Latin American history retold by Italian at the time of fascism

Abstract

Through an epistemological and methodological perspective of the political uses of the past, this article aims to analyze the particular historical narrative that Italy produced at the time of fascism in regard to its connection with Latin America, especially in the 1920s. It is in this decade that interest in the South American subcontinent appears with special force, amid an elevation of prestige, economic disputes and the presence of yearnings for a 'new' Italy in the region. Taking advantage of the Italian production of the liberal past and the late 19th century, we perform a reconceptualization in the form of a cognitive set of intrinsic and 'natural' relationships between the Latin nations as a whole. This acts as a mythic-symbolic instrument of integration through an idealized past, often fictitious, like a mirage.