The Novelty of Latin America: Globalizations, Futures and Nations, Part I

Abstract

This essay argues that Latin America created a modern cutting edge design of the nation and national identity long before Europe. In many aspects, it was more modern than the United States. The region is seen as a modernizer and globalizer rather than a mere recipient of influences. In light of these findings, the essay revisits theories of the Nation, National Identity, Modernization and Globalization. Most literature on the construction of national identity and nationalism focuses on communal past experiences and history to explain the nation. Rather, I claim that a different dimension and intellectual construct, ‘the future of the nation’, provides one of the most fundamental building blocks of national identity in the modern world.