De pátria a nação

percursos da construção identitária no Uruguai ( 1810-1918)

Abstract

Distancing itself from approaches that restrict the study of Uruguayan identitarian discourses to nationalistic formulas, this article sustains that the word “fatherland” played a central role in the political struggles
of the earliest decades of the country’s existence. “Fatherland” was more inclusive and more able to mobilize loyalties in times of wars and institutional fragility. Only at the end of the 19th century, with the consolidation of state sovereignty from Montevideo and the internal pacification of Uruguay, did identitarian discourses begin to use the category “nation”. However, its meaning was not consensual, reflecting political party cleavages of the period.