6.18: Movimientos vanguardistas

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(Translated from Spanish) During the first half of the 20th century in Latin America, a significant portion of artistic production reflected the impact of social activism and the profound ideological shifts that occurred in the Western world during those years. These movements, parallel to their European counterparts, were grouped under the generic term " avant -garde , " sharing characteristics with what is known in the English-speaking world as  Modernism  in the field of aesthetics.  The painting on the left illustrates the rich development of avant-garde aesthetics in Latin America. With surrealist elements that draw on the symbolism of the unconscious, dreams, and ancestral heritage, it depicts the complex relationship between social classes, cultural roots, and visions of personal and collective identity that characterized the experimentation of avant-garde movements, in dialogue with innovations from diverse geographies, fields of knowledge, and historical sources.

"The Two Fridas" (1939), by Frida Kahlo (Mexico 1907-1954).

Ideological-political context 

materias primas: raw materials obrero: industry worker apoyo: support fortalecimiento: strengthening huelga: strike así como: as well as

As we have seen ( §5.1 ), the 20th century began in many Latin American countries with an economic expansion driven by the export of raw materials. This generated considerable urban growth and an increase in the size of the middle and working classes. Some sectors of the merchant elite favored political reforms to gain the support of a broader segment of the population. On the other hand, worker and peasant activism had a particularly strong influence, not only because it was connected to the global strengthening of leftist movements, but also because any strike that affected export infrastructure had a crucial impact on the economies of Latin American countries. Thus, labor mobilization fostered processes of redefining national identity. The debates and initiatives put forward by the working classes, as well as the impression that the European model was not necessarily superior, increased interest in local demonstrations and alternative visions for the future of these nations.

This redefinition of national identities and the arts was partly a response to the changes that Western Europe underwent in the first decades of the 20th century. Until the end of the 19th century, Western culture imagined itself as a superior civilizing force for progress and social harmony, with technological advances transforming transportation, communication, and mass production. But the horrors of the First World War (1914-18) dealt a major blow to this positivist vision and generated distrust of science and rationalism. Even before this, especially with Karl Marx (1818-1883), the principles of capitalism and bourgeois society were being strongly questioned. Scholars of consciousness like Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) challenged the dominance of reason (the Enlightenment idea that man was a rational animal) and emphasized the importance of other aspects of the psyche, which the father of psychoanalysis demonstrated in dreams and the erotic aspects of the unconscious, as in his book The Interpretation of Dreams (1900). In 1905 and 1915, Albert Einstein (1879-1955) published his theories of relativity, which integrated time with the three dimensions of space, generating a complete revision of how reality was conceived. Meanwhile, The Decline of the West (1918-22), a work by the German philosopher Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), postulated the aging of European civilization and its need to renew itself through contact with other cultures. The nightmare of the First World War confirmed these theories and also called into question the value of expansionist, colonialist, or imperial projects. All of this contributed to a radical self-examination of Western culture and the arts. 

In connection with workers' activism and this cultural re-evaluation, certain values became prevalent in the intellectual and urban world: "being at the forefront," innovating, protesting, fighting for rights, issuing manifestos, breaking with tradition, being cosmopolitan, and challenging bourgeois comfort. Artistic production visibly reflected this impact through movements grouped under the generic name of " the Avant-garde , " an appropriately military and militant term that became fashionable in France to indicate this combative desire to be at the forefront of change and participate in social transformation. 

Many groups of artists and poets drafted their manifestos or organized themselves into movements. Famous in Europe were Fauvism (1905), Cubism (1907), Futurism (1909), Dadaism (1916), and Surrealism (1924). Each of these “-isms” defined its own aesthetic priorities, but all were driven by the enthusiasm to propose new expressive possibilities that would keep pace with the rapid rhythm of sociocultural change. The following predominated in avant-garde aesthetics: 

• experimentation with forms and expressive possibilities (breaking rules, playful sense); 
• a level of activism or emancipation against the traditional or conventional; 
• self-definition: each movement produces its own definition of “what is art”; 
• questioning of the “self” as a unit and of authority as something just or desirable; 
• and an inquiry into the processes of representation: 
• They seek to affect and "shock" the public (reader, spectator), they are anti-sentimental; 
  • to show how the medium (words, painting, etc.) influences what is represented, and 
  • to show how social relationships influence what is acceptable, beautiful, or artistic.

