Relying on the concept of a shared history, this book argues that we can speak of a shared heritage that is common in terms of the basic grammar of heritage and articulated histories, but divided alongside the basic difference between colonizers and colonized. This problematic is also evident in contemporary uses of the past. The last decades were crucial to the emergence of new debates: subcultures, new identities, hidden voices and multicultural discourse as a kind of new hegemonic platform also involving concepts of heritage and/or memory. Thereby we can observe a proliferation of heritage agents, especially beyond the scope of the nation state. This volume gets beyond a container vision of heritage that seeks to construct a diachronical continuity in a given territory. Instead, authors point out the relational character of heritage focusing on transnational and translocal flows and interchanges of ideas, concepts, and practices, as well as on the creation of contact zones where the meaning of heritage is negotiated and contested. Exploring the relevance of the politics of heritage and the uses of memory in the consolidation of these nation states, as well as in the current disputes over resistances, hidden memories, undermined pasts, or the politics of nostalgia, this book seeks to seize the local/global dimensions around heritage.
Introduction: The Uses of Heritage and the Post-Colonial Condition in Latin America 1. On the Advantage and Disadvantage of Heritage for Latin America. Heritage Politics and Nostalgia between Coloniality and Indigeneity 2¡Mexicanos al grito de guerra! How the Himno Nacional became part of Mexico’s Heritage 3.Making Heritage. The Materialization of the State and the Expediency of Music. The Case of Cuarteto Característico in Córdoba, Argentina 4. Is Spanish our Language? Alfonso Reyes and the Policies of Language in Post-Revolutionary Mexico 5. Cultural Management and Neoliberal Governamentality. The Participation of Perú in the Exhibition Inca. Kings of the Andes 6. Commemorate, Consecrate, Demolish. Thoughts about the Mexican Museum of Anthropology and its History 7. Going Back to the Past or Coming Back from the Past? Governmental Policies and Uses of the Past in a Ranquel Community in San Luis, Argentina 8. Unearthing Patrimonio: Treasure and Collectivity in San Miguel Coatlinchan 9. Processes of Heritagization of Indigenous Cultural Manifestations: Lines of Debate, Analytic Axes, and Methodological Approaches 10. The Ambivalence of Tradition: Heritage, Time, and Violence in Postcolonial Contexts
Olaf Kaltmeier is Full Professor for Ibero-American History and Director of the Center for InterAmerican Studies at Bielefeld University, Germany. Mario Rufer is Full Professor-Researcher at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco, in Mexico City.
