Keywords
Abstract
On November 22, 23, and 24, 2023, CeDInCI organized its XII Conference on the History of the Left, this time under the title "Publishing and Revolution in Latin America: Leftist Culture, Publishing History, and Material Turn." The new headquarters of the Center hosted nearly a hundred researchers from various parts of Latin America and some European countries over those three days, who participated in roundtables and discussion panels about the multiple theses and practices that have been intertwined since the late 19th century between the publishing of magazines, newspapers, books, and pamphlets on the one hand, and the emancipatory horizons of the left on the other.
The conference was inaugurated with a lecture by French historian Jean-Yves Mollier, who examined the current challenges facing leftist culture on a global scale. His lecture, which we reproduce in this dossier, focuses on the controversial points and dilemmas that have marked leftist politics since the French Revolution of 1789, from the question of religion to feminism, ecology, and colonialism. In our century, if the left still has opportunities to grow and renew itself, it is because it is willing to confront and take ownership of these issues, as well as to analyze the dizzying transformations of contemporary capitalism.
The opening remarks were made by CeDInCI’s director, Horacio Tarcus; sociologist and historian Dora Barrancos; and Marisa Midori Deaecto, who, in 2013, co-edited Edição e Revolução: Leituras Comunistas no Brasil e na França with Mollier. The panel highlighted the progress made in research on the topics of the conference, emphasized the open perspectives for studying the printed materials edited by the left in Latin America, and stressed the importance of preserving these materials in the face of renewed right-wing assaults. The panels also provided a Latin American overview of studies in the field, with interventions by Argentinians Gustavo Sora, José Luis de Diego, and Laura Fernández Cordero; Mexicans Aimer Granados and Santiago Rivera Mir; Brazilians Lincoln Secco, Dainis Karepovs, and Luccas Maldonado; and Chilean Cristina Moyano. Enthusiastic debates extended the duration of several sessions, both to discuss national cases, such as Colombia, Cuba, Brazil, and Uruguay, as well as the transnational cultural processes linked to revolutions and dictatorships.
As part of the conference, CeDInCI presented the 2023 edition of its research journal Políticas de la Memoria and two books recently published by its teams: Hacer cosas con revistas: Publicaciones políticas y culturales del anarquismo a la Nueva Izquierda, compiled by Laura Fernández Cordero, and Edición y Revolución en Argentina, directed by Tarcus and coordinated by Lucas Domínguez Rubio and Ezequiel Saferstein.
One of the specific contributions of the latter book to the conference is the identification of the historical cycles of anarchist, socialist, communist, and new leftist publishing in Argentina, which were linked to the expansion of the reading public and labor struggles; the role of pamphlets in the early 20th century and the collectible fascicle in the 1960s; the modernization, radicalization, and Latin Americanization of the intellectual field in the same decade; the dynamic figure of the cultural agitator who promoted independent magazines and publishers competing with party-based editorial apparatuses legitimized by revolutionary processes, such as the Soviet, Chinese, and Cuban models; and finally, the decline of this print culture after the military dictatorships and the collapse of socialist states.
The weight of the material turn, another key theme of the conference, emerged in the presentations that addressed the production of books, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, and other objects linked to the circulation of ideas, intellectuals, and militants. These discussions also focused on the spaces of sociability—especially libraries, bookstores, cafés, and meeting centers dedicated to both theoretical development and mass political formation. In the same vein, the specific relationships between authors, translators, series editors, and publishers; the importance of exchanges, barter, and correspondence; and the prominence of figures like typographers, translators, graphic designers, and visual artists were key areas of attention for the researchers. The materiality of the publishing processes is a crucial element for examining the strategies of ideological reception, party and union organization, gender politics, and aesthetic orientation mobilized by the left. All of this demands that specialists clarify the archival practices that transformed printed materials into documents.
This dossier gathers the works discussed at the conference. Mollier’s problematization of the left's agenda is accompanied by an article by Gustavo Sorá, who traces Mollier's historiographical trajectory and specifies his contributions to the study of French leftist publishing and its global impact, particularly his role in advancing book studies in Latin America. Rivera Mir explores the particular connection between publishing and revolution forged through the Secretaría de Educación Pública in Cardenista Mexico, focusing on the agency of rural teachers in the publication and republication of books for rural children. The dossier also includes a text by Argentine historian Miranda Lida, who examines the correspondence between Arnaldo Orfila Reynal, the editor and director of Fondo de Cultura Económica, and Italian socialist philosopher Rodolfo Mondolfo, shedding light on the dilemmas posed by the tension between intellectual freedom and commitment in the early years of the Cuban Revolution. Emiliano Tavernini analyzes the relationship between publishing and awards in the poetry of Juan Gelman in the 1990s, particularly the debates sparked by institutional actors and leftist publishers when the Planeta group republished Gelman’s works. Finally, Boris Matías Grinchpun proposes an inversion of perspective, analyzing the historiographical operations carried out by the current Director of the National School of Intelligence of Argentina, Juan B. Yofre, to explain one aspect of his massive success.
In conclusion, the XII CeDInCI Conference was dedicated to discussing Latin American editorial practices linked to revolution and its many actors and effects. The articles gathered here offer consistent, controversial, and innovative arguments on this issue in the fields of intellectual history, book history, and publishing history.