From the Eternauta to the Nestornauta: Genesis and tribulations of Argentine Science Fiction

Abstract

Since the restoration of democracy in 1983, El Eternauta’s popularity in Argentina has continued to grow. The Sci-Fi comic created by H.G Oesterheld and Francisco Solano Lopez reached its peak popularity when the ruling party took advantage of its main character in 2010 to ho­nour the memory of the late president Néstor Kirchner (“Nestornauta”). Adopting this event as a starting point, we adopt a retrospective gaze into the origins of Argentine science-fiction and its subsequent unfol­ding. In the light of the concept of semiotic translation, we explain why Lugones, Borges and Bioy Casares’ forays into scientific fantasy cannot be considered science-fiction and why this genre was born in culture’s lower strata: comics. We conclude that the apotheosis of Oesterheld and El Eternauta is more a nostalgic gesture than an enshrinement of a genre that never took off.