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Founding StatementAuthor(s): Latin American Subaltern Studies GroupSource: boundary 2, Vol. 20, No. 3, The Postmodernism Debate in Latin America (Autumn,1993), pp. 110-121Published by: Duke University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/303344 .
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8/9/2019 Founding Statement LASSG
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Founding
Statement
LatinAmerican SubalternStudies Group
Introduction
The
work
of the
Subaltern tudies
Group,
n
interdisciplinary
rga-
nization
of South Asian scholars ed
by Ranajit
Guha,
has
inspired
us to
founda similar
roject
edicated o
studying
he
subaltern
n
Latin
America.'
The
present
dismantling
f
authoritarian
egimes
n
Latin
America,
he
end
ofcommunism nd theconsequentdisplacementfrevolutionaryrojects,
the
processes
of
redemocratization,
nd the
new
dynamics
reated
by
the
effects of
the
mass mediaand
transnationalconomic
arrangements:
hese
are
all
developments
hat
call
for new
ways
of
thinking
nd
acting
politi-
cally.
The redefinitionf LatinAmerican
olitical
nd
cultural
pace
in
recent
years
has,
in
turn,
mpelled
cholars
of
the
region
o revise
establishedand
previously
unctional
pistemologies
n
the socialsciences and
humanities.
1. The
group
explains
hat
t
uses
the
word
ubaltern
as
a name for he
general
attribute
of subordinationnSouthAsiansocietywhether his is expressedintermsof class, caste,
age, gender,
and office or
in
any
other
way.
See
Ranajit
Guha, Preface,
n
Selected
Subaltern
Studies,
Ranajit
Guha and
Gayatri
Spivak,
eds.
(New
York:Oxford
University
Press,
1988),
35.
boundary
20:3,
1993.
Copyright
1993
by
Duke
University
ress.CCC
190-3659/93/$1.50.
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8/9/2019 Founding Statement LASSG
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Latin mericanubalterntudies
Group
Founding
tatement
111
The
general
trend
owarddemocratization
rioritizes
n
particular
he re-
examination f the conceptsof pluralisticocieties and the conditionsof
subalternity
ithin
hese societies.
The
realization
hatcolonial
and
postindependence
lites
agreed
in
theirviews of
the subalterned
the
Subaltern tudies
Group
o
question
he
master
paradigms
sed
in
representing
olonial nd
postcolonial
ocieties,
both
in
the cultural
ractices
of
hegemony
developedby
elite
groups
and
in
the
disciplinary
iscourses of
the
humanities
nd social sciences
that
seek to
represent
he
workings
f these societies. Guha's
naugural
rticle
in
the firstvolume
of the Subaltern tudies
series, published y
the
group
beginning
n
1982,
lays
outthe ambition f
the
project
o
displace
he
casual
and
descriptive ssumptions
boutSouth
Asiancolonial
history
mbedded
in
the dominantmodelsof
colonial,nationalist,
nd traditional
Marxist is-
toriography.2
is
1983
book,
Elementary spects
of
Peasant
Insurgency,
criticizes he
prejudice
n
previous
istorical
cholarship
avoringnsurgents
who
present
written
gendas
and
carefully
hought-out
rograms.
This
de-
pendency
on
the written
ecord,
Guha
notes,
betrays
a
prejudice
or
both
literacy
nd
foreign
and
indigenous
lites
in
the
very
construction f
South
Asian
historiography.
Reading
his
historiography
in
reverse
or
against
he
grain,
n
the idiomof
deconstructionometimesused
by
the
group)
o recover he
cultural nd
political
pecificity
f
peasant
nsurrections
as,
for
Guha,
wo
components:
dentifying
he
logic
of the distortions
n
the
representation
f
the subaltern
n
official r elite
culture;
nd
uncovering
he
social
semiotics
of the
strategies
andcultural
ractices
f
peasant nsurgencies
hemselves.3
The
insight
of Guhawas thatthe
subaltern,
y
definition ot
registered
r
registrables a historicalubject apableofhegemonic ction seen,that s,
through
he
prism
of colonial
administratorsr
educated
ative
eaders),
is
nevertheless
present
n
unexpected
tructural
ichotomies,
issures
in
the
formsof
hierarchy
nd
hegemony,
nd,
in
turn,
n
the
constitutionf
the
heroes
of the
national
rama,
writing,
iterature,ducation,
nstitutions,
nd
the
administration
f lawand
authority.
