Re-writing of the Argentinian romantic novel of the nineteenth century: from Lucio V. Mansilla to Florence Bonelli in Indias blancas

Contemporary Latin American retro-foundational or neo-romantic narratives allow scholars to reanalyze the nineteenth century's hegemonic discourse. They also provide an opportunity to rethink how social classes, ethnicities, and genders interacted during the past. Argentinean writers are rewriting some novels by authors of previous eras to raise points about national identity and historiography. Indias blancas and Indias blancas: La vuelta del ranquel by Florencia Bonelli are based on Una excursion a los indios ranqueles by Lucio Victorio Mansilla. Mansilla's provocative and long forgotten novel was brought to a new life through the re-examination of the Conquest/s of the Desert, during which the native population of the Argentinean Pampa was gradually exterminated. Although Bonelli's work presents some similar scenarios and themes as Mansilla's novel, the two volumes of Indias blancas parody the epoque representation of the virginal, flimsy, powerless, and self-denying Creole women and the vicious savages of the Pampas. In addition, the contemporary narrative satirizes the Creole's civility and paternalism toward the indigenous population, whose displacement benefited the latifundia (large estate) system in Argentina.