Joaquín Torres García was aware of the political tensions that existed among Latin American countries in 1942, where some were calling for a unification of continental interests under the banner of Pan Americanism. In this case, however, JTG seeks to distance himself from a political-materialistic view of that utopian “unification,” acknowledging how deeply the idea of a Latin American cosmic brotherhood is embedded in his work. He explains that the inverted map of the continent (which he drew in 1935) expressed an acute desire to turn “the spiritual tyranny of Europe” on its head. He advocates a return to the “continent’s archaic culture” and utterly rejects the European invader’s interference in American culture. As regards the “criollo world”—the dominant ethnic and cultural milieu in Latin American countries—JTG proposes the idea of an American “race” based on cultural as well as ethnic criteria; in other words, a regional characterization of human beings based on where they’re from and their cosmic sense of a collective existence. He essentially suggests “exhuming the America that has been buried” just as archaeologists and historians do in their fields. JTG never misses a chance to share his thoughts on what is known as “local culture;” in his opinion, it is merely “a patina,” a sham that obscures the realm of the “true culture,” which still exists among indigenous Latin Americans as a world view, a human-cosmic hybrid.
[For additional reading, please refer to the ICAA digital archive for the following texts written by Joaquín Torres García: “Con respecto a una futura creación literaria” (doc. no. 730292), “Lección 132. El hombre americano y el arte de América” (doc. no. 832022), “Mi opinión sobre la exposición de artistas norteamericanos: contribución” (doc. no. 833512), “Nuestro problema de arte en América: lección VI del ciclo de conferencias dictado en la Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de Montevideo” (doc. no. 731106), “Introducción [en] Universalismo Constructivo” (doc. no. 1242032), “Sentido de lo moderno [en Universalismo Constructivo]” (doc. no. 1242015), “Bases y fundamentos del arte constructivo” (doc. no. 1242058), and “Manifiesto 2, Constructivo 100%” (doc. no. 1250878)].