Pablo Ortemberg

Pablo Ortemberg holds a PhD in History from the EHESS, 2008. He is an independent researcher of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) and Director of the Center for the Study of Political History (CEHP) of the School of Politics and Government (EPyG) of the National University of San Martín (UNSAM), Argentina. At this university he is also in charge of the subject Latin American History. He has published books and more than fifty articles in books and national and international scientific journals. Among his works are Rituels du pouvoir à Lima. De la monarchie à la république (1735-1828). Paris, Éd. EHESS, 2012; and as director, El origen de las fiestas patrias. Hispanoamérica en la era de las independencias, Prohistoria Ed., 2013. He has been a visiting professor and researcher at various national and foreign universities.>

The project

Title: The geopolitics of commemorations. France in the Latin American centenaries, 1910-1925

As part of the DEA program, the main objective of this research is to study the construction of international ties and imaginaries between France and Latin America by analyzing the actions and perspectives of French actors, both governmental and non-governmental, during the celebrations of Latin American centenaries between 1910 and 1925. More specifically, we will examine the participation and perspectives of French actors in the centenary celebrations of Argentina (1910), Brazil (1922), Chile (1910) and Peru (1921 and 1924) in relation to evolving strategic commercial, military, political and ideological interests in competition with other European powers, particularly Germany, and the United States. In this context, France's position on these commemorations will be examined in relation to a series of evolving currents: Hispano-Americanism, Ibero-Americanism, Latin-Americanism and Pan-Americanism. We will also examine the interests, participation and positions of French governmental and non-governmental actors in the international conflicts and rivalries between Latin American countries (Chile-Peru-Bolivia, Argentina-Brazil, and Argentina-Chile) in the commemorative scenarios of Latin American centenaries, before, during and after the First World War. To this end, we will attempt to characterize the "languages" of the French government's political and cultural influence on Latin American centenaries: from the donation of monuments to the dispatch of warships in honor of the host country as part of "extraordinary” diplomatic missions. This research project will therefore result in a better understanding not only of the construction of relations between France and many Latin American countries, but also of the representation of conflicts and rivalries between Latin American countries by French diplomats.

Host institution: CRIMIC, Centre de Recherches Interdisciplinaires sur les Mondes Ibéro-américains Contemporains, Lettres, Sorbonne Université.

Selective bibliography

• 2013 (dir.) El origen de las fiestas patrias. Hispanoamérica en la era de las independencias. Rosario, Prohistoria Ed.
• 2012 Rituels du pouvoir à Lima. De la monarchie à la république (1735-1828). París, Ed. EHESS. (Trad. espagnol, Fondo Editorial PUCP, 2014).
• 2021 “El centenario de la Expedición Libertadora al Perú: ¿un homenaje a la confraternidad? Apropiaciones entre Argentina, Chile y Perú”, Anuario Colombiano de Historia Social y de la Cultura, 48.1, 2021, pp. 357-382.
• 2020 “José León Suárez y la «diplomacia de los pueblos»: Iberoamericanismo, reformismos y festejos Centenarios en la década de 1920”. Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez. 50-2, pp. 41-65.
• 2018 “Ruy Barbosa en el Centenario de 1916: apogeo de la confraternidad entre Brasil y Argentina”, Revista de Historia de América. Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e Historia (IPGH), México., n. 154, enero-junio 2018, pp. 105-134.