Chapter 18 - Travel

Summary

As a consequence of the process of modernization and the new growing engagement of Latin American countries in cultural and material global exchanges, the period 1870–1930 marked some important transitions in the way travel was understood. It became increasingly a bodily and material practice, and even a form of consumption. This chapter follows some of these trends in order to show how different Latin American intellectuals of the period reflected upon their own writing about travel. Discussing works by Lucio V. Mansilla, Miguel Triana, Enrique Gómez Carrillo, and Mário de Andrade, it focuses on descriptions of the modes and rhythms of travel. Finally, it pays attention to the means of transportation: traveling by horse, on foot, by boat, by train, or by car turns out to connote a different experience as the relationships that the traveler establishes with the landscape vary significantly depending on the type of transportation used.