The Sensitive Gaze. Pedro Henríquez Ureña in the United States

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to analyze the estranged gaze manifested by the subject of enunciation of the Memorias by Pedro Henríquez Ureña in his encounter with the United States, specifically on his arrival to the city of New York. Across the textual space of the Memorias, Ureña expresses, in an ostensible fashion, a divergence from a series of expectations that could be traced back –although not exclusively– to the perceptions by Rubén Darío in his chronicle on Edgar Allan Poe where the nicaraguan poet hears upon coming to New York “a vast soliloquy of figures” and which Ureña manages to subvert. In this way, he challenges conventions normalized by Latin American intellectuals in order to conform an alternative space in which his gaze goes beyond established prejudices and probes into the culture of a time and a city. Raymond Williams (1973) draws attention to two models cities have been associated with: on one hand, as centers of progress and erudition; on the other, as places of noise and ambition. In that sense, for Henríquez Ureña the North American world would not be affected only by great technological advances or a predominance of wealth – the second model presented by Williams – but by diverse manifestations of culture – visual arts, music, literature – which turn it into an auspicious realm for high culture.