The literary work that gave its name to the concept

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There is a cliché according to which America has been closely linked to the idea of ​​utopia from the beginning. We can call it "topical" because it has been visited very frequently by intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic, and especially Latin Americans, as a sign of identity; but it is a well-founded topic, since it responds to a plausible interpretation of historical data that supports it.  – Utopia , by Thomas More (1516) – describes an imaginary island off the American coast where a perfect republic supposedly existed, according to the narrator, Rafael Hitlodeo, who is said to have been a sailor. who had accompanied Americo Vespucci on his exploration trips through the so-called "New World." In the second literary utopia that was written, the Dream of Juan Maldonado (1541), the protagonist's trip to the Moon ends with his landing in America, where he makes contact with a perfect Christian society among the indigenous people, before waking up from his dream. to tell everything in his native Castill.

Examples of this early link between America and utopia could be multiplied by referring to works from the following centuries ( The City of the Sun , by Tommaso Campanella, from 1603; The New Atlantis , by Francis Bacon, from 1627; The Italy Email List of Oceania , by James Harrington, from 1656, among others). But it is a connection that goes far beyond these literary utopias, which expressed elitist dreams of bringing order to society in a time of great transformations. The Europeans who emigrated to America harbored other dreams, inspired by readings of the Bible and Greco-Roman classics, or by popular myths of abundance and freedom. The journey to America – travel in space – constituted for a long time a journey in time, a journey towards the future that each person wanted to build individually or collectively. Soon, the "New World" was also the place to imagine a new beginning to build perfect cities, enlightened kingdoms, alternative communities of political or religious inspiration... in short, concrete utopias that went beyond the written text and were reflected in actions and experiences.




It is not unusual that an elective affinity was established between America and utopia. Both were characteristics of the modernity that had set in motion since the Renaissance: two decisive components of the "West." Utopia, having surpassed its original limits as a fictional literary genre, had come to represent a cultural mechanism that consisted of thinking about alternative futures, with great audacity of the imagination, and trusting that this horizon could be reached by mobilizing the necessary actions to transform the reality: an inherited reality that was no longer considered eternal or indisputable.