Is a scientific journal (peer-rewieved) published twice a year (June and December) by the Instituto de Estudios Avanzados (IDEA) of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, founded in 1849, with a long tradition in Arts and Crafts. Their publications have full open access online by Open Journal source, in Spanish, English, and Portuguese. Since 1999, is our goal has been to spread brand new results on Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences investigations, specially focused on interdisciplinary approaches, where social, political, art, and philosophical discussions could converge, preferably from a global south perspective.
Instituto de Estudios Avanzados - Universidad de Santiago de Chile
Interview with Eduardo Devés: Towards a decolonizing relationship with nature, the power of “lifecracy” fow a new planetic order
In this interview we have set out to explore the power of the relationships between humans and species of nature, and the possible relationships with the concept “lifecracy”, addressed by the academic and professor Eduardo Devés Valdés. His recent publications, entitled “The geopolitics of knowledge and the knowledge of nature (a second generation proposal)”, “Approaching the knowledge of nature is also a challenge for the studies of ideas...”, as well as his unpublished conference “The global circulation of ideas and ideoglobias: Contributions from Latin America and the Caribbean”, allow us to speculate on new forms of coexistence that overlaps with a speciesist perspective. These approaches have only confirmed Devés’ position as an unavoidable reference in the study of ideas.
Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
From desert to swamp: Towards a queer literary theory
This article seeks to pose a series of questions and inquiries regarding queer approaches to literature. To this end, it revisits some of the debates that emerged within feminist literary theory during the 1970s and 1980s, in order to trace the continuity (rather than an abrupt rupture) between these discussions, subsequent queer theory, and more traditional literary theory. Finally, through a brief examination of certain theoretical and literary works by Saxe, it proposes the notion of the swamp as a way of approaching literature that does not privilege content (and the representation of identities) over form (and its disruptive potentialities).
Copyright (c) 2026 Atiliio Raúl Rubino https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Landscapes and atmospheres from clandestinity: The experience of Miguel Littin
This article explores the narratives and visual representations of the clandestine life experienced by Miguel Littin upon his return as an exile to Chile under dictatorship in 1985. Based on Littin’s documentary Acta General de Chile and Gabriel García Márquez’s novel La aventura de Miguel Littin clandestino en Chile, from 1986, the categories of landscape and atmosphere are analyzed from three dimensions: corporeality, temporality, and spatiality. First, it is posited that the body suffers and resists dictatorial tensions by assuming a liminal position; then, temporality is relativized through the affects aroused by the contemplation of the environment, enabling the crossing of memories; finally, it analyzes how the dictatorial experience reconfigures the uses and values attributed to space. Methodologically, an interdisciplinary approach is used that integrates contributions from literature, semiotics, philosophy, cultural studies, and memory studies. In short, the results reveal that landscapes and atmospheres constitute situated memories that evidence the dynamic interrelation between space and clandestine experience.
Copyright (c) 2026 Paula Tesche Roa, Asef Antonio Inostroza, Bruno Jara Ahumada https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The microscope of time: The dancing intercorporality in Andean festive contexts from a visual methodology
From a sociocultural perspective, dance is considered an embodied social practice that constantly informs us about our perceptions. At the same time, it plays a key role, especially in festive contexts, since it is not only about the coordination of body movements and the deployment of rhythm and steps; it also involves the expression of emotions and the communication of ideas, creating interpersonal relationships by expressing different forms of knowledge. The objective of this article is to explore the corporealities and emotions expressed in dance, applying a visual methodology, and taking as a case study the festivities in Quebrada del Toro, province of Salta, Argentina. The audiovisual constructed and analyzed indicates that the dancing bodies develop their power of critical perception of the way they exist and come to see the world not as a static reality, but as a reality in a process of transformation in time and space.
