The nature in misiones and the construction of the national identity in Argentina: imagetic representations in the reports of Buenos Aires expeditions of the second half of the 19th century.

Abstract

This article is a proposal to analyze the reports made by the argentine Juan Bautista Ambrosetti and Florencio de Basaldúa, who, having a starting point in common - Buenos Aires - went to Misiones in northeastern Argentina, and published in the late 19th century texts about the region. Through these reports we have the intention to develop a greater understanding of the iconographic representations of the nature of Misiones that this authors inserted in their respective reports. The need to create such representations is linked to the need of construction of national identity symbols for the newly unified nation (Argentina), which at that time sought to assert his authority in a region still regarded as a secluded place and alien to the influences of the central government of Buenos Aires.