Leopoldo Lugones’s El Payador: an excluding solution to the problem of national identity in the context of the First Centenary

Abstract

Within the context of the massive immigration movement that took place in the beginning of the twentieth century, the establishment of the Martín Fierro as a vernacular epic poem and an epitome of nationality carried out by Leopoldo Lugones in the series of lectures he gave in 1913 at the Odeón Theater (later on published under the title El Payador), can be seen as an attempt to delineate the national identity in an excluding manner, since the deep-rooted identity of the criollo 26 is vindicated as the essence of nationality and the identity of the newly arrived immigrants is presented as its antithesis, the alterity. At the same time, Lugones’s reading strategy of the Martín Fierro establishes a symbolic alliance with the oligarchy, the dominant group in this period, by proclaiming it as the only competent social class for ruling the country and guarantee its progress.