The
subaltern,
n
other
words,
s
not
only
acted
on,
despite
the ten-
dency
in
traditional
aradigms
o see
it
as
a
passive
or
absent
ubject
hat
can be mobilized nly romabove; t alsoacts toproduce ocial effects that
2.
Ranajit
Guha,
On
Some
Aspects
of the
Historiography
f Colonial
ndia,
n
Selected
SubalternStudies,
37-43.
3. The
classic statement of
this double
endeavor is Guha's The
Prose of Counter-
Insurgency,
n
Selected
Subaltern
Studies,
45-84.
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8/9/2019 Founding Statement LASSG
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112
boundary
/
Fall
993
are
visible,
f
not
alwayspredictable
r
understandable,
y
these
paradigms
or the state policiesandresearchprojectsheyauthorize. t s the recogni-
tionof
this
roleof
the
subaltern,
ow
t
curves,
alters,
modifies ur ifestrate-
gies
of
learning,understanding,
nd
research,
hat underlies
he doubts
besetting
hese traditional
isciplinary
nd
historiographic
aradigms, ara-
digms
hatarethemselvesrelated o
the
social
projects
f
national,
egional,
and internationallites
seeking
to
manage
or control
ubject
populations
and that
bring
ntheirwake the
danger
of
filtering
ultural
egemonies
all
the
way
across
the
politicalpectrum,
rom he elitesthemselves o
the
epis-
temologies
and discourses
of
revolutionary
ovements
ooking
o subvert
their
power
n
the name
of the
people.
The
Subaltern
n
LatinAmericanStudies
The limits
of elite
historiography
n
relation
o
the subaltern
do
not
come
as an
unexpected
heoretical
urprise
n
Latin
American
Studies,
whichhas
long
worked
with
he
assumption
hat
nationandnational
re not
popular,
ll-inclusive
erms.The
concept
and
representation
f
subalternity
developed
by
the SouthAsianSubaltern tudies
Group
does not
gain
cur-
rency
until
he
1980s;
but LatinAmerican tudies
has been
involved
with
related
ssues
since its
inauguration
s a field
n
the
1960s.
The
constitution
of
the
field tself
and
of
the LatinAmerican tudies
Association
s its
orga-
nizational
orm)
as
a
necessarily
nterdisciplinary
ormation
orresponds
o
the
way
in
which he
South
Asian
groupconceptualized
he
subaltern
s
a
subject
hat
emerges
across,
or at
the
intersections
f,
a
spectrum
of
aca-
demic
disciplines
anging
rom
he
philosophical
ritique
f
metaphysics,
o
contemporaryiteraryndculturalheory,ohistory ndthesocialsciences.
Indeed,
he
force
behind he
problem
f the subaltern
n
Latin
America
ould
be
said
to arise
directly
ut of
the need to
reconceptualize
he relation
f
nation,
tate,
and
people
n
he
three ocialmovements
hathave
centrally
shaped
the contours
nd
concerns
of
LatinAmerican tudies
as
of
modern
Latin
America
tself):
he
Mexican,Cuban,
and
Nicaraguan
Revolutions.
We
may plot
the
relationship
f
the
emergence
of
Latin
American
Studies
with
he
problem
f
the
conceptualization
f
subalternity
n
terms
of threemajorphasesfrom1960to thepresent.
Phase
One:
1960-1968
As is
well
known,
lthough
mostof Latin
America
ained
ormalnde-
pendence
in the
nineteenth
century,
he
resulting
postcolonial
nation-states
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8/9/2019 Founding Statement LASSG
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Latin merican
ubaltern
tudies
Group
Founding
tatement
113
were
ruled
predominantlyy
white
criolloswho
developed
internal
olo-
nial
regimes
with
respect
o the
Indians,
heslaves
of
African
escent,the
mestizo or mulatto
peasantry,
and
the
nascent
proletariats.
he
Mexican
Revolution
marked
point
of
departure
rom his white-
and male-)
domi-
nated,
oligarchic,
nd Eurocentric
modelof
development,
epending
as
it
did
on the
agency
of Indiansand
poor
mestizos not
only
as
soldiers
but
also
as leaders
and
strategists
of the
revolutionarypheaval.
n
postrevo-
lutionary
Mexico,however,
n
a
process
that has
been
amply
tudied,
his
protagonism
was bluntedat the
economic,
political,
nd culturalevels
in
favorof the
rise of
a
new
mestizo
upper
and middle lass
by
the
suppres-
sion of Indian
eadersand
communities,
nd
by
the
resubalternizationfthe
Indian s
a
cultural
rtifact f the new
state
apparatus
e.g.,
in
Mexican
muralism)
ather han as
an actual
historical-political
gent.
