it
her
Richardputs cogently
piece here, "Celebrating
not the same as givingthe subjectof this differencethe rightto negotiate its own conditionsof discursivecontrol,to practiceits differencein the
sense of rebellionanddisturbance."
interventionist
Whileit is clear that the new social movementsneed not be exhowever,capitalism,whichhas a stake in maintaining
plicitlyanticapitalist,
conditionsof subalternityand exploitationof all sorts, representsa limitconditionto theirfulldevelopment.Jose JoaquinBrunnergoes perhaps
here in suggestingthat Marxism,even
the furthestof all the contributors
in the neo-Gramscianmodefromwhichhis ownworkcomes, has become
an impedimentratherthan a stimulusforworkingthroughthe new political, economic, and culturalprocesses that LatinAmericansocieties are
experiencing.Itis worthkeepingin mind,however,thatthe forceof class
Some
struggleis not entirelysuspendedin postmodernist"heterologies":

andOviedo/ Introduction
13
Beverley
of the most powerfulof the new social movementsare preciselythe kinds
of unionorganizationsand union-community
coalitionsthat have sprung
in
up the wake of the effects of the globalizationof capital,such as the
Brazilianmetalworkers'union,whose formerleader,Lula,came close to
winningthe last presidentialelectionin Brazil.Noris a postmodernistpolitics necessarilyonlyan "antipolitics"
of aestheticvanguardism
ordispersed
or
this
is
its
single-issue identity-politics
groups,though
certainly mostcharacteristicmanifestation.We differamongourselvesaboutthe natureand
validityof the Sandinistaprojectin Nicaragua;butwe agree that,even in
defeat (and preciselybecause of theircommitmentto implementand to
respect democraticprocesses in the face of massive foreignaggression
and interference),the Sandinistasare exemplaryof the emergence of a
postmodernist,butstillexplicitlysocialist,formof politicalagency in Latin
America.Alongsimilarlines,we couldalso pointto the evolutionof FMLNFDRin ElSalvadorfroma coalitionof Leninistsects to a broadmultilayered
left movementembracingelectoralparties,guerrillagroups,tradeunions,
culturalfronts,and "popularorganizations";
the BrazilianWorkersParty,
whichsponsoredthe candidacyof Lula(alongwiththe SouthAfricanANC,
itis one of the few movementswe knowof inwhichpoststructuralist
intellectuals coexist peacefullyand productively
withunionizedautoworkers);the
dynamicgrowthof LatinAmericanwomen'sgroupsandfeminismwe noted
earlier;the sortof laborcum ecologicalactivismthatChicoMendesrepresented inthe Amazonregionbeforehis assassination;RigobertaMenchu's
Committeeof CampesinoUnityin Guatemala,and other establishedor
emergingorganizationsof indigenouspeoples;the left electoralcoalition
thatdevelopedaroundCuauhtemocCardenasin MexicothatGarciaCanclinimentionsinhis interviewhere,nowformalized
as the DemocraticRevolutionaryParty(PRD);the MovementtowardSocialism(MAS)andthe more
grass-rootsbased CausaR inVenezuela;or even the possibilitysuggested
inthe UnitedStates bythe concept,if notthe presentorganizational
reality,
of the RainbowCoalition.
UnliketraditionalCommunistor Socialistparties,such formations
need to retainwithinthemselves a heterogeneityof new social movements and even class components(this requirementis also the source
of theirinternalproblemsand contradictions,
since they have to appease
whose
interests
be
groups
may structurally
incompatible-as the verydistinctcases of SolidarityinPolandorthe SandinistasinNicaraguaillustrate).
As FernandoCalder6nexplainshere, these formationsexplicitlyseek to
distance themselves from the "vertical"mobilizationof the masses from