Copyright (c) 2026 Grit Kirstin Koeltzsch https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
José Vasconcelos’ intellectual commitment to Mexico (1907-1920)
This article aims to unravel the meaning of José Vasconcelos’ intellectual commitment from his admission to the National Preparatory School in 1897 until his return to Mexico before being appointed rector of the National University of Mexico in 1920. It is based on the assumption that his sense of intellectual commitment was the guiding principle of his public and political activity. An analysis of Memorias I: Ulises criollo. La tormenta, from the year 1982, as a biographical genre is carried out. As a result, it was found that his admission to the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria and to the Escuela Nacional de Jurisprudencia, his connection with the Ateneo de la Juventud, with Antonio Caso, and with Francisco I. Madero, his appointment as minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, and his exiles were all factors that contributed to the construction of meaning.
Copyright (c) 2026 Graciela Carrazco López https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Places of origin and development of local Chinese trade zones in Lima, Peru
With the economic boom of the People's Republic of China, various Chinese political actors at various levels have intensified their ties with their compatriots abroad (overseas Chinese), recognizing them as key players in the expansion of global commercial networks. However, Chinese migration abroad predates this phenomenon. With the aim of exploring the spaces of interaction that have shaped contemporary relationships and identities, this research seeks to examine and highlight the main “local Chinese commercial zones”—understood as clusters of businesses owned by Chinese immigrants—that have developed in Lima, Peru. This study investigates the heterogeneity of the Chinese diaspora and migratory trajectories, which in turn influence certain characteristics of areas in downtown Lima and the district of San Borja. The Peruvian case—which hosts the largest number of Chinese migrants and their descendants in Latin America—serves as a basis for comparing experiences in other countries in the region. In particular, in relation to the integration of Chinese immigrants into the local commercial sphere and the dynamics of competition between the different diaspora groups, which ultimately shape and define these spaces.
Copyright (c) 2025 Nifta Lau Ibarias https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The cosmopolitanism of Asian-Latin American literature as a transformative agent
In this article, I propose to formulate certain bases for theorizing Asian-Latin American literature beyond the national borders of each country and in the context of transpacific studies, world literature, and cosmopolitanism. From a comparative and transnational perspective, and through a methodological approach that combines thematic analysis, close reading, and tools of critical cosmopolitanism, I examine the ways in which this literary production reconfigures the cultural circuits of the Pacific. First, I establish what is meant by Asian-Latin American literature—differentiating it from Latin American literature that simply thematizes Asia—through a conceptual clarification supported by diaspora studies and migration theories. Then, I identify and analyze the main thematic axes of this literature, specifying the distinction between writing from exile, migration, and diaspora, and pointing out its divergences from the broader Latin American canon. Finally, using an analytical framework inspired by Jameson’s “political unconscious,” I explore the ideological and affective dimensions of this cultural production, offering readings of specific works that shed light on its transformative potential within the field of transpacific studies.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ignacio L´ópez Calvo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Asia-Latin America: New formations, new conceptions
Comments for Dossier Transregional Studies: Methodological and theoretical proposals to approximate the historical relations and contemporary links between Asia and Latin America, around Asia and Latin America, their new formations and new conceptions.
Copyright (c) 2025 Lok Siu https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Disobedience to the visual canon: The figure of the donkey in the satirical press of Chile and Peru during the 19th century
The present text examines an unconventional and neglected topic in the academic world that had a significant presence in the repertoires of visual satire in Chile and Peru during the 19th century: the use of the figure of donkey. The article proposes an analysis of this motif to consider the emergence of what Sunkel, in 1985, called the “symbolic-dramatic matrix” within nineteenth-century print culture. Methodologically, the reflections are based on the images themselves. For this goal, a corpus of satirical illustrations has been assembled in which the figure of the donkey is recognized as a principal iconographic element. This repertoire has been organized into three axes: authority and power, press and media, and allegories of the people. These axes are analyzed from an iconographic perspective, to clarify to what extent the use of the figure of the donkey in illustrated political satire in the contexts studied responds to gestures of disobedience of the norms and codes of the hegemonic culture.
