Imáges from a journey "inland". The Native Indians in the expeditionary narrative of Filiberto de Oliveira Cézar (1891-1897)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the verbal and iconic representations of the Indian in the book El cacique Blanco. Costumbres de los araucanos en la pampa (1893), written by the politician, military and writer Filiberto de Oliveira Cézar. Alongside La vida en los bosques sudamericanos. Viaje al oriente de Bolivia (1891, 1893); Viaje al país de los tobas. Amores de una india (1892, 1897), Leyendas de los indios guaraníes y Leyendas de los indios quichuas (1892, 1893), this illustrated book is part of the series “Travel adventures through unexplored territories”, launched by the publishing house of Jacobo Peuser between 1891 and 1897, all of them illustrated by recognized artists such as Francisco Fortuny, Adolph Methfessel, Martín Malharro and José María Cao.

The work focuses on the study of images in a variety of ways. From there it aims to relate them to the written discourse, trying to identify the functions assigned to them. A main idea throughout the research: images, far from being just illustrations of the text or a faithful record of the itineraries through the Argentine territory, instituted and built a way of seeing the Indians and the land they inhabited, displaying particular ideologies.