5 books to ponder on Respect for Cultural Diversity Day

Since 2010, the commemoration of “Columbus Day” has changed its name to that of “Day of respect for cultural diversity”, a wide range of ideas, feelings, and rights began to rewrite a history that struggled to overturn a biased (and violent) view of the arrival of Europeans in America.

This paradigm shift consisted in abandoning the idea of ​​“conquest” in order to reflect on and value the variety of people, cultures and voices that have been and are the key to building the national identities of Latin American peoples. We offer here a series of readings that follow the range of these multiple perspectives from which to think about cultural diversity, the contribution of indigenous peoples, as well as the rereading of these texts-documents of the time which, from this present , and crossed by postcolonial thought, expose the other side of the plot.

From fiction to essay, documents to poetry, we select some of the many readings available on Leamos.com think of ourselves as a diverse, rich and complex cultural America.

Think of America from its colonies. Texts and images of colonial America, by Silvia Tieffemberg (Editorial Biblos)

With the collaboration of specialists from various disciplines, this book proposes to think America by focusing the analysis on texts and images little known or little exploited by specialized criticism. The results obtained from the surveys that make up this volume have once again reinforced the presumption that what America “is” today, or whatever it may be called, what we “are” today. hui, cannot be understood without a deep understanding of this chance and this periodization conjuncture, what we call the colonial era.

> Read Thinking America from its colonies in Leamos

The other West. Latin America from European invasion to globalization, by Marcello Carmagnani (FCE)

Examining the encounter between Europe and America, and the transformations that have occurred through a process that began with the discovery and continues into the present 21st century. The author shows the web of relationships between various ways of life, beliefs, social organizations, laws and customs, policies and economies, thus giving rise to a new mode of Western civilization.

> Read The Other West in Leamos

From America to Europe. When the natives discovered the Old World (1493-1892), by Éric Taladoire (FCE)

There are many books on the impressions European chroniclers had of the New World, but little is known about the history of the women and men who were taken to the other side of the Atlantic during this time. What impressions did Native Americans have of these very different cities? Who were they to the inhabitants of the Old World and what role did they play in their societies? America in Europe is a detailed study of migration and the dimension of its consequences; The author analyzes the rare testimonies which give an account of the impressions of certain Indo-Americans who lived in various European cities between 1493 and 1892. This work will undoubtedly open up many avenues of research and will complete the traditional studies on the conquest and the colony.

> Read From America to Europe in Leamos

Reuëmn, compiled by Cristian Aliaga (Hudson Space)

The anthology of female voices and writings that the poet Cristian Aliaga so lovingly prepared is another bright knot in this global textile that constitutes the current indigenous poetry from Mexico to Chilean and Argentinian Patagonia. What nationalist geopolitics archived in obscure documents of civilization and barbarism (original knowledge and its natural expressions of art, for example), is reborn today in fullness of beauty, crossbreeding and cultural legitimacy, establishing a literary, ethical and political counter-power based on the talents and sensibilities of the Yamanas, Selknam and Mapuche singers and poets, who here raise the voice of their ancestors in invincible and varied spiritual and material songs, thus transforming themselves into the guardians heroic and humble of the myths, languages ​​and memories of their respective peoples. (Villa Jaime Huenun).

> Read Reuëmn in Leamos

Among the Indians, by César Aira (Era)

As often in each of César Aira’s novels, a real rarity on the continent, as well as a hilarious fiction, Chez les Indiens is a subtle meditation that does not obstruct the narrative. In this case, Aira reflects on the nature of desire and how it relates to intelligence, evil, and fear. One night in the pampas, the devil decides to appear to the Indians. His appearance, he thinks, will cause panic. But apparently, since this devil is another, very different from the one who, as the saying goes, accumulates knowledge over time, he makes a miscalculation. He did not take into account that the chosen night was a banquet. Men and women have eaten and drunk so much, they are so fed up and exhausted, that they are no longer there to see anything and even less to flee. Barely able to see the children who, far from being terrified, assume it like a huge toy that they happily ride. Of course, the devil cannot give up, so resist, insist and persist. He refuses to admit that his work is futile, he persists in his pretenses and insists on other plans and appearances, despite failing with every attempt. And these accumulated failures, more and more joyful, make the readers prey to a growing curiosity, no longer towards this little and stupid devil who seems almost pastoral, but towards the less than modest tribe, whose possessions are hardly horses. to ride, stolen mares to eat and a few leather canopies. To this city which does not build anything and prefers not to speak (even if when it speaks it does so for hours, ceremoniously) and which manages to resist the devil. And that’s what this novel tells us.

> Read Among the Indians in Leamos

Bonus title:

Chroniclers of pre-Columbian cultures, by Luis Nicolau d’Olwer (FCE)

This anthology collects testimonies around the cultural discovery of the peoples of the New World. The sources, which range from 1492 to the 18th century and from the Strait of Magellan to the island of Nutka, include Colón, Vespuccio, Díaz del Castillo, Motolinía, the Inca Garcilaso and Moziño, who, along with other brothers, jurists, soldiers and sailors, give their direct testimony of the American: the landscape, the aborigines, the women, the gods, the clothes, the virtues, the vices. This new edition, of the original from 1963, includes a preface by Pablo Escalante, an updated bibliography and some engravings of the original documents.

> Read Chronicles of pre-Columbian cultures in Leamos