The
Cuban
Revolution
epresents
a
partial
evivalof the
impulse
toward
surfacing
f the
subaltern,
n
particular
aising gainst
he
primacy
of
Eurocentric
istoriographic
nd cultural
aradigms
n
both a
practical
and a
theoretical
evel he
question
f the non-
or
post-)
European
haracter
of
the
social
subject
of
Latin
American
istory
n
the context
of
decoloniza-
tion.RobertoFernandezRetamar's
ereading
f Fanonand the discourse
of
national
iberation
n
his
essay
Caliban
was an
example
of the new
ways
of
conceptualizing
atin
American
istory
nd
identity.
This
impulse
nfluenced
ot
only
he Boom
writers
n
literature,
uch
as
Mario
Vargas
Llosa,
Carlos
Fuentes,
and
Gabriel
Garcia
Marquez,
ut
also
intellectuals
n
the
social
sciences,
such as
Andre
GunderFrank
nd
the
dependency-school
heorists.Both
groups
came
to see
the
establish-
ment
of
viable
economiesand
societies
in
Latin
America
s
contingent
n
a
radicaltructural break ith hedominantystem,a break hat,at leastin
theory,
wouldboth
allow
and be
produced
y
the
protagonism
f
subaltern
subjects.
The
Cuban
Revolution
pened
up
cultural
nd
political
ractices
hat
were
no
longer
satisfiedwith
the
representation
f the
social
subject
of
Latin
American
istory
s the
middle
r
upper
lass. The
new
prestige
he
revolution
ave
to
Marxism
mong
Latin
American
ntellectuals
nd cul-
tural
workers
provided
n
optimism
nd
epistemological
ertainty
egarding
the natureof historical gency.Theconceptof the peopleas the work-
ing
masses
became the
new
center
of
representation.
mong
he
most
significant
esults
of this
shift
n
the
field
of culture
were
the
documentary
film
school
of
Santa Fe
created
n
Argentina
y
Fernando
Birri,
he
films
of
the
Brazilian
Cinema Nouvo
and Cuba's
ICAIC,
he
Bolivian
concept
of
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8/9/2019 Founding Statement LASSG
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114
boundary
/
Fall
1993
film
with-the-people eveloped
by
Jorge
Sanjines
and
Grupo
Ukamu,
he
Colombian teatro e creaci6ncolectiva, he TeatroEscambraynCuba,
and relatedmovements
n
the
United
States
like he Teatro
Campesino.
But,
even where
this work
engaged problems
f
gender,
race,
lan-
guage,
and
the
like,
ts insistenceon a
unitary,
lass-based
subject
and its
concomitant
ssumption
f the
identity
f
theoretical-literary
exts
produced
by
elite intellectuals
with
his
subject
veiled he
disparity
f
blacks,Indians,
Chicanos,
and
women;
alternative
models of
sexuality
and of
the
body;
alternative
pistemologies
nd
ontologies;
he existenceof those who had
not entered
ntoa social
pact
with he
(revolutionary)
tate;
the
lumpen.
(A
good
dramatization
f
the
issues
involved,
ut
one that also
is
part
f
the
problem
n
its manner
f
posing
hem,
was
Sara
G6mez's
exploration
of
class, race,
and
gender
conflicts
n
postrevolutionary
uba
n
her
film
De
Cierta
Manera
One
Way
or
Another].)
he
subject
of
history
was
never
n
question,
and
so neitherwas the
adequacy
of its
representation
both
n
the
mimeticand
the
political
ense)
by revolutionary
ects,
by
the new forms
of art
and
culture,
r
by
new theoretical
aradigms
ike
dependency
heory
or AlthusserianMarxism.
Phase
Two: 1968-1979
The crisis of
the
model
of
protagonism
epresentedby
the Cuban
Revolution
omes
with the
collapse
of Che
Guevara's
uerrilla roup
in
Bolivia
and of
the foco-based
guerrilla
ronts
generally
n
the late
1960s,
a
collapse predicated
n
part
on
the
separation
etween hese
groups
and
the
masses
they
sought
to
dynamize
nto
revolutionary
ction
(an eerily
apt image
of
this was Guevara's
ecognition,
oted
n
his
Bolivian
Diary,
of
the lack of responseinthe eyes of the Aymara-speakingeasantsof the
altiplano
e was
trying
o
organize).
