Hybridizing ideas in the Latin space

Abstract

During the interwar period, authoritarian movements and regimes of the right embraced nationalist values but at the same time saw themselves as transnational agents of an otherwise international intellectual and political wave. In this chapter, three main assumptions are discussed. Firstly, the concept of ‘Latin space” defines a geographical as well as ‘imagined” area that encompassed Southern Europe and Latin America. This perspective is adopted here both as a spatial viewpoint and as a theoretical/ideological framework. In this area a plurality of political and cultural models were at work, not only the fascist and far-right context. For that reason, the second perspective adopted here aims to widen its focus from fascist intellectuals’ circles to a variety of networks and agencies that shared a set of values ranging from conservatism to far-right radicalism. The third perspective is to analyse not only individual trajectories, but informal groups, networks and agencies, in order to see these intellectuals in action, in the public space and political engagement.