This article by Alberto Gerchunoff, a Russian writer and journalist based in Buenos Aires, criticizes “los predicadores del americanismo, (…) a la vez nacionalistas y continentalistas” [the preachers of Latin Americanism, (…) who are both nationalists and continentalists]. In other words, he is critical of those who recommend that artists “aspirar a una estética americana, desnudada en lo posible de las influencias occidentales” [aspire to a Latin American aesthetic that is stripped of Western influences, to the extent possible] based on the use of forms and themes from pre-Hispanic art. The writer believes that this is “una doctrina en extremo sencilla” [a simplistic doctrine], since the fragmented dispersion of the objects from that period makes it impossible to understand the society that created them. Moreover, having no real link with the feelings or the way of life of past eras, “no logramos penetrar su sentido pretérito, no conseguimos comunicarnos con su secreto, que es como el arte nos atrae al tornarse accesible a su confidencia” [we are unable to penetrate their meaning in context; we cannot enter into communication with their secrets, which is how art attracts us: through access to secrets lived]. On the other hand, bearing in mind that Latin America has been living under the influence of Western culture for many centuries, European art does touch us. It wakes within us “ecos análogos a los que originaron esas creaciones (…) sin que sea indispensable (…) aplicar a su interpretación exacta un complicado proceso mental” [echoes analogous to those that originated these creations (…) without any requirement (…) to apply a complicated mental process to their precise interpretation]. In this regard, he states that what is important about art is that the “fuerza evocadora del artista” [artist’s evocative force] be “una fuerza presente” [alive today].

In the 1920s, a movement was launched to recover the pre-Columbian aesthetic. This movement was rooted in the significant development of archaeology in Peru in the early twentieth century and the search for sources of national identity, fostered by Indianism. There was an interest on the part of artists, researchers and intellectuals in the use of pre-Columbian themes, adapting them to contemporary life, especially by using them in the decorative arts. This gave rise to various lines of argument regarding the relevance of these approaches. The writer of this text, Alberto Gerchunoff (1883-1950), was well known both as a writer and as a journalist born in Ukraine (then the Russian Empire) who had lived in Argentina since he was a child. His main professional work was as an editor of the daily newspaper La Nación, in Buenos Aires, where he took a stance in open opposition to this movement with an Indigenous stamp. This text was originally published in that Argentine newspaper (on January 31, 1926) and later reprinted in the Lima [newspaper], El Comercio. Gerchunoff’s statements stimulated a response from the Peruvian essayist, Ramiro Pèrez Reinoso, published in the journal, Mercurio Peruano [Peruvian Mercury] (April – June 1926). Gerchunoff was best known for his controversial book, Los gauchos judíos [The Jewish Gauchos] (1908, 1936), which includes 24 accounts about Argentine agricultural cooperatives. In fact, this was the first Latin American work to report on immigration to the New World and the integration of Jewish immigrants into Argentine culture.