Resumo

ORTIZ, Gustavo. La re-invención de América Latina. Estud. - Cent. Estud. Av., Univ. Nac. Córdoba [online]. 2009, n.21, pp.65-77. ISSN 1852-1568.

The modernity that has reached Latin America is an extension of the European modernity, but not its replica or a translated version of it. Historical processes are not reproduced in a two-way fashion; although the Latin American modernity is referred to as peripheral modernity, or because it is so, it offers its own characteristics. More firmly than when reference is made to the European modernity, the diachronic, asymmetrical and heterogeneous aspects of the Latin American process must be stressed. As a matter of fact, it has not taken place at the same time nor with the same intensity or modality.  With still more emphasis on the complex aspect of this matter, it could be said that the term modernity, as is used in discourse and in the mentioned context, is associated to historical processes which have occurred in Latin America. This is to say, it points to political,  social and cultural practices which actually constitute modes of existence and of relating to nature, to others and to oneself. Also, the conflicts, gaps, excesses or hibridity which may have occurred in all the dimensions or between different dimensions of the modernity process in Latin America are present not only in the discourse aimed to reconstruct it but also in actual praxis, in the daily living of Latin American populations, not always carried over to reflective consciousness level. The thesis contained in this work states the need to elaborate, in Latin America, a post-authoritarian, post-revolutionary and post-neoliberal theory of democracy which may be opposed to the modernization induced from abroad and which may respond to the interests of civil society while, at the same time, assuring social solidarious coexistence without exclusions

Palavras-chave : Latin America; Modernity; Identity; Latin american social sciences.