Javiera Carrera and the construction of the Nation-State in Chile: memory and biographical representations (1864-1911)

• Grant number: 21/15086-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: March 01, 2023
• End date: September 30, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of America
• Principal Investigator: José Carlos Vilardaga
• Grantee: Caroline Arantes e Silva Nunes
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research project, to be developed in the master's, aims to analyze the representation and memory of Javiera Carrera in biographical works, and the uses of these representations in the process of building the Chilean national identity. Such investigation will be carried out from four biographical works written between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The years that followed the Latin American independence were marked by struggles for representation and construction of a national history and its identity. Various resources were used, with emphasis on civic celebrations, a national theatricality through public spectacles that portrayed independence and its founding heroes. In this civic pantheon, we find men who would have participated in the wars and who are represented as essential in traditional historiography, mainly in the form of biographies. However, it is observed that there are some female names that appear in biographies dedicated mainly to civic education for young girls. Among the names mentioned, Javiera Carrera is recurrent, and this character is constantly described as the mother of the Chilean country. Even though in traditional Chilean historiography the participation of women is credited as just a supporting role, Javiera Carrera is described as having qualities that were longed to be attributed to young women, in this characterization of national identity. The purpose of this research is to analyze, from these biographies, how their representation helped in the ideals of national identity that they wanted to build.