Identity, social class and cultural heritages: the associative trajectory of Lorenzo Arenas Olivos (Concepción, Chile: 1874-1906)

Abstract

The knowledge that emerged about Lorenzo Arenas Olivos from written culture has been nourished by an apologetic interpretation, built from the archetypal experience of a liberal citizen who was linked to different cultural spheres: mutualism, freemasonry and radicalism. This is evidenced by reviewing its historical references, noting that the treatment he received is characterized by an uncritical reproduction of its historicity. However, concepts such as identity, social class, and cultural heritage, allow to reinterpret the individual from the interrelationships that existed between the different cultural currents in which he was inserted. In this perspective, the objective of the research is to stress this hagiographic gaze, to understand the historical subject from its human dimension. The historical method was constructed from three sources of information. First, the existing references to Lorenzo Arenas in written culture were critically analyzed. Then unpublished documentation from the National Historical Archive (NHA) was analyzed. Finally, the documentation was complemented by press (El Sur Newspaper) and documentation from the Historical Archive of Concepción (AHC). In this way, the review of different types of historical sources, account for different levels of complexity around historical subjects that are usually understood from heroic narratives.