Reframing Latin America: A Cultural Theory Reading ... - BGSU Blogs

identity construct #5: latin america 149
He points out that the myth conveniently ignores “racism, genocide, imperialism,
the destruction of nature and the menace of the nuclear shadow.” 1
Martin is astutely able to recognize the amnesia that commonly afflicts
historical memory in the most modern societies of the West. They are quick
to point out their advances and take credit for developing foundational ideas
like liberty and individual rights but slow to recognize their own colossal
failures, or to take responsibility for their role in creating some of history’s
greatest injustices. If he were to extend this analysis, Martin would question
the accuracy of the idea of Latin America’s duality. Rather than seeing
Latin America as trapped in a quagmire of competing identities, he would
have observed that this notion of duality tends to benefi t those who have
traditionally held power in Latin America—the elites of European descent
who insist upon modeling their nations after the United States or Europe.
He ultimately does not overturn these identity myths, however, and accepts
them as generally accurate, notwithstanding his challenge to U.S.
singularity.
Martin explores Latin American identity through the lenses of race, nation,
class, and gender—conveniently identical to the categories we offer.
By looking at the history of modern Latin America through these identities,
Martin contends that it has been trapped in its duality and has struggled in
vain to fi nd its identity. He believes that modern Latin American literature
is inundated with references to labyrinths and solitude. The labyrinth is essentially
a metaphor for the struggle for modernity. To be trapped in a labyrinth
is to be stuck in some form of premodernity. To escape the labyrinth
is to achieve modernity and development. Being trapped in a labyrinth is
to be alone, isolated, and insular, or to be suffering from solitude. To enter
into modernity is to join the most advanced sectors of human existence, to
become part of a broader collective whole that sees no limits to human potential
and believes that human beings can overcome almost any obstacle.
In Martin’s words, “To overcome solitude [is to] attain some kind of collective
unity and identity.” 2 He claims that Europe left its labyrinth during
the Renaissance (roughly 1500), which marks the beginning of modernity in
Western history. Supposedly, the United States was freed from its labyrinth
sometime in the late nineteenth century, when its identity shifted from an
internally divided, former British colony to a unifi ed world leader. Latin
America, on the other hand, has yet to join them outside its labyrinth.
Martin admits that the modern West (the United States and Europe)
reentered its labyrinth in the middle of the twentieth century because of
the overwhelming devastation wrought by two world wars. In literature
this second entrance was expressed in the discombobulating work of James