Abstract:
Leonel Alvarado examines the relationship between the evolution of Central American national anthems and the imposition of changing nationalistic values.
Nations are made up of things we choose to remember and things we choose to forget. This idea still stands, even though the French philosopher Ernest Renan first expressed it in 1882. Choosing what to remember and what to forget about a nation’s past is based on a selective perception of what that nation was in the past, what it is in the present, and what we want it to be in a future we are busy shaping. But who chooses? The choice always comes from above, from those with the power to imagine a future that will affect the lives of the majority.
Publication date:
August 16, 2017
Publication type:
Berkeley Review of Latin American Studies Article
