From Quilmes to Gondwana: Exploring a “Latin American” History of Science

Abstract

This essay is a survey of some of the symbolic and real conditioning fac- tors that shape the practices of the history of science in Hispanic America. It presents an overview – partly autobiographical – of the topics that historians of science working or born in Latin America – in places such as “Quilmes” – have chosen in order to establish a dialogue either with other local historians or with the international community. This essay refects on the role of neocolonialism and national historiographies as well as on the need of questioning the mere idea of Latin America as a space that defnes our feld. It proposes to rather adopt – as some scholars are already doing – a spatial historical reference such as Gondwanaland, to think in terms of the areas of a network opened to multi-sided exchanges and connections from all over the world. It also argues that theo- ries, concepts and words far from replacing each other according to the accumulation of knowledge and experience, far from progress and paradigmatic changes, coexist in syn- chrony, mixing or not, with diferent degrees of confict. Far from a characteristic of the history of science in our countries, it appears as a general sign of contemporary academic practice.