Semantic Emancipation: «Primeras Letras» in Hispanic America (ca. 1770-1840)

Abstract

After political independence, Hispanic-American elites advanced the idea of «spiritual» emancipation still to be achieved and as largely exceeding the limits of a mere political independence from Spain. The present contribution is an attempt to operationalise this concept through an analysis of semantic changes in the early post-colonial time. Based on an exploration of the presence and erosion of the category of «primeras letras» as an inherited form of designating the realm of elementary education, a process of «semantic emancipation» emerges that was different in its pace and significance than in the political process. Drawing on the perspective of the «history of concepts», the presence of «primeras letras» in the world of print in Spain and Hispanic America is described. The analysis shows the persistence of this concept in Hispanic America at the level of educational knowledge and related to the world of schooling whereas the voluntarism of the political agents seems to have early on replaced this expression of Spanish reminiscences from the vocabulary of the state.