More than a guide of "admirability" : Recuerdos de viaje (1880), by Eduarda Mansilla

Abstract

The book Recuerdos de viaje (1880), by Eduarda Mansilla —written with an enjoyable prose full of diverse themes and discursive remains of orality—, is the first travelogue produced by an Argentine female author. Written ten years after her trip to the United States of America —a journey that became a four-year residency in this country due to the diplomatic position entrusted to her husband, Manuel Rafael García—, in this book Mansilla builds a notion of identity —both national and personal— from the comparison between the self (presented as “us”) and the Yankee culture. Away from the teachings of Sarmiento, Mansilla builds her perspective of United States by conceiving herself as a representative of the Creole upper class, closer to European culture (more properly, French) than to American one. This exposition examines the various ways in which the journey —and its inseparable narration— results in a functional framework for the construction of a self-identity marked by of Mansilla’s particularities: her social class, her multiculturality, her erudition, her comprehensive gaze toward Indians and her vertical position toward low working classes.