Affectual Erasure

Cynthia Margarita Tompkins

Description

Affectual Erasure examines how Argentine cinema has represented Indigenous peoples throughout a period spanning roughly a century. Cynthia Margarita Tompkins interrelates her discussion of films with the ethnographic context of the Indigenous peoples represented and an analysis of the affective dimensions at play. These emotions underscore the inherent violence of generic conventions, as well as the continued political violence preventing Indigenous peoples from access to their ancestral lands and cultural mores. Tompkins explores a broad range of movies beginning in the silent period and includes both feature films and documentaries, underscored by archival and contemporary film stills. She traces the initial erotic projection, moving through melodrama to the conventions of the Western, into the 1960s focus on decolonization, superseded by allegorical renditions and the promise of self-expression in late twentieth-century documentaries. Each section includes an introduction to the sociohistorical events of the period and their impact on film production. Analyzed chronologically, the films evidence different stages in the projection of the hegemonic Argentine imaginary, which fails to envision the daily life of Indigenous peoples prior to conquest or in colonial times—and remains in denial of their existence in the present.
List of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part I. Early Cinema, 1896–1932

1. Melodrama and Avant- la- Lettre Documentary in Alcides Greca’s El último malón (The Last “Indian” Raid, 1917)

2. Kitsch and Exoticism in Nelo Cosimi’s La quena de la muerte (Death Kena, 1929)

Part II. Classical Cinema, 1933–1956

3. Femme Fatale in Luis Belisario García Villar’s Frontera Sur (Southern Border, 1943)

4. Betrayal and Insanity in Lucas Demare’s El último perro (The Last One Standing, 1956)

Part III. Modernity and Auteur Cinema, 1957–1983

5. The Shifting Meanings of Translation in Lautaro Murúa’s Shunko (1960)

6. Transculturation in Jorge Prelorán’s Hermógenes Cayo (1967)

Part IV. Cinema in Democracy, 1983–1993

7. Fatal Kindness in Raúl Tosso’s Gerónima (1986)

8. Bewitched Mirror Images in Edgardo Cozarinsky’s Guerriers et Captives (Warriors and Captives, 1989)

Part V. Contemporary Period, 1993–2017

9. The Power of the Word in Philip Cox and Valeria Mapelman’s Mbyá: Tierra en rojo (We Are the Indians, 2005)

10. State Terrorism in Valeria Mapelman’s Octubre Pilagá (Pilagá October, 2010)

11. Life as a Specimen: Alejandro Fernández Mouján’s Damiana Kryygi (2015)

12. Clashing Ideologies, Denunciation, and Reparation in Ulises de la Orden’s Tierra adentro (Inland, 2011)

13. Silence and Isolation in Mathieu Orcel’s Para los pobres piedras (Stones for the Poor, 2013)

14. Immersion and Metamorphosis in Inés de Oliveira Cézar’s Cassandra (2012)

15. The Power of Constellations in Sebastián Lingiardi’s Las pistas- Lanhoyij- Nmitaxanaxac (Clues- Lanhoyij- Nmitaxanaxac, 2010)

Conclusion
Appendix: A Political Map of Argentina
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Film
• Caribbean
• History of film
• History of the Americas
• Latin America
• South America
• Indigenous peoples
• Visual culture
• América del Sur
• Película fotográfica
• Latin American

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 23 août 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438470986
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

