The Mediterranean as a metaphor of mestizaje: New readings on the European model in Latin America of the 1920s

Abstract

After the First World War, we can observe in the Latin American society a strong transformation in the perception of the Europe as a civilization model. New movements in art and literature start to rethink the National Identities in Latin America  and in the whole subcontinent born a criticism against the importation of European civility concepts. This process can be deeply analyzed in Mistral’s writings that shows us the continental transformation through the Mediterranean metaphor: between a Latin space and a space of miscegenation. In Mistral’s narratives, we can notice two kinds of analytical movements between North and South relations: when the writer talks about the European contrasts, she talks also about those of the American continent. In this context, the Old World, or its Southern part, shares its Historical experience with the New World to justify the positive perception of the New Latin American men: Multiethnic.