Four European avant-garde movements that had widespread dissemination in Latin America were:

Cubism . In its analytical phase (1907-12), Cubism sought to depict the object from diverse perspectives, exploring the limits of realism by fragmenting and recomposing the image with paintings dominated by a geometric vision. In its synthetic phase (1913-30), forms were simplified; more vibrant colors were used, and the recreated object became more abstract. A famous exponent of Cubism was the Spaniard Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), formerly a member of the Fauvist group. [1] 

Futurism. In 1909, the "Futurist Manifesto" appeared in Italy, mimicking political activism to defend an artistic movement against traditionalism and in celebration of modernization, speed, technology, violence, youth, and industry. It was a movement in literature and the visual arts launched by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944). It sought to portray the dynamic character of the 20th century by glorifying war, danger, and machines. In literature, it championed free imagination, the breaking of syntax, the subversion of punctuation, the use of inks of various colors, and the disordered arrangement of letters, words, and verses. In 1918, the "Futurist Political Party" joined Mussolini's fascism. 

Expressionism. From the early years of the 20th century, several German and Northern European artists sought to represent the pain and violence before and after the world wars, exploring subjective perception to evoke ideas and moods and to innovate in creative possibilities. Their aesthetic emphasizes individual freedom, emotional expression, irrationalism, and shocking or taboo themes such as the morbid, demonic, fantastical, or sexual. In several of these characteristics, it resembles French Fauvism [1] . 

Surrealism . As a movement, it was founded with a manifesto promoted in 1924 by the Frenchman André Breton (1896-1966). The name comes from a work by the poet Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918), a staunch critic of World War II, which he subtitled "surrealist drama" (Les Mamelles de Tiresias, 1917). Influenced by the discoveries of psychoanalysis, the Surrealists were particularly interested in free association, dreams, inner life, alternative understandings of reality, and the mythological perception of the world (archetypes). The Spanish painters Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) and Joan Miró (1893-1983), and the director Luis Buñuel (1900-1983), are some of its most influential representatives. In Latin America, Surrealism developed its own distinct character, enriched by indigenous and African cultural sources. In the paintings of Cuban Wilfredo Lam (1902-1982) and Mexican Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), one finds this type of Latin American or “postcolonial” surrealism which, by taking the implications of the European movement further, breaks with it and affirms the creative force of previously undervalued cultural sources. 

Of all these movements, the one that had the most lasting impact on 20th-century literature in general, and on the Hispanic world in particular, was Surrealism. This is partly explained by its less restrictive formal tenets: it is more interested in investigating a type of experience than in imposing a specific mode of representing it. Its aesthetic also articulates the three basic critiques of modern societies: 1) social injustice and violence; 2) rationalism; and 3) Eurocentrism or colonialism. Furthermore, it explores the aspects of human experience most relevant to artistic and literary production as understood in the contemporary era: subjectivity, consciousness, and identity. Most influential is its conception of the work, not as an expression of emotions or the rational authorial self, but as a space for experimentation and discovery, in which other forces manifest themselves (the unconscious, cultural archetypes, the mechanics of language). Among the many names that could be mentioned in the development of Latin American surrealism, the Cuban painter Wilfredo Lam (1902-1982), the Guatemalan novelist Miguel Ángel Asturias (1899-1974), the Chilean writer María Luisa Bombal (1910-1980), and the Mexican painters Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) and Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991) stand out. The latter is also associated with the expressionist aesthetic, which was championed by artists such as Débora Arango (Colombia 1907-2005) and Oswaldo Guayasamín (Ecuador 1919-1999), among many others. 

Detail of a mural by Ecuadorian artist Oswaldo Guayasamín, an example of the muralist art movement that developed from the 1920s onward, following the Mexican Revolution, and spread throughout Latin America with a mixed, avant-garde aesthetic. 
H3kt0r , CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

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[1] Fauvism ( 1905 ) emphasized emotional intensity through the distortion of forms and the dissonant use of colors. Its most prominent exponent was Henri Matisse (1869-1954).

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Avant-garde Hispanic American poetry 

The poetics immediately following Modernism can be grouped into two directions. The first, known as Latin American postmodernism, emphasizes formal imagerysimplification with a localist spirit; the second, of an avant-garde type, radicalizes the exploration of the critical place of art in modern societies with intense formal experimentation and a cosmopolitan spirit. 