AFFECTUAL ERASURE
SUNY series in Latin American Cinema

Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado and Leslie L. Marsh, editors
AFFECTUAL ERASURE
Representations of Indigenous Peoples in Argentine Cinema
CYNTHIA MARGARITA TOMPKINS
Cover image: Luisa Calcumil as Gerónima Sande. Courtesy of Raúl Tosso.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2018 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Tompkins, Cynthia Margarita, author
Title: Affectual erasure / Cynthia Margarita Tompkins, author.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2018] | Series:
SUNY series in Latin American cinema | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: ISBN 9781438470979 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438470986 (e-book)
Further information is available at the Library of Congress.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For HAROLD, MALCOLM, SEAN,
y Pueblos originarios
Contents
List of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1 Early Cinema, 1896–1932
1 Melodrama and Avant-la-Lettre Documentary in Alcides Greca’s El último malón ( The Last “Indian” Raid , 1917)
2 Kitsch and Exoticism in Nelo Cosimi’s La quena de la muerte ( Death Kena , 1929)
Part 2 Classical Cinema, 1933–1956
3 Femme Fatale in Luis Belisario García Villar’s Frontera Sur ( Southern Border , 1943)
4 Betrayal and Insanity in Lucas Demare’s El último perro ( The Last One Standing , 1956)
Part 3 Modernity and Auteur Cinema, 1957–1983
5 The Shifting Meanings of Translation in Lautaro Murúa’s Shunko (1960)
6 Transculturation in Jorge Prelorán’s Hermógenes Cayo (1967)
Part 4 Cinema in Democracy, 1983–1993
7 Fatal Kindness in Raúl Tosso’s Gerónima (1986)
8 Bewitched Mirror Images in Edgardo Cozarinsky’s Guerriers et Captives ( Warriors and Captives , 1989)
Part 5 Contemporary Period, 1993–2017
9 The Power of the Word in Philip Cox and Valeria Mapelman’s Mbyá: Tierra en rojo ( We Are the Indians , 2005)
10 State Terrorism in Valeria Mapelman’s Octubre Pilagá ( Pilagá October , 2010)
11 Life as a Specimen: Alejandro Fernández Mouján’s Damiana Kryygi (2015)
12 Clashing Ideologies, Denunciation, and Reparation in Ulises de la Orden’s Tierra adentro ( Inland , 2011)
13 Silence and Isolation in Mathieu Orcel’s Para los pobres piedras ( Stones for the Poor , 2013)
14 Immersion and Metamorphosis in Inés de Oliveira Cézar’s Cassandra (2012)
15 The Power of Constellations in Sebastián Lingiardi’s Las pistas-Lanhoyij-Nmitaxanaxac ( Clues-Lanhoyij-Nmitaxanaxac , 2010)
Conclusion
Appendix: A Political Map of Argentina
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Figures 1.1 Poster for El último malón 1.2 Indigenous peoples as peons 1.3 Jesús Salvador 1.4 Jesús Salvador’s dream 1.5 Trapping alligators 1.6 Dance 1.7 Doña Petrona 1.8 “Madman” Juan Saldán 1.9 Mocoví toddler 2.1 Raúl and Azucena 2.2 Raúl and Cardo Azul 2.3 Raúl abandons Cardo Azul 2.4 Relaxing at the rancho. Raúl, Mestizo, unidentified man, Don Braulio, and Cardo Azul P2.1 Women and children. Las aguas bajan turbias 3.1 Grana and Rufino 3.2 Comeñé (far left) is made to work at the canteen 3.3 Captain Alonso courting Grana 3.4 “Indian” council 4.1 Dolores bids farewell to her lover 4.2 Dolores is kidnapped 4.3 Gauna is blinded in the attack 4.4 Shooting the malón 6.1 Cayo family 6.2 Aurelia, Pedro, and Antonia 6.3 Portable altar 6.4 Figure on horseback 6.5 Crucifix 6.6 Chapel 6.7 Feathered man 6.8 Votive skulls P4.1 Verónico Cruz 7.1 Luisa Calcumil as Gerónima Sande 7.2 Gerónima and children at home 7.3 Male bonding: the grocer and the health care official 8.1 Margaritte/Sanda, Sargenta/Zorrila, and the captive/Toscano 9.1 Mbyá poster 9.2 Adobe home 9.3 Sebastián, Kerechu, and family 9.4 Juan, Kerechu’s brother 9.5 Chiefs Juan and Agustín 9.6 Ará, Cirilo, and children 9.7 Nélida and children at school 10.1 Haik 10.2 Piakqolek 10.3 Luciano’s corona 10.4 Human remains identified 11.1 Aché 11.2 Damiana by Lehmann Nitsche (cropped) 11.3 Julia 12.1 Poster for Tierra adentro 12.2 Extension of the Wallmapu 12.3 Returning to ancestors’ lands 12.4 Pablito dances 14.1 Celia and Cassandra 14.2 Hortencia and Cassandra 15.1 Poster for Las pistas 15.2 Constellation 15.3 Student on Blondie’s band 15.4 Graffiti at Maestra’s home 15.5 Toba interpreter tells the story A.1 Political map of Argentina
Preface
