Between changes and continuities: the discursive construction of American identity in the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada. The case of El Redactor Americano (1806-1809)

Abstract

The article investigates the elements that gave birth to the promotion and enhancement of the originality of Latin America and that defined the identity of the literate Creole in the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada. It focuses on the study of El Redactor Americano edited by Manuel del Socorro Rodríguez to explain how the periodic press was transformed into a space for discussion of opinions that acquired a political character. In other words, it examines how the press was transformed into a political actor whose arguments were reflected in public debates and in the creation of innovative political debates. This work argues that public opinion is not only the discussion of European concepts in America, but it involves the collective elaboration of reflections made by actors on both sides of the Atlantic. In short, we wonder how El Redactor Americano shows us the discursive auto configuration of the Creole literate in the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada in the beginning of the Republican period.