Copyright (c) 2026 María José Delpiano Kaempffer https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Asian diasporas in Latin America and the Caribbean: A historical perspective
Comments for Dossier Transregional Studies: Methodological and theoretical proposals to approximate the historical relations and contemporary links between Asia and Latin America, around the Asian diasporas in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Copyright (c) 2025 Evelyn Hu-Dehart, Kathleen López https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Transregional studies: Methodological and theoretical proposals to approximate the historical and contemporary relationships and links between Asia and Latin America
Presentation of Dossier Transregional studies: Methodological and theoretical proposals to approximate the historical and contemporary relationships and links between Asia and Latin America
Copyright (c) 2025 Carol Chan, Cristina DeHart https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Integrating area studies into transregional frameworks
Comments for Dossier Transregional Studies: Methodological and theoretical proposals to approximate the historical relations and contemporary links between Asia and Latin America, around integrating area studies in transregional frameworks.
Copyright (c) 2025 Chiappe Ippolito Matías https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Between governmental egalitarian discourse and democratic quality indicators: The institutional performativity of Chavismo (2007-2013)
This article examines the relationship between the egalitarian governmental discourse and democratic quality during Hugo Chávez’s third presidential term (2007-2013). Using an interdisciplinary approach that combines discourse theory, political science, and comparative empirical analysis, it explores the institutional performativity of discourse in terms of its capacity to transform democratic conditions. Eleven indicators from the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project are used to contrast the egalitarian ethos of Chavismo with the regime’s actual institutional performance. The findings reveal a disconnection between the narrative of social justice and popular empowerment, on the one hand, and the empirical indicators of accountability, participation, and equality, on the other. This study contributes to the ongoing debate on the limits of political discourse in democratic transformation processes in Latin America.
Copyright (c) 2026 Juan Carlos Rosillo-Villena https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Reorienting Latin America through a transpacific analysis
Two decades of flourishing relations between China and Latin America are just one indication of a changing world order that requires us to rethink the theoretical frameworks we use to understand transregional relations. This article describes how a transpacific analysis can help us better understand the conceptual and material relations between Latin America and Asia by asking the question: What happens when we shift our emphasis from comparing what have long been understood as separate “areas” to questioning their material and intellectual co-constitution? The analysis draws on my original ethnographic research in Central America and engagement with the fertile field of transpacific scholarship to suggest that a transpacific analytics can transcend the geographies of difference and traditional transdisciplinary critical points that have defined area studies to offer a robust transregional approach, as proposed by the authors Monson and Shankar. Incorporating a longer and more complex history of relations across the Pacific and using a translocal methodological approach, I argue that a transpacific framework can shed light on contemporary relations between China and Latin America, focusing less on them as a battleground for global hegemony and more as a space for invoking new worlds.
Copyright (c) 2025 Monica DeHart https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Patchwork infrastructures: A proposal based on Indonesian and Filipino multinational migratory trajectories to Chile
By discussing the multinational labour migration trajectories of Indonesian and Filipino women to Chile, this article proposes the term “patchwork infrastructures” to examine the improvised coordination between multiple persons and institutions that facilitate and enable such uncommon transregional migration pathways. Drawing on ethnographic research and 41 semi-structured interviews conducted between 2018-2022 with migrant women, employers, and relevant state actors in Chile, I focus on two such journeys that occurred partially due to instances of infrastructural failures in Southeast Asia and the absence of a coherent migration infrastructure connecting Southeast Asia and South America. Patchwork infrastructure highlights the creative practices and complex relations that were forged and maintained translocally and transregionally to ensure the eventual migration and emplacement of women whose journeys had been disrupted, prevented, or delayed. A focus on such processes of “patchworking” highlights the prominent level of human discretion, arbitrary decision, and action in interactions among diverse actors involved in migration. Patchwork infrastructure calls for attention to the micro- and personal level of infrastructuring migration in contexts where relevant institutions fail or are absent; these processes demonstrate the generative and expansive nature of infrastructure.