The
U.S.
NewLeftandantiwar
movement,
he
French
May,
nd
the
student
demonstrations
nd
subsequent
massacreat
Tlatelolco
n
Mexico
in
1968
signal
the entranceof students
as
political
ctors onto
the
world
stage,
displacing
raditional
ocial-democratic
r Communist
arties
and
formations.
he cultural
ractices
nforming
his
insurgency
re
exemplified
in
Latin
America
by
VioletaParra
and the nueva
trovamovement
n
Latin
Americanmusic,or bythe emergenceof reggaeandsome formsof rock
as
oppositional
musics.
The moment s
characterized
olitically,
n
the
one
hand,
by
a
generational
truggle
between
elite and middle
ectors
and
a
new,
class-amorphous
ocial
sector,
which
he
student-based
New
Left
seeks to
represent;
on the
other,
by
the broad alliance
politics
or
popu-
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8/9/2019 Founding Statement LASSG
7/13
Latin
mericanubaltern
tudies
Group
Founding
tatement
115
larfrontism f movements uch
as the Chilean
UP
(Popular
Unity)
under
Allende.
In
cultural
roduction,
he
emergence
of testimonial nd
documen-
tary
formsshifts
dramatically
he
parameters
f
representationway
from
the writer
and
the
avant-gardes.
n
contrast o
the
ambition f the
Boom
novelists o
speak
or Latin
America,
he
subaltern
ubject
represented
in
the
testimonial
ext
becomes
part
of the
construction f the text itself.
The
dissatisfaction
with
he
Boom's
male-centered
trategy
of
metafiction-
ality
eads to a new
emphasis
on the
concrete,
he
personal,
he
small
history,
riting
or
video
work)
by
women,
political risoners, umpen,
and
gays,
raising,
n
the
process, questions
of who
represents
whom.
Simulta-
neously,
there
is the initiative
n
academic
iterary
riticism o
constructa
social
history
f
Latin
American
iterature,
epresented
y projects
uch
as the
Ideologies
and Literature
roup
at the
University
f
Minnesota nd
the
Instituto e
Estudios
LatinoamericanosR6mulo
Gallegos
n
Caracas,
both
nourished
y
the
diaspora
f
SouthernCone leftist
ntellectuals
n
the
years
following
973.
This
phase
also
marks
he
introductionntoLatin
America f French
poststructuralist
heory,
GramscianMarxism,ndthe
heritage
f theFrank-
furt
school,
which
serves to destabilize
ome of the
assumptions
of the
various
ormsof
orthodox
Marxism
ominant
n
the
1960s and the
model
of
modernization
enerated
n
U.S. social
sciences.
In
response
to the
formalism
f
structuralist
emiotics,
a
social
emiotics
stressing
hetero-
glossia,
dialogism,
ndthe
multiplicity
f
discoursesand
signifying ractices
gains
currency,
mpelledby
the Latin
American
eception
of the
workof
Bakhtin,
Voloshinov,
Lotman nd the
School
of
Tartu,
nd the
emerging
fieldof popularulture tudies ntheUnitedStates andGreatBritain.
Phase
Three: The
1980s
The
Nicaraguan
Revolution,
nd the
contingent pread
and
impor-
tance of
liberation
heology heory
and
practice,
become
primary oints
of
reference
in
this
phase.
Culture,
democratization,
global, post- (Marx-
ism,
modernism,
tructuralism)
ecome
key
words.
High
ulture
orms
uch
as
literature
re
bracketed
by
the
critiques
developed
by
deconstruction,
feminism, lackandChicanotudies n heUnited tates,and n heirplace,
an
anthropological
ense of culture
s
lived
xperience
omes to
the
fore.
In
tandemwith
he
emergence
of
projects
uch
as the
Subaltern
Studies
Group,
or
the
Birmingham
Centerfor
Cultural
Studies
directed
by
Jamaican
Stuart
Hall,
Latin
Americanists
begin
to
question
deeply
the
persistence
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8/9/2019 Founding Statement LASSG
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116
boundary
/
Fall
1993
in
Latin
American
modernity
f colonialor neocolonial
ystems
of
repre-
sentation.4There s a newsense that bothcultural ndpolitical ynamics
have
begun
to function
n
a
global
context hat
problematizes
he center-
periphery
modelof
dependency
heory
s
wellas the
strategies
f economic
nationalism
hat ollow rom
t
(the
end
of
the
growth
ycle
of the sixties and
the
debt
crisis
willbe the dominant conomic acts of the decade
in
Latin
America).