Much of the Latin American intelligentsia participated in the process of aesthetic and cultural self-revision that took place in the West during the first half of the 20th century. For example, the renewal fervor in Spain during the Second Republic (1931-39) was fueled by important Latin American poets such as Pablo Neruda and César Vallejo. To give another example, Mexican Surrealism was as vibrant as its Parisian counterpart, with world-renowned figures like the painter Frida Kahlo, the filmmaker Luis Buñuel (who lived in Mexico from 1949), and the poet Octavio Paz (1914-1998). While journals were created to disseminate these ideas, numerous manifestos were written and published to defend them. In most cases, however, the norms of the “-isms” were not strictly followed, but rather their innovative and experimental spirit was adopted to break conventional molds and open fruitful paths to poetry: the importance of studying non-European art, which had been promoted by Cubists and Fauvists, the introduction of technological language, which was defended by the Futurists, and the revolutionary or liberating value of non-conscious creativity, which was invigorated by the Surrealists, among other directions. 

In 1914, the Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro presented his poetic manifesto “ Non serviam” in Santiago, where he laid the foundations for the movement he later called Creationism , which conceived of poetry as the creation of reality, not as its representation. His proposals became more radical when, with avant-garde artists from Paris, he collaborated on the magazine Nord -Sud ( 1917-18). Works from this period, such as “Paisaje” (Landscape), experiment with the visual dimension of the poem to expand its possibilities for representation and the suggestion of multiple meanings. 

In 1918, in Madrid, Huidobro helped found Ultraism , a movement also joined by the Argentinian Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), who was living in Spain at the time. Upon returning to Argentina, Borges and other young writers disseminated Ultraism with the premise of eliminating (modernist) ornamentation and reducing poetry to its fundamental elements: imagery, typography, and linguistic innovation. The movement also sought to capture modernization through neologisms, references to technological advances, parody, and the incorporation of regional experiences. Borges later abandoned this aesthetic in favor of philosophical meditation and dialogue with universal culture. 

Latin American avant-garde movements spread primarily through literary journals that fostered debate and celebrated striking innovation. In Argentina, notable publications included Prisma (1921), Proa (1922-25), Martín Fierro (1924-27), and, a few years later, Sur , founded by the writer Victoria Ocampo (1890-1979); in Cuba, Revista de Avance (1927-30); and in Peru, Amauta (1926-30), founded by the Marxist and indigenist thinker José Carlos Mariátegui (1894-1930). Around this time, Stridentism also emerged in Mexico (c. 1922), with an aesthetic influenced by Futurism, whose most prominent exponent was the poet Manuel Maples Arce (1898-1981). Shortly afterward, the "Contemporáneos" group formed, centered around two important journals: Ulises (1927-28) and Contemporáneos (1928-31). Among them were Carlos Pellicer (1897-1977), José Gorostiza (1901-73), Jaime Torres Bodet (1902-74), Xavier Villaurrutia (1903-50), and Salvador Novo (1904-1974), several of whom were also playwrights. This group embraced the avant-garde impulse, proposing thought-provoking directions for the dialogue between poetry, the other arts, the psyche, and society. 

In the early stages of avant-garde poetry in Latin America, the Mexican modernist José Juan Tablada (1871-1945) stands out, having introduced the plasticity of the Japanese haiku; the Argentinians Silvina Ocampo (1903-1993), Norah Lange (1905-1972), and Oliverio Girondo (1891-1967), who explored cubist concepts and surrealist possibilities in a cosmopolitan and self-aware poetry; Vicente Huidobro (1893-1948), the theorist and most constant defender of creationism, visual poems, and the radical search—for life and aesthetics—that avant-garde movements represent worldwide; and the Peruvian César Vallejo (1892-1938), whose varied work, which connects avant-garde combativeness with the aspirations of the proletariat in a profoundly personal and suggestive way, continues to have a deep influence on Latin American (and world) poetic production to this day. The Negrista and Indigenista movements also incorporate avant-garde aesthetics into their proposals. 

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Sources

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• Chang-Rodríguez, Raquel y Malva Filer. Voces de Hispanoamérica. Boston: Thomson & Heinle, 2004.
• Davies, Catherine, ed. The Companion to Hispanic Studies. Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Franco, Jean. Historia de la literatura hispanoamericana. Barcelona: Ariel, 1983.
• Jiménez, José Olivio.  Antología crítica de la poesía modernista hispanoamericana.  Madrid: Hiperión, 1989.
• Oviedo, José Miguel. Historia de la literatura hispanoamericana. Madrid: Alianza, 2001.
• Quiroga, José. “La poesía hispanoamericana entre 1922 y 1975”. Historia de la literatura hispanoamericana. Ed. Roberto González Echeverría y Enrique Pupo-Walker. Trad. Ana Santonja Querol y Consuelo Triviño Anzola. Madrid: Gredos, 2006. 318-73.
• Winn, Peter. Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean. 4^th ed. Berkeley: U of California, 2005.