Images in spite of all :
in spite of our own inability
to look them as they deserve.
—Georges Didi-Huberman
ALTHOUGH THE REPRESENTATION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN FILM and media has been the subject of extensive analysis and critique in the United States since at least the Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island, there is no comprehensive examination of the cinematic representation of Indigenous peoples in Argentina. My interdisciplinary approach to film studies will do so within a frame that links politics, aesthetics, and ethics. Such representation is political in the context of the Argentine state’s troubled history with respect to Indigenous peoples, as recent uses of new media increase awareness of Indigenous land claims and resistance to state terrorism. At the same time my project focuses on cinematic production, it acknowledges that ancestral lands predate and transcend national borders, as depicted in films such as Tierra adentro ( Inland , 2011), reflecting Mapuche experiences and struggles toward land restitution, dual citizenship, and self-representation along the porous border between contemporary Chile and Argentina. Such concepts will encourage a new understanding of argentinidad closer to the Bolivian experience of a multinational country. Sustainability is yet another multinational issue for Indigenous peoples and film, given their continued removal from ancestral lands for purposes that include deforestation, mega-industrial soybean plantations, or tourism; the continued violence of hired henchmen and corrupt local authorities; and the indifference or complicity of civil society. Aesthetics is more relevant than ever, and I develop a broad and deep understanding of the styles of cinematic representation across periods and genres. Finally, ethics encompasses the approach of affect and emotion, which underscores hegemonic ideology in the representation of Indigenous peoples throughout most of the twentieth century and allows for raising awareness about their accounts in documentaries and feature films shot in the twenty-first century. Ethics encompasses increasing self-representation and issues of sustainability and environmental justice at the forefront of Indigenous peoples’ struggles. My project’s engagement of the long history and questionable practices surrounding the representation of Indigenous peoples is founded in a politics, ethics, and aesthetics of contact and collaboration, while acknowledging the justifiable concern among Indigenous peoples with regard to scientific and statist claims and interests.
As we shall see, the cultural genocide of Indigenous peoples began with the arrival of conquistadors to the land that became Argentina, since their efforts were compensated with vast tracts of land—including the inhabitants. Indeed, common practice in the so-called repartimiento (distribution) was to move and mix those enslaved to expedite assimilation (Bixio, 73). Genocide continued in the following centuries as criollos (descendants of Spaniards born in South America) gradually encroached on the ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples and came to head toward the end of the nineteenth century with the Generation of 1880’s aspirations of progress and modernity. Indeed, the convergence of several factors, such as the campaigns aimed at the extermination of Indigenous peoples, the creation of museums, and immigration, led to the mythical refounding of Argentina as a nation of people of European descent.
Giorgio Agamben notes that “the development and triumph of capitalism would not have been possible … without the disciplinary control achieved by the new bio-power, which, through a series of appropriate technologies, so to speak, created the ‘docile bodies’ that it needed” (3). In Argentina, economic development was based on the enslavement, exploitation, and exclusion of Indigenous peoples. Numerous peace treaties between Indigenous peoples and representatives of the state were signed and ignored, and many military campaigns were waged against Indigenous peoples throughout the colonial period and the birth of the nation. In 1879, the pact between the cattle-raising oligarchy and the army led to the southern Expedición al Desierto (campaign to the desert), which led to the annexation of 8.5 million hectares