Staging Frontiers: The Making of Modern Popular Culture in Argentina & Uruguay

Swashbuckling tales of valiant gauchos roaming Argentina and Uruguay were nineteenth-century bestsellers. But when these stories jumped from the page to the circus stage and beyond, their cultural, economic, and political influence revolutionized popular culture and daily life. In this engaging book, William Acree delivers a deep history of Latin American popular entertainment that culminates in a rich exploration of circus culture and dramas that celebrated the countryside. Among the most dominant urban and rural attractions on the eve of the twentieth century, these performances were central to how Argentines, Uruguayans, and immigrants came together across lines of social class, ethnic identity, and race as demographic and economic transformations reshaped everyday experience. Acree offers a revealing portrait of itinerant circus performers and the ways they rubbed shoulders with ranch hands, urban workers, and the upper classes to cheer their heroes and jeer their villains. Ultimately, “Staging Frontiers” tells the story of the surprising and enduring impact leisure and entertainment had on the increasingly expansive marketplace of culture.

• University of New Mexico Press

Empire's End: Transnational Connections in the Hispanic World

The fall of the Spanish Empire: that period in the nineteenth century when it lost its colonies in Spanish America and the Philippines. How did it happen? What did the process of the "end of empire" look like? Empire's End considers the nation's imperial legacy beyond this period, all the way up to the present moment. In addition to scrutinizing the political, economic, and social implications of this "end," these chapters emphasize the cultural impact of this process through an analysis of a wide range of representations—literature, literary histories, periodical publications, scientific texts, national symbols, museums, architectural monuments, and tourist routes—that formed the basis of transnational connections and exchange. The book breaks new ground by addressing the ramifications of Spain's imperial project in relation to its former colonies, not only in Spanish America, but also in North Africa and the Philippines, thus generating new insights into the circuits of cultural exchange that link these four geographical areas that are rarely considered together. Empire's End showcases the work of scholars of literature, cultural studies, and history, centering on four interrelated issues crucial to understanding the end of the Spanish empire: the mappings of the Hispanic Atlantic, race, human rights, and the legacies of empire.

• Vanderbilt University Press

The Gaucho Juan Moreira: True Crime in Nineteenth-Century Argentina

Argentinian writer Eduardo Gutiérrez (1851-1889) fashioned his seminal gauchesque novel from the prison records of the real Juan Moreira, a noble outlaw whose life and name became legendary in the Río de la Plata during the late 19th century.

John Chasteen's fast-moving, streamlined translation--the first ever into English--captures all of the sweeping romance and knife-wielding excitement of the original. William Acree's introduction and notes situate Juan Moreira in its literary and historical contexts. Numerous illustrations, a map of Moreira’s travels, a glossary of terms, and a select bibliography are all included.

• Hackett Classics