Brazil and Argentina: discourses over semiarid regions of Ceará and Santiago del estero on the newspapers Correio da Manhã and Correio da Manhã (1932-1937)

Abstract

In Latin America, countries are affected by the natural phenomenon of droughts and are composed by semiarid areas, such as Brazil and Argentina's cases. Respectively in Ceará (northeast region of Brazil) and Santiago del Estero (northwest region of Argentina), the drought events are part of their history throughout the centuries. For this paper, we intend to analyze the discourse around the drought events that occured in Ceará and Santiago del Estero in the decade of 1930, under their national capitals press' point of view. We will analyze, more specifically, the narratives contained in Correio da Manhã, located in Rio de Janeiro for Ceará's case, and in newspaper El Mundo, located in Buenos Aires, for the Santiago del Estero's. We are particularly yet interested in understanding how in the Latin America from the 1930 decade, focusing on a regional history, the discourses around the countryside areas were related to the ideas of progress and modernity which were on top of the image for a nation forged on the XIX century and lingered through the XX century. That way, we propose to reflect upon discourses that build social notions and are legitimizers, above all, of dominance and political power relations.