Building Latin American Bicentennials in the Age of Globalization
The bicentennial commemorations of national independence in Latin America, especially Argentina, Chile, and Mexico in 2010, and seven other countries in the next 15 years, offer an excellent opportunity for comparative and multidisciplinary action-research on how governments and civil society in these countries are constructing their bicentennial commemorations and how they will use this historical moment to address urgent issues of social inclusion and institutional reform.
The Observatory on Latin America (OLA) of the New School and the Bicentennial Program of the School of Architecture, Design, and Urban Planning of the University of Buenos Aires (FADU-UBA), together with research teams in Chile and Mexico, has embarked on a three-year action-research project to: 1) document the different modes by which Argentina, Chile, and Mexico constructed their national centennial commemorations, how they left their mark on their respective cities, and how they are preparing their bicentennials; 2) compare these themes, and 3) evaluate their processes and outcomes, in terms of current plans and their links to projects for the future. The project will culminate in a Bicentennial Summit Research Conference in 2010 bringing together regional and national policy-makers and researchers from government, universities, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations.
In 2004, the Latin American Bicentennial Project (LABP) team of the New School, created an initial data base on bicentennial activities and published an edited volume, “Construir Bicentenarios: Argentina”, in 2005 on the meaning of commemoration and specific proposals for discussion during the Argentine Bicentennial. Some 10,000 copies of this book were printed in collaboration with Caras y Caretas, and thousands have been sold in Argentina and elsewhere in Latin America. An important message of this book is that the Bicentennial should be a process and not an event.
This work has been further extended by the Bicentennial Project (BP) of FADU-UBA which has developed a directory of 90 bicentennial activities in Argentina and elsewhere. The BP consists of 18 Argentine staff, most working as volunteers, under the supervision of Professor Margarita Gutman and Associate Professor Rita Molinos, and is also working with the City and Provincial Governments of Buenos Aires.
Building on the work already underway at the New School and at FADU-UBA, it is carrying out a joint action-research effort to collaborate with researchers in other Latin American countries. This effort includes strengthening capacity and creating tools for the region as a whole such as a web-site, an on-line publication, The Bicentennial Observer, and a Bicentennial Data Base, as well as an International Call for Submissions of Papers and Visual Digital Presentations on the above subjects which would include papers and participants from the other countries as well. Discussion of these papers in regional conferences with policy-makers and representatives of civil society in 2009 and 2010 would itself be part of the Bicentennial process. In addition, the LABP would support publications in the form of books, articles, and a web-site.
The historic sharing of the Bicentennial among many countries across the region offers a unique opportunity for building regional collaboration in new areas. Two countries, Bolivia and Ecuador, will celebrate their bicentennials in 2009, followed by Argentina, Chile, and Mexico in 2010, and with Venezuela and Paraguay in 2011. Colombia has decided to commemorate its anniversary in 2019, followed in 2021 with Guatemala and Peru.
This historical convergence therefore offers the opportunity to hold broader region-wide discussions about democracy and social justice in the region. In Argentina, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina has suggested that the Bicentennial commemoration offers an opportunity to consider the “re-founding’ of the state, strengthening human rights, the rule of law, and popular representation, while confronting the problems of poverty, inequality, and social exclusion. Other scholars and public figures across the region have begun to appreciate the Bicentennial as a potentially important historical moment for the region in pursuing social and institutional reform.
The LABP is co-directed by Professors Margarita Gutman and Michael Cohen of the New School and the University of Buenos Aires.
Both Professors Gutman and Cohen are on leave from the New School in the spring semester of 2008 and working with the FADU-UBA team in Buenos Aires, thereby assuring close coordination in the launching of the project.
Building Latin American Bicentennial Program Team OLA - New School
Co-Directors: Margarita Gutman and Michael Cohen
General Coordination: Valeria Luzardo
Bicentennial Program team in Buenos Aires FADU-UBA
Program Co-Directors: Margarita Gutman and Rita Molinos
General Coordination: Ileana Versace
Media Coordination: Martín Gromez
Media Advising: Bart Orr
Operational Support: Alejandro Schwindt y Javier Nesprias
Internet website team www.bicentenarios.edu.ar (January to December 2007)
Project Co-Directors: Margarita Gutman y Rita Molinos
General Coordination: Victoria Baeza
Coordination Photo Album section: Ileana Versace; Sandra Rua, Héctor Aguilar y Marina Vasta
Calendar and Agenda section: Miguel Carrasco, Mariano Schilman y Carola Moris
The above are also members of the Cátedra Historia I-II-III Gutman-Molinos of FADU-UB www.fadu.uba.ar
