Poder, alegoria y nacion en el neoclasicismo hispanoamericano

This article argues that neoclassical ideals and practices were fundamental to shaping the modern field of cultural production in Spanish-America. The neoclassical understanding of allegory, in particular, contributed enormously to organize laws of distribution and accumulation of symbolic capital and power. Although the analysis focuses primarily on politicians and men of letters who witnessed or participated in the War of Independence (1810-1824), the consequences of their specific brand of neoclassical aesthetics are depicted as pervasive throughout the nineteenth century.