The
rapid
development
nd
spread
of information
echnology
s
the
defining
echnological
eature f
this
phase,
permitting,
mong
other
hings,
the circulation
f texts and
cultural
ractices
romareas
of the
formerly
colonial
world
n
new,
global
circuits f information
etrieval nd
exchange
(the
publication,
ubsequent
reception,
and
current
entrality
n
the U.S.
multiculturalism
ebate
of
Rigoberta
Menchu's
estimonio,
s
one
small,
but
significant,
xample
of the
new
ways
in
whichcultural
bjects
are
created
and
circulate).
With
he
proliferation
f
television,
he dominant
ew cultural
form
n
Latin
Americabecomes
the
telenovela,
and communications
he
fastest
growing
cademic
ield.
It
is
the
moment,
precisely,
of the
emergence
of
Cultural tudies
within he
Anglo-American
cademy,
an
emergence
ueled
by
the
conjunc-
tion of
feminist
heory
and
activism,
he
critique
f colonial
discourse,
new
formsof
Marxism
nd
social
theory
Jameson,
Mouffe nd
Laclau's
post-
Marxism,
yotard's
ostmodern
ondition),
he
psychoanalytic
ccount
of
the
construction
f the
subject
provided y
Lacanian
heory,
he new
at-
tention
o
the mass
media
and
popular
ulture,
nd
the
new
experiences
of
globality
and
simultaneity.
Witha
delay
of about
ive
years,
this
emer-
gence
is
replicated
n
Latin
America
tselfand
in
Latin
American
tudies.
It
wouldbe appropriate,hen,to conclude his narrativef the relation f the
problem
of
subalternity
o
Latin
American tudies
with wo observations:
(1)
the
project
of
developing
a
Latin
American ubaltern
Studies
Group
such
as
the one
we are
proposing
epresents
ne
aspect,
albeita
crucial
one,
of the
larger
mergent
ield
of LatinAmerican
Cultural
tudies;
2)
in
the new
situation
f
globality,
he
signifier
Latin
American
tselfnow
refers
also
to
significant
ocial
forces
within
he United
States,
whichhas now
be-
come
the fourth-
r
fifth-largest
panish-speaking
ation
n the world
out
of twenty).
4.
See,
for
example,
Angel
Rama's
posthumous
La
ciudad
letrada
(Hanover,
N.H.:
Edi-
ciones
del
Norte,
1984).
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8/9/2019 Founding Statement LASSG
9/13
Latin mericanubalterntudies
Group
Founding
tatement
117
Founding
Concepts
and
Strategies
It
s above allthe
emerging
onsensus
on
the need
fora
democratic
world
rder hat
sets the
stage
for
ourwork.The
ethicaland
epistemological
natureof this
consensus and
the fate of the
processes
of redemocratiza-
tion
in
LatinAmerica tself
are,
we
believe,
inked
n
ways
that
mpose
new
urgencies
and
challenges
on
our work
as scholars and
teachers. These
involve,
on
the one
hand,
a
heightened ensitivity
o the
complexities
of
social
difference
nd,
on the
other,
he
composition
f
a
plural,
ut
bounded,
space
or
platform
f
research nd
discussion
n
which
veryone
has a
place.
Traditional
onfigurations
f
democracy
and the nation-state ave barred
subaltern ocial classes and
groups
rom
actively
participating
oth
in
the
political rocess
and
in
the constitution f
academically
uthorized
nowl-
edge,
and have not
recognized
heir
potential
ontributionss a
pool
of
human
capital, xcept
by
default.
What
s clear from he work
of
the
South Asian
SubalternStudies
Group
s the
axiom hat
the
elites
represented y
the national
bourgeoisie
and/or he
colonial dministrationre
responsible
or
nventing
he
ideology
and
reality
fnationalism.heir
way
of
looking
t
things
s locatedwithinhe
parameters
f
the
nation-state s constituted t
points
of
intersection,
nd
interest,
between a
formerly
egemonic
olonial
power
and a future
post-
colonial
ystem
of
new
states,
in
which
hey
will
playkey
leadership
oles.
