In this essay, numerous questions are raised relating to national and continental identity in Latin America, after eleven years (1973–84) under military dictatorship. There is a manifest recognition of both the reality of underdevelopment, as well as the concerning evidence of sociocultural consequences. And consequently, there is a sense of caution about the implicated risks of nativist and pre-Hispanic claims underpinning the references to identity. These claims are considered anachronistic with respect to the evolution of modernity in the developed world. Similarly mentioned are the problems with cultural miscegenation, the lack of communication among the South American countries, and the existence of a “dominating culture” whose hegemony must be overcome.

Ángel Fernández was an artist and a member of the Grupo Axioma, and also a member of the Club de Grabado de Montevideo (CGM), the nucleus of the Teatro El Galpón. His ideas are participatory reflections relating to Latin American and a “national identity” that emerged after the restoration of democracy in 1985 in Uruguay. This intellectual position constitutes one of the digressive principal components of debate at least during the first ten years after the military dictatorship. The suspension and collapse of the imaginary utopian Latin America ideal forged in the 1960s, led to an urgency in reformulating the paradigm of national identity. In the case of this article, however, anti-imperialistic political arguments of the decade are collected, within the context of continuity within the communist ideology that defined the Teatro El Galpón during its entirety, the entity underlying the Club de Grabado de Montevideo before and during the dictatorship. Of note and present at the time in Montevideo, were the ideas of the Peruvian critic Juan Acha and the dissemination of his written work, primarily through lectures given in this city between 1986 and 1988. Juan Acha was based in Mexico in the late eighties. For further reading, please refer to the ICAA digital archive and the following texts published by the Club de Grabado de Montevideo: “Concurso de grabado para edición” (doc. no. 863481), “13 años de actividad de Club de Grabado de Montevideo” (doc. no. 1183571), “El arte correo en el Uruguay” (doc. no. 1191850), “Boletín N°7 Club de Grabado de Montevideo” (doc. no. 1182833), “Club de Grabado compra su casa” (doc. no. 1192649), “Club de Grabado de Montevideo 22 Aniversario 1953- Agosto 1975” (doc. no. 1183514), “Club de Grabado de Montevideo a la población de Montevideo” (doc. no. 1183124), “Cuando el Tercer Mundo se mira a sí mismo. II Bienal de La Habana” (doc. no. 1184459), “De los grabados de ayer a las ediciones actuales” (doc. no. 1191787), “Definiciones/Uno” (doc. no. 1189065), “Entrevista a Luis Mazzey” (doc. no. 1186991), “Entrevista a Óscar Ferrando” (doc. no. 1186747), “Entrevista a Óscar Ferrando [segunda parte]” (doc. no. 1186802), “Fundamentos a propósito de su 22 aniversario” (doc. no. 1182640), “Mini grabado Internacional de Cadaqués. España” (doc. no. 1191135), “La necesidad de la imaginación” (doc. no. 1190793), “Nuestra institución” (doc. no. 1182010), “Los nuevos movimientos de las artes” (doc. no. 1182868), “Opiniones (I)” (doc. no. 1185411), “Palabras de clausura para un año de apertura” (doc. no. 1191167), “Reflexiones en torno a la supuesta crisis de las artes plásticas” (doc. no. 1185539), and “Sobre el papel de la crítica” (doc. no. 1187071)].