Cosmopolitanisms between the Americas

Abstract

For almost a week in November 2002, Diamela Eltit was in the “house”—in the Casa de las Americas, the Cuban Revolution’s beacon to cultures resistant to U.S. domination within the Americas. Along with other artists, Eltit founded the CADA (Colectivo de Acciones de Arte—Art Actions Collective) in Santiago, Chile in 1979. However, she gained international attention, primarily from academics in the United States, only after the publication of her first novel, Lumpérica, in 1983. The Casa de las Américas is located near Havana’s Malecón, far from the scenarios of the Chilean neo-avant-garde where Eltit debuted. It announces itself as “a meeting place of all cultures of the Americas,” and it has indeed successfully linked elements of cultures not only throughout Latin America but also with the other parts of the world. It has gone a long way toward fulfilling what it set out to do in 1959 under the direction of Haydee Santamaría, not only to help make Havana the principal meeting place for Latin American writers and artists, but also to be a repository and showcase for their works.