Lo indígena como origen, identidad y destino del Chaco

The literary and aesthetic proposal of Crisanto Domínguez

Abstract

This article analyses the figure of the Chaco sculptor and writer Crisanto Domínguez (1911-1969), paying special attention to his literary production. It seeks to reconstruct how Domínguez’s production is inserted in the incipient cultural space of Chaco at the end of the 1930s, and in what way can be found in his work representations that pretend to account for the “Chaco identity” in connection with the indigenous legacy. It also analyses the controversial case of the “Monumento al Indio” (Monument to the Indian), made by Domínguez in 1938, commissioned by the municipality of Resistencia, investigating the situations that led to this monument being “castrated”, removed from the public scene and finally disappearing, without the place where it was buried being known. The work thus recovers the specific modulation with which Domínguez thinks the indigenous from the Chaco, facing at the same time the problem of constructing a regional identity that articulates the different legacies of creoles, immigrants and indigenous people, aiming to overcome the historical stereotypes with which this territory and its population have been considered.