At the
same
time,
it
is what
Guhacalls
the
historic
ailure
of the
nation
to come into
ts
own, 5
failure
due to
the
inadequacy
f
elite
leadership,
that is the central
problematic
f
postcoloniality.
he new
global
political
economybrings
n
its wakea
conceptual
movement
o
de-emphasize
para-
digmsof nationandindependence,a shift hataccounts or the changes
in
terminology
in
the
social sciences.
Consensus,
pluralism,
democracy,
subalternity,power
shift,
new
global
order,
and Grand
Area are
examples
of this
mutation.
They
have
substitutederms
such as
modernization,
ic-
tatorship,
party,
revolution,
metropolis/periphery, development,
national-
ism,
and national
iberation.One of
our first
asks is to
track he
ways
in
which erms
mutate,
and
what
t
means to use
a
given
erminology.
In
addition o
conceptualizing
ation
as at
least a dual
space
(colo-
nialormetropolitan/Creolelites;Creole lites/subalternroups),hestudy
of
the
subaltern
n
Latin
America nvolves
other
structural
ichotomies.As
5.
Guha,
On
Some
Aspects,
43.
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8/9/2019 Founding Statement LASSG
10/13
118
boundary
/
Fall
1993
a
space
of
counterposition
nd
collision,
he nation ncludes
multiple
rac-
turesof language,race,ethnicity, ender,class,
and
the
resulting
ensions
between assimilation
ethnic
dilution nd
homogenization)
nd confronta-
tion
(passive
resistance,
nsurgency,
trikes,
errorism).
hesubaltern
unc-
tions as a
migrating
ubject,
both
n
its own cultural
elf-representations
and
in
the
changing
natureof
its
social
pact
with he
state(s).
According
o
both
the mode of
production
arrative f classical
Marxism nd
the mod-
ernization
arrative f
sociological
unctionalism,
migrating
ubject
must
be
plottedagainst
its
position
n
the
stages
of
development
f a national
economy.
In
such
narratives,
he consent
of the subaltern
lasses and
their
identity
s
economic
categories
underwritehe
increased
productivity
hat
is the
sign
of
progress
and economic
stability.
he
question
of
the nature
of the subaltern
ocial
pact
s
integral
o the
effective
unctioning
f
govern-
ments
in the
present,
as muchas
to
plotting
heir uture.
De-nationalization
s
simultaneously
limit
and
a
thresholdof
our
project.
The de-territorialization
f
the nation-state
nder
he
impact
of
the new
permeability
f frontiers
o
capital-labor
lows
merely
replicates,
n
effect,
the
genetic
process
of
implantation
f
a colonial
conomy
in
Latin
America nthe sixteenthandseventeenthcenturies. tis notonlythatwe
can
no
longer
operate
solely
within he
prototype
f
nationhood;
he con-
cept
of
the
nation,
tself
ied to
the
protagonism
f
Creoleelites concerned
to dominate
nd/or
manage
other ocial
groups
or
classes
in
heir
ownsoci-
eties,
has
obscured,
rom he
start,
the
presence
and
reality
f subaltern
social
subjects
in
Latin
American
history.
We
need,
in
this
sense,
to
go
backward
o consider
both
pre-Columbian
nd
colonial
ormsof
prenational
territorialization,
s
well as
forward
o
think
about
newly
emerging
errito-
rialsubdivisions,permeable rontiers, egionalogics,andconceptssuch
as
Commonwealth
or
Pan-Americanism.
Calling
he
concept
of
nation
nto
question
affects,
n
turn,
national
notions
of
elite and
subaltern.
n
Latin
America
and
now
in the United
States), patterns
of
migration,
r
the recent
phenomenon
f
resettlement,
impinge
n
existing
ocial
and
economic
ormations,
heir
egal
status
guar-
anteed
by
the
state,
and
consequently
n
the
representation
nd
protago-
nism
of
the subaltern.
Whatare
the boundaries
f
Latin
America
f,
for
instance,we considerNew Yorkhe largestPuertoRicanmetropolis nd
Los
Angeles
the
second-largest
Mexican
metropolis?
Or,
f
we are
dealing
withthe
English-speaking
fro-Caribbeans
f
the
Atlantic
Coast
of
Nica-
ragua
who call
themselves
Creolesand
whose
cultural
astes
include
U.S.
country
music
and
Jamaican
reggae?
