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Introduction
2 boundary2 / Fall1993
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.
6 boundary2 / Fall1993
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
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
12 boundary2 / Fall1993
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
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.
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.