Revista del CESLA. International Latin American Studies Review

On the trail of María de la Luz. A portrait of the Hispanic-Cuban slave society between the 18th and 19th centuries

Mario Montero Herranz — 2024-12-31

The XIII duchess of Alba, María Teresa de Silva, died in 1802. With no offspring, she adopted a child called María de la Luz as her own daughter. She was born in Cuba under the yoke of slavery, and then sent to Madrid, where she was given to the duchess. Although the child was privileged by her adoptive mother and portrayed two times by the famous painter Francisco de Goya, who had a close relationship with María Teresa, there are very little information about her. This article presents already known sources and a small text published in a Cuban newspaper from the beginning of the 19th century that provides new data about her figure, while we use her particular case to understand various aspects, related to it, of the colonial slave society of the moment.

INTRODUCTION - The Imaginary from a Latin American perspective_ theoretical-methodological approaches and new uses

Alexandre Borges — 2024-12-31

When Guaíba bleeds: Water and imaginary in the south of Brazil

Ana Tais Martins — 2024-12-31

The article addresses the topic of climate change in the Brazilian context, taking as its object the floods that occurred in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, in 2024. It takes the perspective of theories of image and imagination as formulated by Gilbert Durand and Gaston Bachelard, focusing on the relationship between human beings and nature, with special attention to the element of water. The intention is to understand which symbolic strategies are mobilized to deal with the phenomenon of flooding, reflecting on the role of communication in this process. It is concluded that violent water, like the climate catastrophe, results from the domination of the heroic, separatist logical structure of the imaginary, with this same water containing a fusional component, which blurs the boundaries between objects, humans and landscapes, in a possible response balancing mystique of the collective unconscious.

Imaginary and Memory in Gisele Sperb's self-portraits: an analysis ofthe symbolism that emerges in her pictorial work of a artist

Geza Guedes — 2024-12-31

This article aims to analyse the self-portraits of Visual Artist Gisele Sperb, based on the pictorial trajectory developed by the artist. The following authors were used as theoretical references to underpin the studies: Henri Bergson (1999), to discuss the construction of individual memory; Paul Ricoeur (2007), for his reflections on memory and imagination; Pierre Nora (1993) and Maurice Halbwachs (2006), based on his considerations about memory and time; and Gaston Bachelard (1978, 2006) and Gilbert Durand (1995, 1996, 2012), with regard to studies of the image and imagination, as well as the imaginary, respectively. As a source for this essay, seven self-portraits were analysed in different languages: painting, photography and installation, in addition to paintings of the artist's mother and father.

A conversation to Blacken Social Imaginary

Izabel Espindola Barbosa — 2024-12-31

We propose a conversation to Blacken the Social Imaginary instigated by the term ‘brindle soul’ in the discussion from the dossier ‘Imaginary from a Latin American perspective’. When turning our gaze, from studies of the Social Imaginary, to the reality in which Latin Americans live, along with the established history that still segregates people by skin tone, the imaginary signification of a term can contain violent approaches. A violence that in writing is usually silent. Thus, we bring to the text two concepts to think about Améfrica Ladina and the imaginaries: desaprendizagem (Rufino, 2021) and amefricanity (Gonzalez, 2020), as a theoretical-conceptual review of the imaginaries, with the aim of cismar - a term in Brazilian ' which carries the movement of critical reflection. The text is full of other concepts, from Afro-descendant intellectuals, mainly women - even though they are silenced by excluding their first names in the citations. Against this violent standardized silence, we try, whenever possible, to write women's first names. This demarcation of 'women' proposes the sharing of knowledge of these - and many other - black female intellectuals who challenge the established models for, we hope, a Blackness in education.