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8/9/2019 Founding Statement LASSG
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Latin
mericanubalterntudies
Group
Founding
tatement
119
This nsistenceon
thinking
he
subaltern
rom
he
standpoint
f
post-
modernity
oes
not
mean that
we do not intend o
pursue
the traces
of
previous
ultural
egemonies
n
the formationf the subaltern r of the cor-
responding
rea-elites.
We
can
find he subaltern
nly
n
the seams of
the
previously
rticulated
ocioculturalndadministrative
ractices
and
episte-
mologies,
n
the
cloning
of cultural
mentalities,
nd
in the
contingent
ocial
pacts
that occur at
every
transitional
uncture.According
o elite
writings,
nationalisms
an idealist
venture
conducted
by
the
same
elite,
guided
in
part
by
a
literary
deal
of nationhood.
he
native
elite,
with
ts
antagonism
toward he
colonizer,
llegedly
advocates he
good
of
the
people,
the sub-
altern
lasses,
claiming
ltruismnd
self-abnegation
nsteadofa searchfor
class
empowerment.
he
history
f the national
bourgeoisie
becomes the
spiritual
auto)biography
f
the
elite,
a fact not oston
the
subaltern lasses
and
directly
ontributing
o their
political
nd culturalormations
the
well-
known esistance o
Spanish-languageiteracy
n
some Indian reas
and
to
high
ulture
enerally
n
the
part
of subaltern
roups,
or
example).
Not
to
acknowledge
he
contributionf the
people
o theirown
history
manifests
the
poverty
of
historiography
nd
points
o crucial easons for the failures
of nationalprograms f popular ntitlement. ubalterntrans)nationalism
is
recorded
negatively
only
as a
problem
f law
and
order,
and
positively
only
as a
response
to
the charisma f elite
leaders,
n
other
words,
as ver-
tical
mobilization
hrough
he
populist
r media
manipulation
f
groups
and
factions.
To
represent
ubalternity
n
Latin
America,
n
whatever orm
t
takes
wherever t
appears-nation,
hacienda,
work
place,
home,
informal
ector,
black
market-to
find the
blank
space
where
it
speaks
as
a
sociopoliti-
cal subject,requiresus to explore he margins f the state. Ourpremise,
again,
s
that he
nation,
s
a
conceptual
pace,
is
not denticalo the
nation
as state.
Our nitial
oncepts
are thereforemore
geographical
han
institu-
tional.Our
research
strategies
oblige
us to
do
archaeological
work
n
the
intersticesof the
forms
of eitherdomination-law
and
order/military
nd
police
powers-or
integration-learning
nd
schooling.
From he
perspec-
tive of
subalternity,
he
alternateuse
of
police
and
teachers
may
well
be
coordinated
trategies
of
transnational
rojects
or
economic
xtraction nd
territorialdministration. e mustbe careful,nthe processof conceptu-
alizing
subalternity,
ot
to ensnare
ourselves
in
the
problem,
dominant n
previous
articulations f
national
iberation
for
example,
n
some
forms
of
PuertoRican
nationalism
r
in
Latin
American
iteraryArielism),
f the
national elite itself as
subaltern,
that
is,
as
transcriber, ranslator,
nterpreter,
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120
boundary
/
Fall
993
editor:
o
avoid,
n
other
words,
he
construction f
postcolonial
ntelligen-
tsias as sharecroppersnmetropolitanultural egemony.This is notto
dismiss the
problem
but
simply
o
indicate hat
retaining
focus on the
in-
telligentsia
nd on its
characteristic
ntellectual
ractices-centered
on
the
cultivation f
writing,
cience,
and the
like-leaves us
in
the
space
of his-
toriographic
rejudice
nd
not-seeing
hat
Guha dentified
n
his studies
of
peasant insurgency.6
To the extent that nation
and national
are
reconceptualized
s
colored,
and move fromcriollo o
mestizo,
rom
mestizo o
mulatto,black,
and
Indian,
rommale to
female,
we
approximate
more
closely
the idea
of
territoriality-areas, paces,
and
geography-we
seek to
encompass.
In
other
words,
t
is
the
inter/national,
nternecine einstitutionalizedocial
subject
that confirms
he
structure f
globalization,
f
population
ontrol
(political
s much as
biological),
e
it in
terms of
prestige,
culture,
r
maquiladoras.
Paying
attentiono and
acknowledging
he
presence
of this
subject
s an indexof
the
importance
f the subaltern
roups,
of how
they
force
themselves into
he
administrativetructures nd
practices
of domi-
nationas
flesh-and-blood
iving eings.
