Seeing the Continental Through the Local: Indigenous Literatures, Languages, and Translations in Peruvian Magazines (1926–1930)

ABSTRACT This article studies the translation of “less-translated” languages by tracking both the existence or not of indigenous literature translated into Spanish in two Peruvian avant-garde literary journals of the twenties: Boletín Titikaka (1926–1930) and Amauta (1926–1930). Though Boletín Titikaka and Amauta represent quite different literary experiences, these periodicals nevertheless gather together renown intellectuals (such as the poet Gamaliel Churata or the Marxist theorist and politician José Carlos Mariátegui) concerned with the issues of national and regional identity and literary change. The topic of indigenous literatures is tackled thus by means of a singular avant-garde proposal in both periodicals. Although both magazines are considered “indigenist” and lefty–and even Marxist–publications, they show different and even antagonic approaches of the Spanish and Quechua relationship. By the analysis of the position of each periodical concerning native and foreign languages and literatures, the article problematizes topics such as “indigenism,” “indoamericanism,” “Andinism,” and “continentalism.” In more general words, it explores the relationship between the local, the national, and the global, through a Latin American lens.