AMERICANISMO Y MESTIZAJE EN LA OBRA TEMPRANA DE MARIANO PICÓN SALAS

Abstract

This article analyzes the essay writing of Venezuelan intellectual Mariano Picón Salas (1901-1965), particularly focusing on his work published during his residency in Chile from 1923 to 1936. We posit that this period, recognized as the initial stage of his distinguished career as a writer, lays the foundation for his most renowned historical and cultural thought. Departing from the concept of the intellectual as an actively engaged figure in the public sphere, the early writing of Picón Salas contributes to an extended process of transformation through a distinct, creative, and independent practice. In the present article, we analyze two core themes that articulate his ideas and find their central nuclei in his years of residency in Chile: Americanism (as project and method) and miscegenation (as intersection and creation). These themes serve as pillars for his anti-oligarchic, anti-imperialist, and universal critique, aligning him with a wider network of prominent intellectuals in the region, emerging at the dawn of the twentieth century.