Latin American Identity and The Contradictory Processes Involved in its Construction-Deconstruction-Reconfiguration in Global Contexts

Abstract

This paper addresses the difficult and contradictory formation, consolidation and change processes of Latin American identity from an anthropological and holistic perspective and in the context of the emergence of the world-system from the conquest, colonization and independence struggles to its current reconfiguration in the midst of transnational globalization and the alternatives to it. This approach, which we could call dynamicsynthetic, sees identity as a constantly changing open process where contradictory dynamics interact in the construction-deconstruction-reconfiguration of Latin American identity in specific historical contexts. Our continental collective identity is analyzed as the result of complex strains among various civilizational dynamics and opposing geopolitical forces. Dialectical and dialogical processes work together to allow the “reconciliation” of converse and diverse elements in innovative syntheses and create a space for dialogue that fosters what is shared to have a positive interaction, without denying the specific. In other words, they facilitate the interaction between “we” and the “others”, the “national” and the “continental”, the “local” and the “global”, enabling a better understanding of our inclusive continental nominative process: “Hispano-American”, “Ibero-American”, “Latin American”

Keywords

• Latin American identity
• globalization
• dialogue
• reconfiguration
• Us
• Others.