The contribution of Latin American fiction cinema to contemporary imaginaries

Rogerio Almeida — 2024-12-31

The objective of this article is to investigate the contribution of fiction cinema to the formation of contemporary imaginaries, with an emphasis on nihilism and its antidote, the tragic affirmation, from a Nietzschean perspective and based on the premise that cinema, as a narrative art, plays a pedagogical role in the (re)configuration of reality and the construction of meaning. The theoretical framework is primarily grounded in the contributions of Gaston Bachelard and Gilbert Durand for studies of the imaginary, Friedrich Nietzsche for tragic thought, and David Bordwell, among others, for cinematic approaches, with symbolic hermeneutics and Nietzschean perspectiv- ism as the methodology. The study focuses on films, mostly Latin American, that exemplify nihilism, characterized by the devaluation of supreme values, and tragic affirmation, which uncondi- tionally embraces life. The results indicate that cinema not only reflects the imaginaries of a society but also exerts significant pedagogical pressure, influencing collective perception and promoting reflections on the human condition. The research concludes that, by confronting nihilism with tragic affirmation, cinema offers a symbolic antidote, enabling the revaluation and intensification of life, in alignment with the euphemizing function of the imaginary.

(In)vocation of Medea in Améfrica: Ladinas dramaturgies and mythical transfigurations

Sabrina Paixão Bresio — 2024-12-31

The essay proposes a mythopoetic investigation into the figure of Medea and her reconstruction in contemporary dramatic works. Based on the conceptual articulation of Améfrica Ladina proposed by philosopher Lélia Gonzalez, this study interprets the recompositions of the character Medea in Latin American contexts. It emphasizes Brazilian productions where the recreation of Medea by black authors and performers inspires new fables and enriches the imagery of the myth. Grounded in the logic of subalternized perspectives, which reclaim the narrative and rewrite the character's trajectory, the analysis examines symbolic recurrences and the persistence of certain mythemes, while also considering new Afro-Brazilian mythopoetic propositions. These reinterpretations offer alternative ways of perceiving the Medea myth, as seen in the works Mata Teu Pai (2017), Medea Mina Jeje (2017), and Medeia Negra (2018).

An archetypal analysis of technical images in the transposition of the Velho Chico

Zulenilton Sobreira Leal — 2024-12-31

The images captured by cameras and media devices go beyond mere technical records; they reflect a collective imaginary shaped by political, historical, natural, and sociocultural factors. This study aims to analyse how these images, produced through media technology, are rooted in an imagination structured by universal symbols known as archetypes. To achieve this, we adopt a symbolic hermeneutic approach from the Anthropology of the Imaginary, employing a qualitative, descriptive, bibliographic, and documentary methodology. Archetypology is used to examine the role of creativity and imagination in the production of these images. As empirical material, we analyse four television reports from 2007, 2017, 2020, and 2021 on the transposition of the São Francisco River, addressing both protests and celebrations surrounding the completed projects. The study reveals that technical images transcend their functional aspect, playing a central role in symbolic creativity. This process led to the conceptualisation of an Ecology of Images, wherein visual representations do not merely reflect reality but actively shape and are shaped by biological, cultural, and ecological dynamics.

The journey through the images of the night: dreams as substrate of the Latin American imaginary

Higor da Cunha — 2024-12-31

This article explores the importance of dreams in Latin American cultures, in the construction of identities and in the cultural production, in order to observe how the dream experience relates to the construction and development of the Latin American imaginary. Dreams are fundamental experiences that connect human beings to metaphysical and ontological dimensions, influencing beliefs and social practices. In Amerindian cultures, the native American saw dreams as portals to other perceptions of reality and encounters with images of otherness, associated with themselves or with entities. Dream stories are fundamental to social cohesion, allowing communication between individuals and nature. Also, in the artistic and literary production of Surrealism and Magical Realism, dream images emerge as a possibility of alteration or an enchanted vision of reality, as a counterpoint to the culture based on instrumental rationality. It acts both as a material for poetic creation and as an inspiration for aesthetic, philosophical, ethical, epistemological, metaphysical and political principles. The dream emerges not only as an individual phenomenon, but as a collective experience that shapes the cultural and spiritual life of Latin American peoples.