14 boundary2 / Fall1993

above andfromthe corresponding

thatwerethe
politicsof "representation"
in
of
Latin
America
leftism
the
and
populism
earlyand middle
mainstays
decades of thiscentury.Yet,at the same time,likepopulism,theyalso seek
to raisemajoritysupportfora politicalprojectbuilton a moreor less coherent social visionand policyguidelines,andon a set of valuesto give these
toucheson the questionof state power
legitimacy-a projectthatultimately
itself(notonlywho has it butalso whatthe state is). Theyare, in ourview,
partiesor politicalformationsof a new type,whichholdthe promiseof the
of the LatinAmericanLeftunderthe conditionsof
possible reconstruction
postmodernity.
At the same time,we need to recognizethat,because by virtueof
very critiqueof essentialismthere is no necessary conpostmodernism's
nection between it and the Left,a postmodernismof the Right(on the
model of what StuartHallhas calledThatcher's"authoritarian
populism"
in GreatBritain)is also flourishingin LatinAmerica,represented,among
otherthings,by the presidential
campaignsof bothMarioVargasLlosaand
Fujimoriin Peru;the mediapopulismof Menemin Argentinaand Collorin
Brazil(whose recentimpeachmentadds a happyand unexpectedtwistto
the story);Hernandode Soto's neoliberaleconomicmanifestoThe Other
the current
Path; the complexpoliticsand economicsof narcoterrorism;
Trade
Free
in
to
the
North
American
Mexico
of
transformation
response
Agreement;or simply(to name the capitalof this postmodernismof the
Right)Miami.Andto indicatethatthe Leftshouldlearnto operateon a new
terrainin new ways does not, of course,guaranteethat it can or will:Witness its currentimpasse in the SouthernCone countriesthat manyof our
inthe
come from,despiteits intimateanddecisiveparticipation
contributors
there.
process of redemocratization
Itmayalso be the case thatthe terribleravagesinflictedon the social
fabricof LatinAmericaby neoliberaleconomicpoliciesin the last decade
are producingthe possibilityof the revivalof an overtlyrevolutionary
politics.
Ifthatis true,and ifthe problemsof the LatinAmericanLeftare seen from
the perspective(whichin one formwouldbe thatof ShiningPathin Peru)
thattherealreadyexists a modelof partybuildingandpoliticalstrugglethat
simplyhas not been implementedeffectively,or thatthe failureof this or
that leftstrategywas mainlydue to the forceof U.S. destabilizationrather
than problemsinternalto it, then the effortto relatepostmodernismand
the projectof the Leftin LatinAmericashouldbe seen notonlyas "culturand divisive-something likean
alist"butalso as potentiallydemoralizing
attemptto yuppifyleftculturalpolitics.

BeverleyandOviedo/ Introduction15
What is clear to everyone involvedin the LatinAmericadebate, howis
ever, that if socialism failed in the form it took in the Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe, by the same token "actuallyexisting"capitalismcontinues
to fail the majorityof Latin Americans, whose standards of living-never
high in the first place-have deterioratedspectacularly in the last decade
or so. The question remains, then (and if it has a vaguely mode retro ring,
that is because the circumstances are similar),What is to be done?
Meanwhile, the judgment of LatinAmerica on its other (and since
this collection is intended mainlyfor a NorthAmericanaudience, it is useful
to recognize that the LatinAmerican other is also looking at you) is now
almost a century old. Speaking in the Cuban Senate in 1904 against accepting the imposition of the Platt Amendment, which was to distort and
cripple the Republic of Cuba in its moment of origin, Salvador Cisneros
Betancourt noted of the UnitedStates: "Theyshould rememberthat there is
no such thing as a small enemy, and that the twentiethcentury willend with
their decadence, and they willfigure no more among the leading nations of
the world"(our thanks to Roberto Fernandez Retamarfor this quotation).
But there is another way to read Betancourt'sprophecy, a way that
reminds us that the traditionalpolarizationbetween the United States and
Latin America has served elite interests in both regions and that recognizes, at the same time, the partialunravelingof the hegemony of economic
neoliberalism with the appearance of new politicaland social possibilities
represented by Clinton'selectoral victoryand his projectof "reinventingthe
government."The UnitedStates itself, witha Spanish-surnamed population
of some 25 million,has now become the fifth-largestnation of the Hispanic
world (out of twenty), and by the millenniumwillbe the thirdor fourth. If, as
we have argued here, the postmodernismdebate in LatinAmericahas been
closely linked to the process of democratization(cultural,economic, political, etc.) in that region, then surely it is significantthat by the year 2076, the
tricentennialof the American Revolution,a majorityof the populationof the
United States will be of African,Native American,Asian, or Latinodescent.
If postmodernist theory has focused on the "microphysics"of power, and
has been, up to now, limitedin its consequences to the university,the art
world, and avant-garde social movements, there is, in the lightof this demographic mutation, the possibility of its intersection with macroinstitutional
policies and reforms at the level of state and transnationalorganisms. The
margin, in other words, is becoming the center.

