The "Ateneísta" origin of Latin American cultural history

Abstract

In this article, the formation of a transnational network of intellectuals, that of the "Ateneístas" - a group which was originally constituted in Mexico through the double experience of the "Ateneo de la Juventud" and of participation in the various cultural initiatives promoted by the Revolutionary governments of Mexico (and especially in the creation of the Universidad Nacional de México) -, is analyzed; as is its role in the origins of the cultural history of Latin America. The intellectual trajectories of two of its most prominent members - which, through their agency, contributed to the formation of an intellectual network linking the national intellectual fields of Mexico, Argentina, Spain and Brasil - are examined in some detail: those of Pedro Henríquez Ureña and Alfonso Reyes. The purpose of this study is dual. It proposes an exploration, on the one hand, of the relationship between the international circulation of ideas and the conditions for the emergence of new cultural formations within national intellectual fields. It seeks, on the other hand, to analyze the specific process whereby a historiographical discourse with novel characteristics took shape in the region - through the agency of a confluence of specific works, publishing projects, cultural institutions, and cultural contacts among the different countries of Iberoamerica. The period covered is roughly that which stretches from 1906 to 1960.