Since
colonial nd
national
piste-
mologieshavegiventhemthe statusofobjects, heiractivityeems erup-
tive,
breaking
withmodelsof vertical
mobilizationnd
calling
nto
question
hegemonic
party/state
ormsof social control
and
representation,
orcing
the state and
its
agents
(including niversity
rofessors
nd
research
oun-
dation
taff)
o
negotiate
a
morehorizontalocial and
research
dynamic
r
to face
the bomb
n
the
path
of
theirown
project
f
making
history.
We do
not,
however,
want to
simply
exclude the
question
of
the
national
nd
forms
of nationalism
nd
national-popular
obilization,
forexample,the sort involvedn the SandinistaRevolutionn Nicaragua
(we
are
influenced
here
by
the work
of CarlosVilas
on
the
question
of
6. This
may
indicate
one
point
of difference
between the Subaltern
Studies
proposal
and
those
of,
for
example,
Roberto
FernandezRetamar
r Edward
aid,
withwhich
t
shares
many
concerns.
In
his
foreword
o Selected
Subaltern
Studies,
Said
puts
Guha
and
the members of
the
group
in
the
company
of
Fanon,
Salman
Rushdie,
GabrielGarcia
Marquez,
Ngugi
wa
Thiongo,
C.
L.R.
James,
et cetera
(ix-x).
This is
appropriate
o
the
extent
that their
work
is,
in
Said's
words,
a
hybrid,
artaking
ointly
of Western
and
non-Westernconcerns and theory.But where Said and Retamarenvisiona new type
of intellectualas
the
protagonist
f
decolonization, he,
admittedly
aradoxical,
ntentof
Subaltern
Studies is
precisely
to
displace
the
centrality
f intellectuals
and
intellectual
culture
n
social
history.
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8/9/2019 Founding Statement LASSG
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Latin mericanubaltern
tudies
Group
Founding
tatement
121
the
identity
of
the
social
subject
of the
revolution).7
eitherdo we
want
to establish a fissure
betweenthe
theoretical
nd
the
political.
The sub-
altern s
not
one
thing.
It
s,
to
repeat,
a
mutating,
migratingubject.
Even
if
we
agree
with he
general
concept
of the subaltern s
the masses of the
laboring
opulation
nd
the intermediate
trata,
we
cannot
abjure
he inclu-
sion of
nonworking
ubjects
unless
we
want o
run he risk
of
repeating
he
mistake
of
classical Marxism n
the
question
of
how
social
agency
is con-
structed.
We
need to access
the
vast
(and mobile)
array
of
the
masses-
peasants, proletarians,
he informalndformal
ectors,
the sub- and
under-
employed,
vendors,
hose outsideor at the
margin
f the
moneyeconomy,
lumpens
and
ex-lumpens
f all
sorts,
children,
he
growing
numbers f the
homeless
...
We need to conclude his
statement,
however,
with
a
recognition
f
the
limits f
the
idea
of
studying
he subaltern nd a caution
o
ourselves
in
setting
outto do
this.
Our
project,
n
whicha teamof researchers
nd
their
collaborators
n
elite
metropolitan
niversities
want
o extricate romdocu-
mentsand
practices
he oralworld f the
subaltern,
he
structural
resence
of the
unavoidable,ndestructible,
nd effective
subject
who has
proven
us wrong-she/he who has demonstratedhat we did not knowthem-
must itselfconfront he dilemma f subaltern esistance
o and
insurgency
against
elite
conceptualizations. learly,
t
is a
question
not
only
of
new
ways
of
looking
at
the
subaltern,
new
and
more
powerful
ormsof infor-
mation
retrieval,
utalso of
building
ew
relations
betweenourselves and
those
human
ontemporaries
homwe
posit
as
objects
of
study.Rigoberta
Menchi's
njunction
t
the
end
of her amous estimonio
s
perhaps
elevant
in
this
regard:
I'm
till
keeping
ecretwhat
Ithink
no-one
shouldknow.Not
evenanthropologistsrintellectuals,omatter owmanybooks heyhave,
can
findout
all oursecrets. 8
7. CarlosVilas,TheSandinistaRevolution: ationalLiberationndSocial Transformation
in
Central
America
(New
York:
Monthly
Review
Press,
1986).
8.
Rigoberta
Menchui,,
Rigoberta
MenchO:
n
IndianWoman
n
Guatemala,
rans.
Ann
Wright London:
Verso,
1984).