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María de Los Ángeles Picone, "Landscaping Patagonia: Spatial History and Nation-Making in Chile and Argentina" (UNC Press, 2025)

Apr 16, 2025

María de Los Ángeles Picone, a historian specializing in environmental and spatial history, discusses her book on Patagonia's nation-building in the late 19th century. She reveals how Chile and Argentina transformed Patagonia from a 'desert' to a national identity through various policies. The podcast highlights border negotiations, land legislation, and the intricate dynamics of immigrant tensions. Picone also examines the gendered portrayal of landscapes in travel writings and advocates for a deeper understanding of Patagonia's complexities in national narratives.

01:08:53

Episode guests

María de Los Ángeles Picone

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Quick takeaways

The colonization of Patagonia involved systematic violence against indigenous populations, reflecting broader colonial practices and legislation favoring European settlers.

Changing perceptions of Patagonia throughout the 20th century transformed its identity from a barren desert to a romanticized landscape, often neglecting its rich cultural history.

Deep dives

The Stereotypical Image of Patagonia

Patagonia is often depicted as a pristine, untouched landscape, populated mostly by idyllic natural features like mountains and lakes, with little regard for the people who live there. This stereotypical view neglects the rich cultural and social history of the region, particularly the indigenous populations and their modern-day descendants. The author aims to challenge this simplified narrative and encourage a more nuanced understanding of the space, emphasizing that factors like personal experiences significantly shape national identities. By highlighting how geographic perceptions influence national consciousness, the work underscores the complex interplay between environment and identity.

Intro

6min

Patagonia's Political and Spatial Evolution

15min

Navigating Borders and Land Legislation in 19th Century Chile

3min

Navigating Land and Law in Patagonia

15min

Hygiene, Law, and National Identity in Early 20th Century Patagonia

4min

Immigrant Tensions and National Identity in Patagonia

13min

Gendered Landscapes: The Interplay of Women and Nature in Chilean Travel Publications

5min

Exploring Patagonia: National Narrative and Cultural Representation

5min

In late nineteenth-century Latin America, governments used new scientific, technological, and geographical knowledge not only to consolidate power and protect borders but also to define the physical contours of their respective nations. Chilean and Argentine authorities in particular attempted to transform northern Patagonia, a space they perceived as "desert," through a myriad of nationalizing policies, from military campaigns to hotels. But beyond the urban governing halls of Chile and Argentina, explorers, migrants, local authorities, bandits, and visitors also made sense of the nation by inhabiting the physical space of the northern Patagonian Andes. They surveyed passes, opened roads, claimed land titles or leases, traveled miles to the nearest police station, rode miles on horseback to escape the police, and hiked the landscape.

In Landscaping Patagonia: Spatial History and Nation-Making in Chile and Argentina (University of North Carolina Press, 2025) Dr. María de los Ángeles Picone tells the story of how people living, governing, and traveling through northern Patagonia sought to construct versions of Chile and Argentina based on their ideas about and experiences in geographical space in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By repositioning the analytical focus from Santiago and Buenos Aires to northern Patagonia, Picone reveals how a wide array of actors, with varying degrees of political, economic, and social power, assigned distinctive—and sometimes conflicting—meanings to space and national identity.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.

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