The José E. Rodó’s public image: strategies of a universal enunciator

Abstract

A paper dedicated to an intellectual who passed 99 years ago, only makes sense if his work remains vigorous. Rodó was a voice of international reach who proposed an idea of Iberian America, based on the teaching of Juan María Gutiérrez, overcoming the paradigm Civilization vs. Barbarism, created by the Generation of 1837 in Argentina. He was a promoter of the democratic system as a way of life. Newspapers, epistles, books and parliamentary action were the vehicles of his discourse. This article defends the hypothesis of his issues still being valid, because our region never has discussed them seriously.