Representations of the Gran Chaco in travelers of the 1870s: the navigations of Emilio Castro Boedo and Arturo Seelstrang

Abstract

In the present work we will analyze the representations of the territory and the inhabitants of the Gran Chaco that are constructed in two writings from the end of the 19th century: the work Estudios sobre navegación del Bermejo y colonización del Chaco (1873) by Emilio Castro Boedo, and the Informe de la Comisión Exploradora del Chaco (1877), by Arturo Seelstrang. We are interested in asking how these discourses interact with the process of material and symbolic incorporation of the Chaco region in the national territory and with the different representations that are built at this time about the place of Argentina in the world. What expectations are deposited in the Chaco region and with what imaginaries are they related? To what extent do these speeches recreate topics inherited from previous speeches linked to the conquest and colonization of America?

Keywords

• seelstrang
• castro boedo
• río bermejo
• gran chaco
• navegación