16 boundary 2 / Fall 1993

There is now a fairlylarge bibliographyof materialson the question of

postmodernism and LatinAmerica, includingseveral collections in Spanish
(thatthis was not the case five years ago is some measure of the importance
the topic has acquired). With the exception of the statement of the Latin
American Subaltern Studies Group, which involves both North Americans
and LatinAmericans, we have limitedour selections here to LatinAmerican
participantsin the debate. This has led us to exclude the importantessays
of George
and Neil Larsen,whichwe mentionin this introduction,as
Yutdice
well as others workingon this topic in the United States and Great Britain,
such as Greg Dawes (who has writtenon the relation of postmodernism
and Nicaraguan revolutionaryculture), Santiago Colas, Emily Hicks, Marc
Zimmerman,Doris Sommer, and WilliamRowe and VivianSchelling, whose
Memory and Modernity(London:Verso, 1991) is the first handbook of the
emerging field of LatinAmericanculturalstudies. Even with this limitation,
however, we could have easily produceda collection twice this size. Missing
here are such importantfigures in the LatinAmericandebate as, to name
just a few, Ernesto Laclau (who had to remindan audience at a conference
on "Identity"organized by October in New Yorknot so long ago that he was
a LatinAmerican, not a European);the BraziliansLuizCosta Lima, Renato
Ortiz, Heloisa Buarque de Holanda; our friend Hugo Achugar; Benjamin
Arditi;Adolfo Sanchez Vazquez; the late Agustin Cueva (one of the most
acerbic critics of the postmodernturnfromthe Left);Jesus Martin-Barbero;
Roger Bartra;the Venezuelans Celeste Olalquiaga and Luis BrittoGarcia
(pro and con postmodernism,respectively);RicardoGutierrezMouat;Jorge
Ruffinelli;Ticio Escobar in Paraguay; and Antonio Benitez Rojo (whose
The Repeating Island: The Caribbean and the Postmodernist Perspective-recently published in English by Duke University Press-we have
significant disagreements with but recognize as an ambitious application
of postmodernist theory to the question of regional identity)-not to speak
of the hundreds of writers and artists who have assumed a postmodernist posture more or less explicitly,such as the Latinoperformance artists
GuillermoGomez Peia and John Leguiamo, and the generation of Cuban
painters and sculptors of the 1980s that the brilliantCuban artcriticGerardo
Mosquera has profiled.13
Because of our links with the CLACSO and FLACSO groups in
Buenos Aires and Santiago, our selection is biased toward the Southern
13. See RachelWeiss and GerardoMosquera,eds., TheNearestEdge of the World:Art
and Cuba Now (Brookline,Mass.: PolaritiesInc.,1990).

BeverleyandOviedo/ Introduction17
Cone and seriously underrepresents Mexico (the absence of those rival
minor gods of the Mexican pantheon, Carlos Monsivais and Octavio Paz,
is particularlynotable), as well as the extensive postmodernist discussion
in Brazil,which makes up both in populationand size more than one-third
of what we call LatinAmerica. In particular,Roberto Schwarz's examination of "culturalcopying" in the formationof modern Brazil, "Nacional por
subtragao,"would certainlybe here alongside (and in debate with) Silviano
Santiago's essay had it not already appeared in English.14
Because of the space limitationsimposed by the publisher,we have
edited all of the contributionsand, in some cases, cut them quite drastically. We apologize to the authors for any loss in the force of their argument
this may have caused; it was done with the intentionof allowing a greater
number of voices to be heard here. We need to thank Paul Bove, the editorial collective of boundary 2, and Reynolds Smith of Duke UniversityPress
for supporting the idea of this collection. John Beverley also wishes to
thank his coparticipants in the study group on postmodernism sponsored
by the LatinAmerican Studies Association Cuba-NorthAmerica Scholar's
Exchange Program-for their stimulus (from Cuba: Roberto Fernandez
Retamar,CintioVitier,LuisaCampuzano, Desiderio Navarro,and Margarita
Mateo; from the United States: Mary Louise Pratt, Jean Franco, George
Yudice, and Evelyn Picon Garfield).We owe a special debt to our friend
Michael Aronna, who took time out from his own importantresearch on
the national essay in turn-of-the-centurySpain and LatinAmerica to translate a more often than not difficultSpanish into readable English, and to
Meg Sachse of boundary 2 for her patient and careful work on the manuscript. Carlos Rinc6n providedus with his own translationof a much longer
essay originallywrittenin German,whichwe adapted, not withoutsome difficulty,here. John Beverley is responsible for the translationsof the essays
by Enrique Dussel and Silviano Santiago, and for the final editing of the
manuscript as a whole.

14. Roberto Schwarz, Misplaced Ideas: Essays on BrazilianCulture(London:Verso,

1992).