Copyright (c) 2025 Carol Chan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Building bridges through reflexivity: Broadening understanding of health inequalities in Santiago del Estero, Argentina
This study revisits and connects findings from qualitative research on health, illness and care processes conducted in Santiago del Estero, Argentina, between 2007 and 2024. It addresses the question: how are inequalities in access to health personnel and services produced and reproduced in this province? Drawing on an interdisciplinary framework grounded in Latin American Collective Health, the analysis interprets social and health processes as expressions of broader sociopolitical and economic structures that generate hierarchies among social groups. The results reveal institutional responses discursively aligned with international organizations but constrained by medical practices carried out under precarious working conditions and by subordinated forms of subjectivation. Nevertheless, emerging strategies of resistance and reflexivity open possibilities for transformation between global and local arenas. Overall, the study concludes that, despite certain innovations, local health responses continue to reproduce historical and structural patterns of inequality and dependency.
Copyright (c) 2026 Laurencia Lucila Silveti, Horacio Antonio Pereyra https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Peripheral Realism: Counterpoints with “mainstream theories” in terms of sovereignty and autonomy
This article analyzes Carlos Escudé’s Peripheral Realism as a Latin American contribution to International Relations theory. In contrast to mainstream perspectives, Escudé reinterprets sovereignty and autonomy from the standpoint of weak and vulnerable states. Sovereignty, traditionally conceived as a universal legal attribute, is redefined as a relative and constrained capacity, limited by hierarchies of power in the international system. Building on this, Peripheral Realism places autonomy at the core of its analytical framework, not as an abstract margin of freedom but as a cost-dependent variable that conditions the strategies of peripheral states. Through a review of Escudé’s foundational works and subsequent revisions, this study argues that Peripheral Realism challenges universalist assumptions of Central theories, while proposing a pragmatic foreign policy for the Periphery centered on citizen welfare, economic development, and the reduction of vulnerabilities.
Copyright (c) 2026 Aldana Clemente, Silvia T. ´Álvarez https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A brick does not make a town, and the reverse? Circulation of knowledge between Wichí and indigenous agents in Chaco, Argentina
More than 120 years have passed since the popularity of the houses made of branches and grass until the brick houses currently inhabited by Wichí residents of Misión Nueva Pompeya and El Sauzalito, in Chaco, Argentina. Our objective is to analyze the circulation of knowledge related to brick production in these localities, between 1900 and the present day. The work is part of an ethnographic research initiated in 2012. We found that building construction with bricks constitutes a manifestation of relationships between Wichí residents and indigenist agents. We see that knowledge travels with people, is transmitted through doing, and makes sense in terms of use. In this context, the “sale”, of work, bricks, and houses proves to be useful to reconcile uses that initially seem contradictory.
Copyright (c) 2025 Myriam Fernanda Perret https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Water in a Northern Patagonian Landscape: Uses, Actors and Valuations based on Irrigation Infrastructure
Water has a universal multiplicity and a predisposition to change its material or abstract forms, a condition that complicates attempts to fix, measure and study it. This text approaches it, not by looking at quantities, qualities or sources, but rather at its flow between different spheres of social life. In particular, this paper will address a concern about water: that of its diminution, lack or insufficiency. It is a concern that crosses both domestic and public life, bringing together the inhabitants of the Andean Region of Northern Patagonia, Argentina, in heterogeneous and multitudinous mobilisations. To this end, a corpus will be developed composed of field records and interviews, as well as complementary sources, produced within the framework of ethnographic fieldwork. These concerns about water will be addressed on the basis of an empirical reference: the irrigation system in the Mallín Ahogado area. A system that includes technical components and at the same time shapes social relations, making it possible to link water, its quantities, techniques and organisations around its management with the consolidation of a specific actor: the local agro-livestock producer.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ana Spivak L'Hoste, Valeria Iñigo Carrera http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Corpolugaridades of Afro Childhoods from the Colombian Pacific in Antofagasta, Chile
The objective of this article was to analyze the diasporic relational spaces produced by Afro children from the Colombian Pacific, to identify the experiences of dispossession and colonial domination, constructions of blackness and resistance in community spaces. We worked from the case study methodology through two qualitative research with a narrative biographical approach, carried out in Antofagasta. According to the inclusion criteria, six stories from Afro-Colombian girls and young women were selected, treated based on the analytical matrix called corpolugaridades. The biographical narratives warn of Afro-centered problematizations and resistances around technologies of colonial domination and processes of othering. Likewise, these subvert colonial imaginaries, enabling processes of decolonization of space and memory.
