The Argentina Bicentennial as a Contested Territory

Abstract

On May 25th, 2010, Argentina commemorated two hundred years of the first national government of its current territory. Such a celebration caused the public involvement of some of the most recognized Argentinean intellectuals (by means of editorials, essays, books, etc.) in a struggle to establish the actual meaning of that date. Those involvements reveal the existence of different political and ideological trends and traditions regarding the national history of Argentina, which are the result of the complex and contradictory Argentinean intellectual field. Bearing this in mind, the following paper summarizes the most representative positions of the different sectors concerning the diverse topics that are in dispute. The discussions surrounding the Argentina Bicentennial reveal a complex scheme of reviews, complains recognitions and discourses which are aimed at making sense of history; the history which pretends to explain that present is still a contested territory.