National regeneration and the education of the Latin American elites

Given the essentially cultural connotations of the notion of ‘Latin race’, education was widely perceived as a key tool for bringing about a process of national and regional regeneration. ‘The problem of the race’ was closely linked to ‘the problem of education’. What characterised the debate on education in all three countries was a deep concern with the need for a regeneration of the national character. This chapter explores the debates around Latin and Anglo-Saxon education models and the ways in which major contemporary theories of education were incorporated. Intellectual exchanges with the Spanish ‘regeneracionistas’ were key in the case of the pedagogical strand of Krausismo in the River Plate and especially in Uruguay. What approach to education best suited the Spanish American nations? Was ‘Latin’ education the best model to adopt? The ‘spatial’ direction of these exchanges is in itself revealing of the different national tendencies: while the Chileans ostensibly and increasingly looked towards the United States, the River Plate was largely part of a revival of Krausismo through direct contact with a new generation of Spanish krausistas.