Copyright (c) 2025 Leyla Méndez Caro http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Trans Memory Archive of Argentina and the liminal spaces of the book: Notes for a reading of Si te viera tu madre...
This article proposes an interdisciplinary analysis of the Argentine Trans Memory Archive and its work regarding memory, its preservation, and the visibility of historically silenced subjects. To this end, the concept of “archive” is approached from the perspectives of Ariella Azoulay, Ann Cvetkovich, and Michael Foucault, in contrast to Gérard Genette literary studies on paratexts in order to work and signify the materiality of the book and the resistance to oblivion it proposes. Based on this theoretical-methodological framework, a reading of the problems of memory and the community practices that it entails is carried out, since the collective work in the construction of memory reinforces the political identity of trans/travesti groups, since this initiative establishes transgenerational and multidisciplinary guidelines through concrete cultural constructions and productions that generate an impact at the sociopolitical level.
Copyright (c) 2025 Consuelo Díaz Muñoz https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Korean Gastronomic Aesthetic in Santiago de Chile: A Sensory Ethnography of Patronato
This research focuses on Korean food and everything that happens around it. The question that guides this research is: how is the Korean gastronomic aesthetic configured in the Patronato neighborhood in Santiago de Chile? Through 18 interviews and non-participant observation over 1 year, the relationship of the South Korean gastronomic community with Patronato was explored, its aesthetics characterized and diners' perceptions investigated. The essay concludes that Patronato exemplifies a multi-territorial gastronomic aesthetic that blends symbolic and material elements of Korean culture with local Chilean realities. This dynamic process not only reflects the adaptation of Korean immigrants to their new environment but also illustrates how Korean gastronomic culture has been integrated and valued within the urban fabric of Santiago. Furthermore, the growing presence of Korean restaurants and the influence of Korean cultural industries, such as k-pop, have contributed to the legitimation and acceptance of Korean food in Chile, making it a desirable and accessible aspect of urban culture.
Copyright (c) 2025 Martina Cayul http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Structural Imperialism and Gender in rural women’s organizations in Colombia
This article offers a critical look at international cooperation for development in Latin America, from Johan Galtung's theory of structural imperialism crossed by the category of gender, from the contributions of Rita Laura Segato. The study was carried out through a relational theoretical approach between cooperation and two cases of Colombian women’s associations—Afromuvaras and Amuraci—that have received different types of support from the implementation of international cooperation projects, rescued from the documentary review. As a result, it is highlighted that the cooperation agencies have had an impact on the improvement of the living conditions of these communities; however, their programs are not enough because they continue to perpetuate the imperial structure, maintaining the groups in their function of commodity providers to the imperial centers.
Copyright (c) 2025 Paola Vargas González, Carolina Norambuena Abaca http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Migrant Cartographies in Two Latin American Novels
This study is part of a corpus of recent narratives that represent contemporary migratory displacements from a geographical perspective that aims to highlight and problematize the borders in Latin America. This research works with the following works: Desierto sonoro (2019) by the Mexican author Valeria Luiselli and Ciudad berraca (2018) by the Chilean author Rodrigo Ramos. We are interested in investigating in these writings the imaginaries that are constructed from the displacements to and from the border, focusing not only on the physical spatiality of the territory, but also on a set of knowledge and narrative strategies that make the borderlands more complex in both novels.
Copyright (c) 2025 Julieth Niño http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Machoism and the Latin American Imaginary of Ungovernable Individualities
The objective of this article is to propose a characterization of Latin American machoism as one of the variants of masculinity and ungovernable individualisties. The article is developed in five stages. First, the specificity of machoism is analyzed as one of the manifestations of the imaginary of ungovernable individualities in Latin America. Then, a general and distinctive characterization of machoism is proposed, highlighting its two main features: sexual ungovernability and social abuse. In the following sections, in order to show the heuristic value of this characterization of the machoism imaginary, an interpretation of its historical and structural bases of production is proposed; a critical re-reading of its ambiguous role in the identity forging of miscegenation, and an analysis of the specificity of the fears present in machoism as a prescriptive model of behavior.
Copyright (c) 2025 Danilo Martuccelli http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Colonial Clothesline of Art: A Critical Dialogue
This is a transcribed dialogue between two professors and researchers discussing the Euro-American critical, historical, and narrative model of art and the various historiographic, theoretical, critical, artistic, and curatorial attempts to decolonize it. Considering the historical specificity of current calls for decolonization, the researchers discuss the challenges and possible strategies for producing plural narratives about equally plural arts.
Copyright (c) 2025 Rachel Cecília de Oliveira, Debora Pazetto http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Conference on Work Management and Health Education: A Space for Critical Training
Among the training activities of the Psychology course we are part of, health conferences have been particularly privileged because they provide us with opportunities to work on issues related to Social and Health Psychology and Public Policies. However, we understand that pedagogically we don’t exactly train health technicians. Still, we produce subjectivities for technical-political actions in multicultural environments, with proposals linked to the extended clinic and, therefore, multiprofessional and interdisciplinary and, above all, we produce citizens in the search for the realization of collective and social rights. We aim to criticize the format of the Municipal Conference on Work Management and Health Education, held in 2024 in a medium-sized municipality in the Brazilian Midwest. Thus, we analyze the organization of the conference as a working structure and its consequences for professional training. Our axes of analysis will be: hierarchization of knowledge, modes of social exclusion, social participation, and intersectionalities. Our theoretical basis will be critical Latin American decolonial thought, supported by the analytical tools of intersectionality and subjectivation devices.
Copyright (c) 2025 Conrado Neves Sathler, Esmael Alves de Oliveira http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Review of Vinciane Despret (2022), Habitar como un pájaro: modos de hacer y de pensar los territorios
Bibliografic Review: Despret, Vinciane (2022), Habitar como un pájaro: modos de hacer y de pensar los territorios, Buenos Aires: Cactus.
Copyright (c) 2025 Fernando Tula Molina http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Multiple “Chinas” in Chile during the fifties and the sixties
This article examines how perceptions and imaginaries of China were articulated in Chile during the Cold War. Drawing on the work of DeHart published in 2021, it analyzes how different actors in Chile contested the notion of “China” through various activities and publications. These interventions diversified the understanding of “China,” leading to distinctions between communist China, the Republic of China, and Chinese communities based in the country, making “China” a contested term. It is argued that, through references to “traditional” and “new” China, the “red” China represented by the conservative Chilean press, and the claims made by representatives of the People’s Republic of China in Chile, in a transregional context, changing and tense definitions of the meaning of “China” were articulated during the 1950s and 1960s.
Copyright (c) 2025 Maria Montt Strabucchi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Pedagogies of rebellion: Revisiting «Asia-Latin America as a method»
This article revisits the author’s proposal of “Asia-Latin America as method” to reflect on the Asian-Latin American scholar’s precarious position in United States academy that hinges on the intersections of survival, community, and accountability. By narrating the author's personal journey, the article highlights the importance of centering theories and knowledges derived from bodily and fleshy lived experiences, thereby calling our attention to the need for a pedagogy and academic praxis based on ethical responsibility and accountability to Asian Latin American communities. This theory in the flesh segues into an encapsulation and expansion of the key arguments made in the initial conceptualization of “Asia-Latin America as method” and ends with a proposal to take seriously the thick livingness of Asian diasporas in Latin America that defies the hegemonic regime of disciplinary knowledge production. The complex diasporic livingness, which cannot be extracted, commodified or captured by structures of neoliberal multicultural imperial nationalism, calls for pedagogies of rebellion that unearth insurgent kinships and fabulate queer futurities.
Copyright (c) 2025 Junyoung Verónica Kim https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0